By Audrey Carvin, Account Manager, Senate Media
Political change is brewing. With Labour polling strongly, 50 Conservative MPs standing down and new constituency boundaries being enforced, the next parliament is likely to be very different to the one we have now.
With the next election looking like it will take place by December 2024, we are quickly approaching the campaigning season. Elections are pivotal moments where the political agenda is shaped for the next five, if not ten, years. At this stage of the election cycle, political parties are shaping their manifestos, and candidates are being selected. Crucially, this means that the political agenda is not yet set in stone, and can still be influenced.
For any association seeking to build support for their policy agenda among policymakers and stakeholders, it is important to spread your message far and wide. Many will choose to do this through a manifesto, setting out their intentions in a written document.
Once created, however, the main issue is how to get it seen. While your manifesto will provide vital detail and context, a long document will struggle to engage policymakers and stakeholders. Especially in the run-up to an election, when your audience’s time is short.
So how do you make your message memorable?
One way is to turn your policy agenda into a manifesto video. By summarising your key messages in a short 1-2 minute video, you can turn complex issues into easily understood, engaging and ultimately persuasive content.
Manifesto videos on social media
Video is particularly effective for social media audiences. During the 2019 election, people spent more time on social media than they did on news
apps. This included candidates and advisers, as well as campaign supporters.
Posts on X, formerly Twitter, that include a video get 10 times more engagement than those without. It’s a similar story on Instagram, where reels generate significantly more engagement than images. On LinkedIn, users are 20 times more likely to share a video than any other form of content. A manifesto video shared on social media can therefore help get your policy asks in front of the widest possible audience.
Manifesto videos for briefing and meetings
Because video is so versatile, manifesto videos are an excellent tool for candidate meetings, briefings and presentations.
By distilling your key policy issues into a short video, you have a visual tool that will ensure your meetings really resonate. Whether you use your manifesto video to introduce your policy agenda at the start of a meeting, allowing you to focus on key issues afterwards, or to close the meeting and reinforce the conversations, your video will elevate your manifesto in the minds of the candidates.
Elections are complicated and unpredictable, but your messaging doesn’t have to be. To find out more about manifesto videos, please contact audrey.carvin@senatemedia.co.uk