Political

Blue State Digital: not revolutionising Labour’s online campaigning after all

PR Week reports the bumpy reality of Labour’s digital campaigning plans and its relations with Blue State Digital (BSD):

BSD launched its London operation at the start of the year with its sights set on reviving Labour’s digital operation. It is an alliance that has not materialised, and Gensemer is only too happy to blame this on a lack of digital support from the party’s upper echelons.

‘So many people who have watched Labour struggle could have helped,’ he says. ‘They certainly would have been in a better position now.’

This charge is refuted by Labour’s new media strategist Mark Hanson. ‘It’s not right to say there’s no senior buy-in, as both politicians at cabinet level and top-level staffers are directly engaged in using new media and using it properly,’ he says.

Others believe Labour’s relative financial penury has ruled BSD out of the running, even as Gensemer notes that ‘you can do a lot with a little bit of money’.

BSD’s Thomas Gensemer partly rebuts the article in a blog post on BSD’s own site, but reading between the lines it’s clear that a lot of the original PR Week piece stands:

But to maximise the [Labour] Party’s return they need more staff, more resources and more latitude to experiment, and they need it right away.

We are and will continue to be supportive of Labour’s efforts and will help in any way we can. Meanwhile, we continue our work with an increasing number of progressive and pro-Labour organizations, all of which will play a critical role in the election contest ahead.

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