One of the most successful IT companies ever is Apple. People queue for hours outside shops, waiting for the new iPhone to be released. There is a cult-like following, almost a religion, of devotion to the Mac, the iPhone, the iPad. In reality, while often beautiful designed pieces, the technology underneath an iPhone is little different to that offered by many other companies, such as mobile phone producer Samsung; in fact, in many ways the latter is a better product. Nonetheless, people worship Apple. Why? What can political parties learn from this?
If UKIP’s digital outreach is to succeed, there is a need to have the humility to learn from history. The whole party faces a crisis similar to that in Apple’s actual history: when the CEO Steve Jobs left, the party died, and when he returned, it thrived. UKIP is lost without Nigel Farage, known for charismatic speeches in Brussels, at the wheel. Why? There is one fundamental point, that Henry Bolton’s pathetic new ‘Digital Strategy’ fails to even begin to comprehend, because just like his “leadership”, it lacks vision but is cold and mechanical.
Too often in business, and politics, especially UKIP, there is a focus on the mechanics alone, and not feelings. Everybody knows “what” they do 100%. Some know how they do it. But very few people or organisations know why they do it. Get this wrong, and UKIP will die. We don’t just want technology; any old idiot can install a website – we want to use technology to send our message.
People do not love Apple for the products. No, it’s not about the spec of the camera in their phone. It’s about far more than slick styling. It’s about a social revolution. It touches the heart when it says those who are odd, who are different, who don’t follow the trend, who rebel, are the heroes who go far. Isn’t this close to the UKIP “libertarian” anti-establishment message? Aren’t we the eccentrics of politics? So why are we being so damn boring?
Chris Mendes’ boring Digital Strategy for Bolton merely stutters, “I have a plan.” This isn’t the 1990s: simply installing a new website will achieve nothing more than line someone’s pocket! This cold, robotic manifesto devoid of imagination ignores that the biggest problem is not which system is used, but how: the message must reach hearts! People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
Any strategy plan should not flog systems, but should talk about dreams. It should have an analysis of how social media helped Trump reach beyond legacy media; what about his messages was so successful? Was it that he mentioned the pain people felt, and then gave them hope of change? Meanwhile UKIP social media such as Facebook has some of the worst graphic design, devoid of hope, spewing technical policy stuff that drives you to suicide. It has some of the most dull artwork in the world.
This is the age of the mobile phone. The Digital Strategy ignores a major flaw with the UKIP website. It is not “mobile first”. People are checking their phone on the train, sneakily at work, on the toilet. They are in a rush. They are impatient. We must have short videos, like Trump did, that feature pithy soundbites or segments of speeches that spoke to real people.
As someone who works in this industry, I say with authority that this ‘strategic document’ is just empty waffle: technical sounding words to give an impression of competence. This proposal doesn’t name existing systems; it’s just a sales pitch to flog a new one. The party already has the system it needs: NationBuilder – every political party uses this; even Rebel Media does. You can filter messages, and target people very efficiently. To connect with them; to tailor your message to their hearts.
Oddly, UKIP barely uses the Nation Builder features it pays much for, and then stated in the UKIP newsletter that MailChimp is being implemented for emails, though Nation Builder provides such – paying twice for the same thing. The Digital Strategy plan ignores this glaring problem. UKIP does not need more systems! Again and again, people turn up, pitching at businesses plans with fancy words to impress those who don’t work in software engineering; money is shelled out; someone makes a quick buck; but the problems still remain. Why?
The Digital Strategy plan asks for an entirely unjustified £6,000 sum to Chris Mendes to implement this KipperPress, which is really a free system called WordPress. The only cost should be labour to tweak a template; time to implement it. As Chris has requested a CTO position in UKIP, which would likely be salaried, the cost would be covered therein, and hence he has some damn cheek to ask for £6,000, but the back office will probably again throw money at nothing.
If someone is to head up the Digital Outreach of UKIP and get results, they need to truly appreciate the need not just to implement systems, but to pull at heartstrings. They lack the imagination for the new approaches that Momentum implemented; in fact, they won’t have a clue what I just referred to. Cold, mechanical types like Bolton focus on the “outside” layer of our brain, the neocortex, that is rational. They might appeal to the rational world of accountants, but they won’t set the world on fire.
When someone like Bolton does a pitch, they would talk about this feature that a phone or laptop has, such as how long the battery lasts, or the size of the screen. Is that really why you love a product? No. How often do you go shopping, and in the heat of the moment buy something, then later regret it? Bolton can give someone all the facts and figures he wants, and they will look at them, but it just doesn’t ‘feel’ right. Selling an idea is an emotional thing, not a rational one.
At MBGA News, we might know a thing or two about technology, because this News outlet is run by Britain’s most patriotic engineers. We know what we are doing; without buckets of money we reach 25,000 subscribers on YouTube. We also have 50,000 followers on Facebook. We talk about what people feel.
Sadly, as in many businesses, the old guard are naive on engineering, and taken for ride. Simply dumping a new system in place will achieve nothing more than burn money. You need a real strategy that talks the language of feelings. But if you don’t know why you do what you do, then how will you ever get someone to buy into it, and be loyal, or want to be a part of what it is that you do?
[Reprinted with kind permission from MBGA News where this article was first published.]
Oh come on “Digital Strategy” of Bolton. Is swiping left or right on a dating app UKIP Digital Strategy.
We don’t have one and it’s a joke.
Gerard Batten has his head screwed on properly. Every suggestion makes sense ( As opposed to bolton who really is not qualified to talk ).
Every change to the structure and bones and brains of UKIP need consideration. Just to start the ball rolling, Battens suggestion that the NEC be morphed ( it is comprised of serious people with the party well being in mind , democratically chosen, ) into a sort of Board of directors, but with limited powers over anything but hiring and firing Leaders.it needs lots of discussion and modification. But given our skill at picking leaders it makes sense to me.
THis could be the first stone of serious reform from anyone about our organisation. For heavens keep Bolton away from it.
Luke Nash-Jones, am one of your You Tube subscribers,
you are a breath of fresh air,
what you say about apple holds truth,
I sincerely hope that as time rolls forward, you have more say in how things are carried out within UKIP. Have said this before.
I support Gerard Batten as the next leader, but to my mind UKIP needs you before not too long. I wont give the reasons here for the sake of brevity.
thanks
t g spokes: “You sack him, He then displays more energy, arguments and vitriol than you’ve seen for ages.”
So, so, true.
A very good ,well reasoned article from Luke Nash-Jones and of course he is right. We in Marketing used to call this “Selling the sizzle and not the sausages ” Something that UKIP has hitherto been very poor at. We have always been short of a platform for marketing people and “Spin doctors”.
Bolton’s rushed agenda seems to have been written by people who have no knowledge of the structures and capabilities of the UKIP membership.
If nothing else, Bolton’s short stay inside our party has been a great opportunity to learn more about ourselves, our strengths , our values and our direction as we coalesce in the determination that we deserve better than this.
UKIP Daily biased? Surely not. In fact I’m often overwhelmed by the level of evenhandedneas and equanimity.
Oh no, I must have been dreaming that UKCRAP Daily was a bonefide reliable source of party information but it turns out it’s little more than a platform for the assenine I’ll informed half baked and self serving prattle from the loonatic fringe and the quizlings within.
What a load of invective! Of course, if people like you, “Father Ted” (who was at least really funny) don’t even know what UKIPD is about, i.e. that it’s not ‘a platform’to publish Party directives, or opinions sanctioned by the Top Brass, then it’s no wonder that such puerile comments are posted.
But it’s good to know that KINOs (Kippers in name only) regard the majority of those not for their ‘hero’ as lunatics and quislings. You should’ve added ‘swivel-eyed loons’ and ‘fruitcakes’ …now what does that remind me of …
I think you will find that Chris Mendes is not charging for his work on the website. Therefore claims of money making are far from the mark. Don’t insult people without checking your facts.
I support Henry Bolton is that short enough for and not complicated for your average contributers.
Thank you – that is short and to the point, an offensive slur on all other comment posters included. Well done.
For all other cases/occasions, I suggest you start your own blog where you can make the rules.
I like the list of reasons you’ve provided, Barrie. Well done!
Barrie, I supported Henry Bolton initially for the reason that another leadership election was the last thing we needed. But as things have emerged I have changed my mind. Mostly because of what HB himself has written and said. Here’s his Separation of Offices:
“43.2 The separation of oversight and accountability, provided by the NEC on behalf of the Party membership, is separated by the Constitution from the Executive by the separation of powers between the NEC, PMB and Party
Leader, and by the requirement to ensure joint NEC and PMB/Party Leader approval as laid down in this Constitution for a number of actions.”
It isn’t even GCSE standard English, as well as being profoundly anti-democratic, self-serving, and well, just babyish in its sense and sensibility.
If not part of the solution…
UKIP needs help from every quarter, not complaining infighting.
Offer solutions, offer help but please don’t add to the list of complaints
I must yet again remind posters that the word limit for comment posts is 400 words.
In recent days, supporters of Henry Bolton have posted comments of excessive length (from well over 600 to nearly 800 words) which have been binned.
Supporters of Bolton have accused UKIP Daily of bias and corruption. It would have been a good idea for them to read the advice for contributors and keep to the prescribed limits.
As far as I’m concerned – if keeping the rules everybody is striving to adhere to is = bias, then so be it.
V good article. I have experienced decades of non-technical people believing that technology can save them. It is because they don’t understand precisely what you have outlined.
Bolton appears to be basically a civil servant, an administrator. His targets are process targets and his values are gangster values – loyalty, solidarity, collectivity. They are utterly at odds with UKIP, the only libertarian party remaining in the UK now. Productive dissent and an active marketplace of ideas is now an alien concept to the mainstream within the major parties, and UKIP has a duty, I think, to fill that gap for the electors.
The last thing needed now is for the only freedom-loving party to finally be completely ham-strung by the last in a succession of infiltrators.
Sell the sizzle, not the sausage.
Would that be the ‘curly’ sausage that won’t lie flat in the frying pan?
Good point about selling the sizzle though. Bolton’s as dull as ditchwater.
Kind regards.
Luke a good article but you say that every political party uses NationBuilder. Well I can only find Labour and the SNP using this platform.
Also you say that the party does not use the email facility, well there is a good reason for that since 30% of the membership suddenly stopped receiving them, including me and our Regional Chairman. I understand that someone meddled with the software.
Do you know what we pay per month for NationBuilder?
I am firmly of the opinion that it is cheaper to design a website from scratch starting with a blank sheet of paper using HTML5 coding. I don’t know about integrating the website with a database but I know a man who does. He is just rewriting his book Practical PHP and MySQL Website Databases : A Simplified Approach. He has also written Practical Web Design for Absolute Beginners.
I think the point is that the party is broke and we need to look at a cheaper better way to produce a decent website, I dont think we can afford to carry on with NationBuilder.
http://nationbuilder.com/pricing
It starts from $24 per month for a member database of 5000, so UKIP is probably paying a lot more than that.
Looking at the features included, yes, it should have everything needed built in, without having to use other external software such as MailChimp or WordPress.
I’ve built various websites for people in the past, I used to use Joomla a lot, but I tend to stick with WordPress nowadays, it is much more than a blogging platform, with the right plugins added it is a very powerful CMS system.
I note that both UKIP Daily and KipperCentral are WordPress sites.
Nation Builder boasts that it is ‘better’ than WordPress because it has so many features built-in that WordPress can only do with third-party plugins. But WordPress is basically ‘free’ and there are many useful plugins which are also ‘free’.
I have an experienced colleague who hates WordPress but likes Joomla.
This site, no offence Viv, has some issues and is not a great great for WordPress.
Stuart, you clearly don’t comprehend what is needed. You talk about websites. No, UKIP needs digital campaigning, not just a website. Read my article again please.
Luke… The “sizzle” is What does Trump use Word Press or Nationbuilder ? The answer is of course tweets from Twitter… There is little point in spending too much money on contacting people who are already members..we need to spend the money contacting people whom we didn’t know !
Luke, I understand what is needed: a website platform that is useable for those in UKIP involved with putting out content.
Its all very good having a flashy website with loads of features, but any website needs good engaging content.
My comment was in reply to Alec Yates, and I was passing on my own experiences of building websites for people in the past.
And yes, I did read your article and enjoyed it thoroughly!
No. Everyone, forget the blooming website!! This obsession with websites is the issue. Nonsense like “my friend made a website”, or this website is cheaper. Hardly anyone, even members, would read a UKIP website. My article mentions digital campaigning. This is not about websites. Bangs head on wall. We need digital tools to reach out to people OUTSIDE the party. Getting emails of people outside party. Filtering them. Having them in interest groups. Sending them relevant mailshots. That is far more important than banging doors like this is the 1950s.
And the site from “she who must not be named” 🤓👦🏻
Alec Yates, you state you have no knowledge of software development, but you wish to state how run UKIP’s digital outreach. Do you also do things like go to the local hospital and tell a heart surgeon how to do his job, because your friend once looked at a First Aid kit?
Hi Luke,
Please could you drop me a line with an email addy or phone # so we can have a chat?
Thanks!
It’s “pizzazz” or “pizazz” – dazzling style, vigorous spirit, attractive combination of vitality and glamour, flair and flamboyance – but as you say, probably derived from the ancient, Semitic “pazaz” with somewhat similar meaning.
Nigel certainly has it.
But so did others, and those who I know believe Nigel ensured they never got much coverage or opportunity. Sad. Lions led by donkeys?
Top notch article.
I have elsewhere voiced my calcuation that Henry is a plant ( Genus?). Every day that passes reinforces that opinion and whether he knows it or not, he’s doing the job admirably; and his constitution proves the point. I list the words used in his proof of his hard work polishing his image.
It is an aggressive analysis of a comprehensive substantial dramatic upgrade of the essential digital infrastructure of technological assets of our email platform, and its digital overlaps for presentable informative and persuasive and professional presentation. Would you vote for that? I think it’s a leaflet.
Genus? Deadly nightshade.
Dating Venus Flytrap!
I agree… straight from Harry at Thames House. “F Branch”.
“It is not “mobile first”. People are checking their phone on the train, sneakily at work, on the toilet. They are in a rush. They are impatient. ” Agreed, this is highlighted in the report sent to the NEC this week. You should contact John about joining the Tec Sub-committee!
The problem I have with the UKIP website is that it often switches to its ‘mobile’ version even when I am using a desktop browser.
Nowadays, the trend is for websites to be ‘responsive’, so they look good on both desktop and mobile devices, without having to have different versions.
It’s a known issue, and will be addressed.
Ouch.
Brilliant article Luke, I belong to the stone-age pre-steam technological era.
I have been a member of UKIP since 2009 and have mentioned the word PAZZAZ, I cannot explain its derivation, but I did know that it was displayed in spades by Nigel Farage and I couldn`t understand why I never really found anybody else capable of it.
Now I have read your essay, I begin to understand your interpretation of “feelings” (a song I love especially sung by Les Dawson!) and the necessity for their incorporation in the “soul” of UKIP.
A good start would be to see some exhibitions of “Passion” motivated properly by Feelings
I was watching some old Les Dawson footage yesterday evening. Are you by chance referring to his version of’Feelings’ where he deliberately goes off key? Bolton is certainly off key.
I am also not so far from the’steam age’.
Kind regards.
I told Bolton last Nov that his job wasn’t that of an administrator, that’s the chairman’s job. Bolton job is to get out there on the metaphorical political football pitch and score political goals against the LibLabCon team, not put in a system for counting paper clips! He’s scored lots of goals since early January; own goals!
It’s clear from Marneygate he’s devoid of political skills & nous. The party made a mistake electing him based on mainly his cv. It should have asked, have you stood for UKIP as a parliamentary (why didn’t you stand last June) & have you been a branch officer (I understand that’s a no)? If a leadership candidate hasn’t walked the walk they don’t deserve to lead the party.
We should also have asked why he left his EU job, if it was so successful. Was it early retirement (in which case he will already be receiving a pension now)? Did he resign (in which case why)? Was it to set up his own consultancy company (in which case, why does his consultancy website look suspiciously like a front rather than a fully operational business)? Was he sacked (again, if so, why?)
He was given an ultimatum, drop UKIP OR RESIGN and was give three hours to make his mind up. He gave up a good job, a good salary and has got nothing but abuse from the self-serving wannabies in our Party – you should be ashamed
Dear Father Ted,
The idea that someone might give up a good job and a good salary to take up a definite position (which one had firmly been offered), that might believable.
But to give up a job to join a group of contestants, when it is clear that Whittle is the bookies’ favourite and the second favourite is be Kurten or Waters ….. that story is hard for me to believe.
What is your source? And how can you be sure that that source is telling you the truth?
Regards, Toby, 01932-873557
Who knows whether that’s true, “Father Ted”. But you can’t expect to be taken seriously if you purport to pass on information like that pseudonymously.
I have nothing against pseudonyms, but people that use them need to be aware, what is surely obvious, that what they say has to stand on its own merits; further, that to lob baseless insults from behind a pseudonym is despicable (and counterproductive, I hope).
Spot on John.
I would not now call him an administrator, more like a maintenance man, but no, they show practicallity, perhaps an adequate cleaner.
4 months without a peep to his bosses ( us ).
The bosses really have no alternative.
Trouble is, You sack him, He then displays more energy, arguements and vitriol than you’ve seen for ages. You then realise that he has been doing this for ages instead of working. So, as I’ve said before, cautorise the wound, make sure he can never cause you trouble again.