It’s general election day in the UK, which means tomorrow we will have a new government and possibly a new Prime Minister. If opinions polls are to be believed we will wake up tomorrow with a Labour majority, and Keir Starmer will be heading to see the King to be confirmed as Prime Minister. As communications specialists, the team at MSB Executive has taken a keen interest in how the different political figures have communicated their messages. We have looked at the leaders’ body language, voice and storytelling skills. Clear communication is essential to political success. From our analysis two things have stood out:
- It’s hard to separate your political preferences from your judgement of who is the better communicator. When it comes to politics we are full of confirmation bias!
- We have developed our own in-house tool to predict who will do better or worse than expected in an election: the MSB Executive Election Predictor!
The Power of an Effective Slogan
We looked at the how memorable political slogans have been in previous elections. Did parties or leaders outperform when their slogan was widely recognised? We would argue a strong ‘Yes’!
The British poster child for this is Boris Johnson’s Get Brexit Done in 2019. Everyone knew this was the Conservative message, and a strong election result followed. The Labour Party competed with Rebuilding Britain For The Many Not The Few. This was actually quite a memorable slogan. The problem was that it was a rehash from the previous election in 2017, when it was first used. That election was considered a good result for the Labour Party when the simpler For The Many Not The Few was used.
Another example you can’t ignore is the Brexit vote. Everyone remembers Take Back Control (and the Brexit bus – but that’s another story) from the snappily titled Vote Leave group. Does anyone remember what Britain Stronger in Europe (not so snappy) had? It was Stronger, Safer and Better Off.
We can’t talk about this topic without giving two examples from the US. Make America Great Again and Yes We Can still resonate, albeit in dramatically different ways. What were their opponents’ slogans? Gold stars go to anyone who got one of Hilary Clinton’s seven slogans (most successful was Stronger Together) or John McCain’s Country First.
The MSB Executive Election Predictor™!
So if you want to use the (admittedly entirely unscientific) MSB Executive Election Predictor™ for who is going to do worse or better than expected in today’s election, ask yourself and a few people around you what the main parties’ slogans are. The more people who can remember a slogan, the better. If people are struggling to remember or are coming up with a different slogan, this does not bode well for that party. Let us know how you get on!
Slogans
Conservatives: Secure Britain’s Future OR Clear Plan, Bold Action, Secure Future
Labour: Change
Lib Dem: For a Fair Deal
Reform: Britain Needs Reform
The Green Party: Real Hope. Real Change.
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