The Tories have earned rare praise for their LetBritainDecide campaign for James Wharton’s Private Member’s Bill. Everyone accepts that the slick website and social media campaign are (surprisingly) impressive. But there’s another — largely unnoticed — aspect to this campaign which has a lot less to do with change in Europe and more to do with change in CCHQ’s campaigning methods.
The clever ‘co-sponsorship’ option allowing anyone to add their names to the bill doesn’t just create hype, it also allows CCHQ to build a large database of the names, email addresses and postcodes of voters with a particular interest in European affairs.
Why is this important? The data allows CCHQ to target voters with specific campaign messages that interest them personally. It even allows for message-targeting by location. This is far more effective than mass leafletting and billboard campaigns. They started collecting information in the Eastleigh by-election for the same purpose. A frequently-updated database such as this is vital for reminding voters of the other parties’ weaknesses on an EU referendum and other issues.
The Tories are not alone in wanting such data. The People’s Pledge, a non-partisan campaign several years old, has gathered details of 130,718 individuals. Business for Britain, a campaign for a better deal for UK businesses in the EU, has a similar sign-up form, and they have the added advantage of being able to using the expertise of the Metis megadatabase project. Metis is Westminster’s first commercial attempt to build a database of voters broken down by their likes, dislikes, locations and political persuasions. Their target of 20 million names would far outstrip anything the Tories can gather through their website.
Using and abusing data is becoming essential for successfully disseminating a political message and winning elections, and the Tories are starting to get in on the act in a serious way.
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