pr-media-blog.co.uk

Frenzied political campaigning has already started in little old Crewe & Nantwich, where a by-election takes place in a couple of weeks following the sad death of Labour MP, Gwyneth Dunwoody. This is (another) litmus test for Gordon, so expect all the big guns from all three parties to pile resources into this.

They’ll get a shock though if they try and buy up any online ad space as they try and catch the attention of those elusive young professionals or reliable silver surfers.  An enterprising web-marketing agency has bought the entire inventory on the Crewe Guardian  and Crewe and Nantwich Chronicle sites as well as the entire inventory from other mass consumer sites that focus on the constituency.  
Why? To better co-ordinate online political advertising across the constituency, and to provide synergies to existing clients who may want to influence the election. They’re auctioning it off in blocks – anti–ID card campaign group NO2ID is already running ads. Organisations that aren’t registered with the Electoral Commission are only allowed to spend £500, which is why they’re chopping it up into blocks (and targeting based on specific postcode, or other demographic criteria)

Who will buy it? The parties will utilise the service - but they’ve already got three other different 3rd-party influence groups signed up. 

PS The enterprising agency in question is MessageSpace,  run by my friend Jag Singh.  He has imported a lot of innovative techniques from the US, where he’s a web consultant on a lot of the Democrat campaigns and worth noting if you’re in the public/charity or lobby sector.