Changing communications: the importance of adaptation

The first year of Keir’s leadership has been in a context more challenging than most. Becoming leader of the opposition following a 60-seat parliamentary loss and in the midst of a pandemic left Labour crash-coursing into a global, public health crisis, a political crisis, and combined, a communications crisis.

For the new leader, defining his personal leadership brand in the middle of a pandemic was always going to be a difficult, near-impossible needle to thread. Crises not only encourage people to rally behind incumbent leadership, branding anyone who stands in opposition as tone deaf and opportunistic, but it also creates a suffocating atmosphere in which only media stories about the crisis garner much traction. Leaders in more normal times might have been treated to a grace period, where their election is a major victory that carries them through the first few weeks. For Keir, the significance of his election and what it meant about a changing Labour Party was quickly passed over in favour of more important, COVID-related news.

From the outset, the methods of communications changed. No longer was Keir able to knock on doors and have real conversations, face-to-face. Nor was he able to have meetings with key stakeholders and voter groups who are crucial to engage with if Labour is to stand a chance in 2024. Local party organisations also had to adapt to meetings being held online through the use of digital tools, as did local administrations, which we all know comes with a unique set of challenges. 

Video calls became the norm with cries of Zoom fatigue quickly on the rise. These issues are amplified in politics, where the need to reach people and form trusting, interpersonal relationships is particularly important. Across all levels of the party, this has meant adapting and modernising the way in which we communicate. With traditional print campaign materials no longer as effective and door-to-door campaigning a thing of the past, we have been required to increase our digital competencies. And quickly.

A crucial test of Labour’s ability to do digital politics will be the bumper set of local elections taking place on the 6th May. Regardless of how Labour reaches households, the party needs to have a message that sticks; one that it can take to voters, and one which instils confidence in Keir’s vision for a different Britain.  

Owing to the pandemic, the electorate’s priorities have shifted somewhat. The local elections, following a period of increased reliance on local services and infrastructure, will be a crucial test of Labour’s ability to communicate effectively in a crisis, cutting through the incumbent government’s messaging. 

Ultimately, a government had to lead on the response to a crisis of this scale. Any opposition can focus on holding government to account while scrutinising the implications of each decision to the public. What a crisis does not necessarily do is give you the opportunity to communicate as effectively as an opposition normally could. This means that every word crafted, and every message conveyed to show leadership has to be key to the audience you are trying to reach. The environment in which we communicate today demands a new level of precision and directness for the message to land successfully.

This is where our messaging needs to make a better mark – it is landing but not lasting.

Laura Griffiths, Aimee Howard and Nick Jessup
SEC Newgate UK