Lib Dems hope ‘largest ever’ targeted digital campaign will win voters over
The Liberal Democrats has launched its biggest targeted digital campaign to date ahead of Thursday’s general election as the party looks to capitalise on the power of digital advertising to influence voters.
The project, known internally as Manatee, will see more than two million targeted messages delivered to voters through Facebook and YouTube in the final hours of the general election campaign using technology developed exclusively by the Liberal Democrats.
The platform matches electoral roll data to Facebook and YouTube profiles for voters across the country. The paired data is then used to deliver targeted Facebook posts and YouTube adverts.
The project is fully integrated with the party's canvassing database meaning that voters are targeted with messages based on conversations with Lib Dem activists on the doorstep as well as demographic information. The matching for the campaign takes place via a secure third party and the Lib Dems said no information on the political views of any voters is sent to Facebook or YouTube.
The party's canvassing database, Connect, is the same system used by Barack Obama for his two election victories.
Commenting on the advertising push Liberal Democrat's digital director Steve Pitman claimed that it is the first time any political party has been able to target digital communications in such a way.
“Typically, voters would be targeted simply by geography but that means you're sending an awful lot of people the wrong message,” he said. “This is different. For example if you tell one of our activists that the NHS is a key issue for you in the election then we could present you with a video on YouTube or Facebook which reflects that."
The activity follows a similar push from the Lib Dems during the 2014 local elections, which demonstrated that voters who saw targeted digital adverts during the final few hours of the election became significantly more likely to vote Liberal Democrat.