The Labour Party election campaign strategy centered on a single phrase: “Gilmore for Taoiseach”.  OMD were tasked with communicating this strategy to the electorate as effectively as possible with a media budget far smaller than that of the opposition.

Aware that a huge amount of publicity would be generated organically during the election campaign by newspapers, news websites, social media and blogs,  digital media was placed at the heart of the campaign.  A focused and flexible approach was required to make every euro count while responding to headlines and activity and even a message that changed on a regular basis.   

A three phase strategy was developed to provide flexibility while also communicating a consistent message.  The phases were:  

1.       Advocate Recruitment
2.       Policy Awareness
3.       Call to action

The ‘Tweetology’ ads on the independent.ie brought the first ever twitter ads to the Irish market.   This unique format represented a versatility that was ideal for phases 1 and 2 of the campaign and which delivered high levels of engagement while being incredibly relevant.  The ads linked directly to the Labour Party twitter account, ‘LabourListens’, to draw a live feed of the Labour Party tweets, responding tweets and retweets into the ad itself which was then displayed across the Google Display network and independent.ie with contextual and demographic targeting applied.