Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem

by Tim Shipman

Labour had always had a strong ground game. Their supremacy in the social media war – after being comprehensively outmanoeuvred in 2015 – was more surprising, and arguably more significant. Tom Edmonds, the Conservative head of digital, pumped out professionally-made content, but was limited to paid-for advertising on Facebook, by far the most important platform, since six out of ten people in Britain used the site. During the campaign the Tories spent around £2 million on paid-for advertising, up from £1.3 million in 2015. That compared with £1.2 million for Labour. Three-quarters of the spend went on Facebook adverts. Labour’s great advantage was that their army of young supporters, inspired by Corbyn, were far more willing to share campaign materials with their friends via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. One of the most remarkable statistics of the entire campaign is that one in three Facebook users saw Momentum content during the campaign, yet Momentum spent just £2,000 on Facebook adverts, because they could rely on their supporters to distribute campaign materials for free. ‘The content was so accessible,’ said Klug. ‘It resonated, it was creative and it was clever.’ Among the successful videos was a satirical take on austerity, with a young daughter asking her father why she got no free school meal, her class sizes were larger and she couldn’t afford to go to university. He replies, ‘Because I voted for Theresa May.’ The daughter asks, ‘Do you hate me, Dad?’ ‘Obvio...