PR will be crucial at this General Election

AND they're off!

This morning's newspapers are full of the news that the General Election has been called for May 6.

For the next month, all the parties will be presenting their policies in a bid to woo voters.

With so much at stake, none of them will be wanting any slips ups (inevitable though they may be) and will be deploy every PR trick in the book.

Of course, the biggest trick is to engage in PR, but make it look as if you're not and that everything that happens is a natural occurence.

For instance, it was no surprise that just hours after Gordon Brown called the Election, he was having a meet and greet in someone's house in Kent, and also visited a Morrisons supermarket. Both these events will have been prepared beforehand, and the audience will have been carefully selected.

It's quite ironic that at a time when politicians are meant to be going out there to meet the public and canvass their vote, they actually seem to meet very few 'real' members of the public.

The reason is simple; it's every party's worst nightmare to see their leader handbagged a la Tony Blair in 2001 because, quite simple, it a) makes a great story b) is off-message and c) shows someone dissenting publicly.

Elections for parties are about creating a 'feel-good' momentum, so they seek to provide news outlets with opportunities to see their leaders surrounded by an adoring public.

Although we British tend to favour the underdog, that trend doesn't seem to following for mainstream politics. So whereas we may elevate the appalling singer on X-Factor to national fame and stardom simply because of their underdog status, we tend not to, quite rightly, employ the same sympathies when selecting the person you want to run the country.

It'll be interesting to see how each party's PR strategies work over the next 4 weeks, and to a large degree they will either make or break their chances are getting the keys to Number 10.

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The perils of mixed messages

Public relations is all about messages, so what happens when those messages are mixed? Invariably, it ends up in confusion which generally leads to disengagement both internally and externally.

Every organisation has a message, whether it's a guy selling hot dogs on a street corner to the CEO of a large multi national. Sure, the message is different but they each follow the same process to achieve their goals.

For the purpose of this parable, we'll concentrate on the hot dog guy, whose message is 'My product is good, you'll enjoy it so come and buy it.'

But what would happen if on Monday hot dog man started saying 'I sell hot dogs, but won't sell to students or people in suits?' and then on Friday one put up a sign saying 'I'll sell to anyone, especially people in suits and students'? You then go to him for a clarification and he claims he will actually sell to anybody, regardless of who they are or what they wear.

Firstly, you'd probably think he is bonkers for limiting his market, but you'd also wonder whether he knows what he's doing.


In the last few weeks, we've seen the Government playing the proverbial hot dog seller, dividing its market and then doing a complete U-turn a few days later.

At a recent Prime Minister's Question Time, Brown made a jibe about class in relation to a Conservative candidate, and a few weeks later the Party as a whole started railing against what is loosely defined as the Middle Classes.

At that point, the Prime Minister declared that actually, he was brought up in a Middle Class family and he holds those values. The result? Confusion and bewilderment among the party and the public at large who didn't quite know where he stood.

It's not the first time the Prime Minister has been accused of transmitting mixed messages, and it isn't just confined to class. A few months into his premiership, Brown let rumours circulate that there would be a General Election within weeks. More than a million pounds was spent on election material and then, at the last minute, he pulled the plug. The result? The same kind of confusion and bewilderment we saw with the class issue. But when challenged, like the hot dog seller, they claim there are no mixed messages and, like any other party, will infact accept votes from anyone.

Political parties are no different from any other sort of organisation, they are answerable to the public and have to compete to survive. What they are selling does not matter a jot, but how they go about communicating their message does.

As experienced marketing and PR professionals, we see these 'mixed messages' nearly every day. The sad thing is that they're put out by organisations who really ought to be able to avoid these simple pitfalls.

The one piece of free advice we give to any business is that for all the messages you put out, if it's not backed up by actions which reinforce those messages, then they are meaningless.

Or put another way - Actions Speak Louder Than Words.