How do Starmer, Farage and now Corbyn convince teenagers to vote for them?

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SIR Keir Starrer swore this week to reduce the election age in the next elections to 16, and opened the door for more than a million teenagers to talk about the leadership of the country.

The effects could be seismic. In the elections of last year, dozens of MPs won their seats with small margins – including seven seats, which were decided with less than 100 votes – and the introduction of this new cohort of young voters could be decisive in key areas.

According to experienced election strategies, this new politically valuable group of voters can be gained, but the main question for parties in the political spectrum will be to address these younger voters and to convince them that they are the best option to rule the country.

The shift to young teenagers with political news online requires a different approach than older voters and could affect a new wave of ethical concerns regarding the guideline under the age of 18.

The political activist Sean Topham knows how to win a choice. His advertising agency Topham Guerin was involved in the election campaigns by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, and the current Prime Minister of New Zealand, Christopher Luxon, who led to victory.

They even helped the development of Johnson's “love”, which Great Britain asked to vote for the conservatives to do the Brexit.

He said: “In order to engage this audience, her message has to live in your world and do not ask you to get into yours.”

With the new generation of young voters, Mr. Topham believes that politicians should work for culture instead of politics.

“Political news that feels like politics would not cut through. They compete in an environment of pop culture, memes and viral trends.”

He said 16 to 17-year-olds take care of politics, but they want to see that politicians are authentic in their world.

The most important thing for parties is to speak to you as an employee and not as goals, he said.

Mr. Topham said it would be exciting to see that campaigns with the creators of Internet content would get in touch and that you would contact political personalities or politicians or interviews in order to show an authentic interest in you and your topics.

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Sean Topham, co -founder of the advertising agency Topham Guerin (Delivery)

He said the key would be to develop a creative strategy that reflects the expectations and needs of younger voters if they want to convey their message.

“You could have as much money as you want, but if your creativity is not good and if you don't reach the right voters, it will never be cut through.”

Although Nigel Farage's Reform UK dominated a large part of social media last year, which last year was significantly less for advertisements than most other parties, it exceeded a large part of social media.

The party accumulated more than 2.8 million reactions on Facebook during the election campaign, while Labor had less than 600,000 and the conservatives less than 500,000, according to Hootsuite, a social media analytics platform, analyzed data.

The data show that they also dominated X (formerly Twitter) with 9.3 million interactions, which are highest for the party's commitment. However, when it came to Tiktok, Labor was a leader.

Mr. Topham believes that 16 to 17-year-olds will be more open-minded than people expect if they decide who they should vote for.

Jeremy Corbyn's newly announced party could also be a threat to work and the challenge of achieving young people more difficult for other parties.

Yougov's latest surveys show that more than a third of 18 to 24-year-olds say that they are likely to be considering voting for a party conducted by Corbyn.

“You will be far more committed and at the same time you will be more difficult to achieve and much more skeptical and cynic compared to everything that feels like politics, said Topham.

“I think they are to be won. I don't think someone has a lock and the best team gives the best and creative message to them.”

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Matthew McGregor, CEO of the campaign group 38 degrees (Delivery)

A YouGov survey from the election room of last year showed that 72 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds used social media to access news compared to 54 percent of 25 to 49 year olds, 35 percent of 50 to 64 year olds and 19 percent of 65 year olds and older.

“The platforms can change and do, and I assume that we could talk about a completely different type of platform in four years,” said Topham.

He said the restrictions that platforms such as Meta and Google have about the type of content that can be shown under the age of 18 could be an “interesting challenge” for activists, for which they must have a little more creativity.

At Google, advertisers cannot address specific ads to under 18 year olds, and Meta also has age-related restrictions.

“In any case, push the limits of creativity, but do it in a way that is reflected against the fact that you want to make sure these voters have the information about your guidelines and plans if you agree,” he said.

Matthew McGregor, CEO of the campaign group 38 degrees, said that the parties have to feel more comfortable so as not to always do it right.

He said that risk avers is a risky way to carry out a campaign.

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Mr. McGregor, who previously worked on digital election campaigns for Barack Obama, the Labor Party and the Australia's Labor Party, said: “This can be a challenge for parties and politicians who are not happy to be criticized and mocked by the Westminster lobby.”

He said there would inevitably be wrong and mistakes if politicians learn to reach this new population group, and at the same time try to maintain voices with the other demographic characteristics.

“I think there are many MPs who probably never open one [TikTok] “For you” side in your life and that is really difficult and frankly quite scary, “said McGregor.

When the electorate becomes younger, the means of communication that “many people in the forties, 50 and 60s make really uncomfortable”.

He said that with Labor, which is strong online, they communicate in a way that works for gen z and young voters, but appears “a bit confusing” for older millennials and gene X.

But in front of anything, the politicians first have to make 16 and 17-year-olds to stand out.

“The parties will not only think about how to convince them to vote for this party, but also to convince them to take part in the democratic process,” said McGregor.

“I think number one in all political communication is to comply with the audience as a group of people with real life, real interests and a meaningful process.”

Mr. McGregor said that representation is important, and if the electorate becomes younger, he also believes that the parties will do it.

“I think that people combine more easily with people who recognize them as the same life experiences as they.”