As a political campaign it was appallingly badly run

Here's what I put on Bookface at the time:

Effective political communication in a modern, connected world is well understood (start with Luntz if you're not familiar), so it's surprising how bad some of the comms during the campaign were. Of the two you'd have to say Leave had the best, most cohesive communication. Remain were essentially using the Democrat playbook from Kerry-Bush, and we all remember who won that one. Both sides had easy access to some really good comms talent and it surprised me that better use wasn't made of that talent. Both sides said things they knew not to be true. Neither had a compelling, positive vision to offer (or, in Leave's case, any kind of a plan at all, or so it now seems).

Negative campaigning moves the dial more than positive campaigning. But that doesn't mean you don't need a positive narrative: you absolutely do, not only to draw contrasts with the diabolical nature of your opponent but also to inspire your volunteers, help those who want to evangelise your cause to others, and frankly to get you out of bed in the morning. Instead, Leave had a series of varyingly factual assertions, the most eye-catching of which they are now seeking to deny (there will be neither £350m each week to spend on the NHS nor substantially less immigration); Remain didn't even have that.

What I find most incredible about the whole thing, though, is the absence of any discernible ground-game on the Remain side. At all. By ground-game I mean door-to-door work (you can and should augment it with work on social media but nothing is as effective as a face-to-face communication): compiling lists of People Who Will Vote Your Way, sending tellers to polling stations, noting who's voted, and then getting volunteers out 2-3 hours before polls close to encourage those on your side who haven't voted to do so. You should also have people driving your supporters with mobility problems to the polls all day, and make sure those who can't vote in person appoint a proxy or get a postal vote. Do it right and you can target your communications in one area differently from another area, based on canvassing returns on those voters' particular concerns and known local issues, and make sure your candidate/talent/whatever spends time effectively in each area she visits.

This is really, really basic stuff; and it didn't happen. The whole thing was run centrally, with no regional organisation at all. Communication was by broadcast (one-way), not conversation (two-way). It almost felt like Remain just assumed it would win, so didn't really bother.

Posted By: Old Man on November 3rd 2016 at 14:53:47

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