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The candidates for the forthcoming London mayoral election have been looking Stateside for some tips on how to revamp their political campaigns and engage an already uninterested electorate; one in five Londoners has not registered to vote.

Ever since US Senator George Allen was posted on YouTube making racist remarks in 2006, an indiscretion that cost him his Virginia seat, digital media have been recognised as powerful forces in American politics. The current US primaries offer a good example why. Positive and negative video clips of the presidential candidates are flooding YouTube, and some have appeared to swing public opinion at vital moments. Now London is set to witness its own blast of digital electioneering.

This May's mayoral contest will see far greater use of digital media than the last election four years ago. Internet use in the UK has rocketed in the interim, especially the use of social networking sites, and all the leading candidates have built new media into their campaign strategies.

The UK's strict laws on political advertising have also encouraged greater use of the web. 'Each candidate has access to only a limited number of party political broadcasts, which makes the internet a valuable resource,' explains Matthew McGregor, a London-based campaign organiser for the Labour Party and head of London Mayor Ken Livingstone's online campaign.

Personal connections

Livingstone, who has held the mayoral post since its creation in 2000, is using the web to connect on a more personal level with the city's voters. 'The day after the first mayoral television debate on January 10, we emailed out a clip of Ken reviewing the event and invited people to submit their own questions,' says McGregor. 'If the question you wanted to ask wasn't brought up by the audience, Ken can answer it online. It gives people the chance to interact with the campaign and the candidate in a way they previously might not have been able to.'

Conservative hopeful Boris Johnson is also keen to get intimate with the electorate. 'We are developing a unique 'Boris for the Boroughs' interactive feature for the website,' comments a spokesperson from the Tory campaign. 'People will be able to air their views, share what they love and hate about their borough, and identify pinch-points - and all of this on a borough-by-borough level.'

In addition, both Johnson and Livingstone have set up Facebook profiles, as have the Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick and Green Party hopeful Siân Berry. Paddick has also set up an account with Twitter, an online communications network that allows users to be updated on his canvassing activities in real time.

Importance of being earnest

The candidates are learning to exploit new media in the same way advertisers have done in recent years: to put across a candid, direct message that - hopefully - creates a buzz around a brand or, in this case, a politician. With this in mind, the mayoral hopefuls are also keen to interact with preexisting online groups in an effort to give their message added authenticity.

'There are students on Facebook running support groups, and I think helping them out is more effective than trying to manage everything top down,' notes McGregor. 'It's better to engage with people who are doing things for themselves.'

London Elects, the independent organisation overseeing the election, has been influenced by social media, too. A new website is up and running, tasked with galvanising the London electorate, which has proved apathetic about mayoral politics in the past; turnout in 2004 was just 37 percent. Again, personalising the experience is high on the agenda.

'There are lots of interactive features on the website,' says Emma Cassidy, PR officer at London Elects. 'Users can upload photos of their boroughs onto the site. When people refer to London they tend to think of Tower Bridge or the Houses of Parliament, but London is lots of different things to lots of different people. We are trying to reach out to the individual boroughs.'

Other items on the site include a 'pledge to vote' feature, where individuals can state their intention to take part in advance, a Facebook application that puts a countdown on users' profile pages, and a quick guide to the elections translated into 20 different languages.

Going ape

With new media set to play an important role in the election, it is unsurprising that Labour turned to branding consultancy Fallon to run its campaign. The agency scooped a number of awards at the end of 2007, largely due to its television advertisement for Cadbury's, which featured a gorilla drumming along to In the air tonight by Phil Collins. It quickly became a big hit on YouTube.

'Cadbury's viral video campaign is one of the reasons we hired Fallon,' explains McGregor. 'That is the kind of thing we would like to do, although I can't reveal any more for obvious reasons.'

It has been suggested that Labour and the Conservatives each plan to spend over £1 mn on their respective campaigns - an amount that would dwarf the other contenders' budgets. But digital media's personal touch could go some way to softening the impact of hard cash, according to Simon Cohen, director of global tolerance, the public relations consultancy handling the Green Party's campaign.

'There are ways to use new media in our favour,' Cohen says. 'With Siân, you have the person negating the amount of money people have to spend. I can tell you the Greens do not have the money of Boris Johnson, but people are a lot more astute these days; they can see through stunts and publicity, and the digital media side of things will be a big help.'

Basic messages

That said, the Green Party also plans a viral campaign. 'I think what you will see with our video output is that it is very simple, very clear and very compelling - there's no need for bells and whistles, because the public will just get it,' adds Cohen.

Commentators in the US see good and bad sides to the nascent political power of new media. Some say getting up close and personal with politicians furthers the cause of democracy, as the public no longer has to count on partisan news agencies for information. But others warn that increased scrutiny, in combination with the potentially devastating viral power of the net, will force candidates to become ever more stage-managed and staid.

Given the eccentric personalities of the leading candidates for the London election, however, the forthcoming campaign is likely to be anything but dull.

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