Can Labour cook up some hope after its super meh-jority?

Voter turnout is at a two-decade low. There was a protest vote (higher than the Lib Dem wave) of 14%. And, for Nigel Farage, the eighth time proved lucky for him to gain a seat in parliament.

For Labour, it already feels a bit like the party is over, the lights are on, and there’s a lot of work to do. Change starts now. Or does it?

We’re fourteen years on from the last Labour government, and it has been a tumultuous time - a pandemic, a war in Europe, a crippling cost of living crisis and, who could forget, five prime ministers.

Keir was quick to move from change to patience as victory was announced - there are some tough decisions ahead and little to invest in regeneration without raising taxes.

And that comes as only a quarter of the UK public trust the government, and a record number of people (45%) say they ‘almost never’ trust governments of any party to place the needs of the nation above the interests of their own political party.

Trust, disillusionment and fatigue make for a tired audience. And that needs a change.

Recent attempts by the Conservative government to spark engagement with behaviour change campaigns have been met with criticism implying a ‘lack of connection with reality’. Attempts to drive school attendance were labeled as ‘tone deaf’ and the Army campaign, which highlighted homeland resilience, was seen as not the right stance to attract young people to the job. Not to mention the time they asked influencers to get involved for free.

If we’re being honest, much like the Conservative government itself, its communications felt flat, formulaic, forced and mechanical. I’m told it wasn’t designed by AI but hey, who knows…There are better ways to drive public engagement around behavior change - with creativity.

Last year, Norwich City Football Club’s thought-provoking campaign around mental health garnered 63m views. The campaign, which was produced with a small budget, raised the question of how a small campaign could achieve so much more than the millions spent by the UK government every year on marketing. Not only did the video drive eyes and conversation around the issue, but it also drove outcomes–over 7,500 inbound messages to Samaritans, which was 63% of their total messages.

Here’s hoping our new government can create and deliver creative communication initiatives that dig beyond the surface and seek to meaningfully re-engage people across the nation. Which first means they need to show they understand them.

We need to see initiatives that get closer to what the majority of the public wants and needs, working with them to craft what the solution could and should look like.

So, where are the ingredients of hope?

In his first speech as prime minister Keir talked about a return to public service and a daily fight to win back the trust and hope of UK citizens.

A new government opens a door of opportunity. Those who rarely trust the government are twice as likely to support a change in the voting system for the House of Commons.

It would be nice to move away from the endless recruitment initiatives for social care, the NHS, police and our forces (which questionably offer short-term results and not the long-term change we’re seeking) and consider how we start to address some of our society’s systemic failures before we talk about them to people.

Marketing has a crucial role to play for this government but not in the first few months. Actions need to come before words.

Campaigns and their sizable budgets can and should be used to amplify the vision, opportunity and impact once the Labour party has taken the time to craft what real change means and started to implement it.

Consider how more young people can get a foot on the property ladder, put food on the table for their families, and pay their bills in winter as it gets colder. Surely government money is better spent here first.

Hopefully, this government can look at the total governing time it has (no more than 1,825 days, but that should be enough to get going) and put the heart back into winning hearts and minds across the UK.

We may be tired - life is harder than it used to be, but overnight we’ve shown there is an appetite for hope. Marketing’s place in that should be second, behind making the changes we need.

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