There’s two likely reasons a brand might drag the election into their campaign. They may be aiming to appear relevant to the zeitgeist, piquing the interest of punters, or they may be “newjacking” – creating content that journalists might want to write about to score news coverage of their campaign and increase reach. There have been a line of brands and companies throwing their hat into the election ring this year – here are some of the highlights.
Ryanair wings it
Ryanair’s playful print ad ran across the UK press the morning after the BBC opposition leaders’ debate on 16 April.
Emoticon your political affiliations
As part of Hackweek, Rehab Studios have created a political language that anyone can understand, by releasing 40 “politicons”. You can download them here.
Birds Eye’s stirring speeches
Birds Eye’s new £2.5m campaign launched with this video, starring Rory Bremner, which mashes up stirring political speeches in a bid to promote its new stir-cooked range.
Great minds think alike – Smirnoff also went for wings
72andSunny Amsterdam created this campaign for Smirnoff.
Julie Bramham, marketing director of Smirnoff Western Europe said: “Smirnoff has a rich history of being the vodka for everyone. In the ‘We’re Open’ campaign we will embrace our democratic and inclusive character and as a brand move people to be more inclusive. This new campaign will allow us to tell and share stories in culturally relevant ways.”
Facebook pie-charts political consensus on to the London Eye
Experiential design studio Bompas & Parr partnered with Facebook to turn the Coca-Cola London Eye into a pie chart reflecting political opinion ahead of the election. Facebook sources its data from roughly 52m interactions, such as a like, share or comment. Each light show begins at 9.30pm, with a different set of stats displayed every night, such as how often the main party political leaders have been discussed on Facebook.
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