Grayling Insights

A Virtual Triumph

Přidal Na 23.11.2011 Od Andrea Rodriguez-Miñón V Grayling Blog, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Western Europe, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Global

A few days before the general elections in Spain, the media published their conclusions on the presidential debate between the two candidates of the country’s two main political parties. The general eagerness to grant the victory to one of the two before the elections has led citizens, parties and media to participate actively in the debate through social networks and online media.

Regardless of whoever turns out to be the winner that day, the truth is that politics has become one of Twitter’s trending topics, something that is quite unusual in our country. Criticism to both candidates was not absent, neither were the messages of support separately, but undoubtedly, they all coincided the following day that Twitter "was steaming” the night of the debate. Both candidates’ profiles were also very active, broadcasting various aspects such as: the colour of their ties, the remaining time for the encounter or other details, like links to the election programme’s articles in order to provide the information that, for one reason or other, was not given in the debate.

The candidates were joined by their party colleagues through tweets of support and the creation of hashtags on key subjects. Furthermore, informative mailings were sent out so that the militants could vote in the surveys of the newspapers’ online versions and so grant the victory to their candidate. Ultimately, it has become an organized communications machinery that is not operated by the traditional channels anymore, but rather turns to the new available formats as vital reference.

But what has really surprised me is that this virtual battle is not limited to tweets of support or criticism, it also goes on through a videogame created by Paf.com, based on the elections. In this occasion, both candidates fight with virtual blows that the users send through tweets and which turn into blows from one candidate to the other with different tools (seagull, Galician octopus, rose, shoe-bomb…). A whole sample of creativity and ingenuity dedicated to the utmost twitters in Pelea20N.com.

Nowadays, politics in our country are not limited to the traditional media; PR teams try increasingly hard to bring the candidates closer to the electors through modern formats. Programmes, debates, political meetings and interviews must be present in the social networks to attract the attention of thousands of users with whom they would not contact in any other way.

This was a well-learned lesson from Obama’s run for presidency, which, without doubt, has laid down the law and has revealed the importance of managing an adequate online PR campaign.