Abstract
Many voters rely on simple cues, in the forms of images and slogans, for aiding their voter choice. Hence key brand information must be distilled to make party messages as widely accessible as possible. Online political posters provide opportunities for political parties to extend their voter reach, particularly amongst those low engagement and participation voters for whom branding is especially helpful in their typically peripheral processing of political messages. This chapter analyses the frequency and purpose of their usage to suggest that while the sharing of these posters was limited, they may have increased familiarity with political messages and broadened the appeal of parties. By providing a means for engaging in party political activities, social media may be responsible for a genuine shift in the relationship between British political parties and the electorate.
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Notes
- 1.
In March 2014, Conservative Chairman Grant Shapps placed an OPP on Twitter attempting to trumpet the impact of the recent Budget on the price of beer and bingo. Described variously as an advert or infographic, it generated a ‘Twitter Storm’ as users saw it as revealing Conservative Party’s stereotypical views of working class interests (Guardian 2014).
- 2.
The campaign periods were defined by the Electoral Commission: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/173074/UKPGE-Part-3-Spending-and-donations.pdf.
- 3.
Likes and Shares were measured after 3 days per OPP, following research which suggests that social media posts typically have a ‘half-life’ around three days with likes and shares rarely exceeding numbers achieved in the first 3 days: http://blog.bitly.com/post/9887686919/you-just-shared-a-link-how-long-will-people-pay.
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Campbell, V., Lee, B. (2016). Party Branding: A Case Study of Online Political Posters. In: Lilleker, D., Pack, M. (eds) Political Marketing and the 2015 UK General Election. Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58440-3_4
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