So,  after our first round of research showed that there was quite some work for the various parties and their leaders to do to win over the undecided voting public, we decided to ask who came out on top after the first UK televised election debate.

As the post debate polls suggested, it seems that Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg had the most success in swaying the undecided. Unsurprising I thought as he seemingly did everything out of the guide to public speaking – looking directly down the camera, remembering the names of those who asked a question and by separating himself from the other main parties, he gave the public a reason to remember him by.

Back to the results.  Looking at the research we ran on the 13^th of April, the Liberal Democrats have increased their popularity among potential voters by  10.2%.  On the other hand,  Labour’s popularity has decreased 3.35% (I thought that it would have been much higher) with the popularity of the Conservatives decreasing by 4.83%.

However, it would seem that neither leader did quite enough to sway the majority of the voters as the undecided only dropped by a measly 1.8%.

So, there’s still work to be done as the next round of televised debating approaches.  Stay tuned to find out who will win the battle of ‘the undecided’.

Alex

The UK is now formally, if not convincingly, out of recession. But does modest growth at the end of 2009 bode well for the immediate and long-term future? Perhaps more importantly, as the man or woman in the street plays such a key role in translating any feel-good factor into parting with cold hard cash – or credit – how optimistic do they feel? Using GlideInsight, we asked 1018 respondents from a range of ages, incomes and geographical areas across the UK to find out.

Analysts can’t agree on whether the UK economy is due to take another nose dive before it picks up again (the so-called ‘double dip’). Are our panel equally undecided? Well, no.

Overwhelmingly, the mood is pessimistic with nearly three-quarters predicting a further downturn ahead of any improvement. Most optimistic in outlook are the Midlands and Wales, with Scotland and the South and North of England taking a far more cautious line. Annual income appears to play little part in overall perception, with around 75% of all income groupings up to £80,000 per year predicting a double dip.

So far, so potentially depressing. But looking longer-term, where do our panel of respondents see the UK economy by the end of 2010? Continuing the trend, little more than one in ten see the country’s finances ending the year in a position of strong growth, though interestingly only 16% predict a descent back into recession in the next 11 months. The remaining 72% forecast weaker growth, which may be as optimistic as can be hoped in the present climate.

By region, respondents in Scotland and the North of England are nearly three times as likely to predict further recession rather than strong growth.

The Midlands, Wales and the South of England display more polarised tendencies with roughly equal numbers of respondents forecasting either strong growth or further recession in each geographical area. The 16 to 34 year old age group is split between cautious optimism and outright pessimism, with older respondents adopting a progressively gloomier stance.

Regardless of perceptions, it is clear that the political parties need to do more to engage large sections of the populace in the general dialogue.

One in four of the 16 to 34 age group is planning not to vote in the forthcoming General Election. Panel members from the Midlands and Wales display similar levels of apathy. And with more respondents across the board falling into the ‘Don’t Know’ category than expressing an allegiance to any one political party, expect the landscape to change frequently in the run up to Election Day. It’s still all to play for.

Jamie

After a Facebook and Twitter campaign that spread faster than swine flu, Rage Against The Machine (RATM) were victorious in the race to the Christmas number 1 slot on downloads alone, beating sweet, dimpled X-Factor winner Joe McElderry by 50,000 sales.

At our Social Media event back in July, Martin Thomas, talked about the ‘crowd’ – newly-empowered consumers who are directly telling brands what they think of them via social media.  He argued that companies need to embrace this direct feedback and harness the power of the crowd, changing their mind set and the way they do business to become ‘crowd surfers’.

This campaign is a fantastic example of just how powerful that ‘crowd’ can be.  Joe is part of the great X-Factor marketing machine – paraded on prime time TV in front of millions of viewers every week, promoted on radio, the internet, spin-off TV shows, posters – just about every way imaginable.  The rage against this marketing machine was conducted primarily on Facebook and Twitter – but with the backing of the band and a few other high profile influencers, gathered enough momentum to stop the X-Factor bandwagon reaching the number one spot again.

Perhaps the crowd are getting fed up with X-Factor; they are telling Simon Cowell that new life needs injecting into the brand if it is to continue to dominate pre-Christmas TV.  Perhaps they are bored of the predictability of the Christmas number one going to the winner – that race used to be much more exciting.  Or perhaps it was more about the race itself – the eXcitement Factor (groan) – the thrill of finding out whether it could really work, whether the power of social media was a match for the X-Factor’s tried and tested formula.

Whatever the reason, this has to go down as one-nil to the crowd.  But Mr Cowell, to give him his due, is a pretty good ‘crowd surfer’ himself.  He has participated fully in the debate, even phoning the organiser of the Facebook campaign to congratulate him on his success.  And it’s definitely true that X-Factor, Simon and Joe have enjoyed even more publicity than they would have had because of this campaign.  And of course, Simon has interests in RATM’s record label!  So, was Simon secretly behind it after all?  Calling all conspiracy theorists….

Adidas have today announced that the chosen method for promoting their new range of Star Wars footwear will be to send sneak preview photographs to certain industry bloggers.  My immediate reaction was an intense interest in how Adidas have managed to create trainers which have any relevance to Luke Skywalker or Yoda. Once satisfied (they have a Darth Vadar hoodie as well – unfortunately without ‘I am your Father’ emblazoned over the front) I got to thinking about these new methods of marketing. Adidas is merely confirming what we have long known here at Glide – the growth of the internet as a marketing tool has grown beyond all expectation, vying with, and now overtaking, the more traditional methods.

It therefore seems inevitable that companies such as Adidas are going to make every effort to embrace this new marketing medium; the internet allows a company’s product reach to become global. The impact of viral advertising is also huge – a hot topic in the office yesterday when Kate circulated an email listing the top viral adverts of the noughties.

Bloggers have tremendous impact. We held a recent event which marked the pre-release of some journalist research we’ve conducted.  Significantly this contained the opinion of bloggers as well as traditional freelance and in-house journalists.

A webinar we’re holding in early 2010 to release the full report will feature a well-known blogger from the US as speaker. It’s nice to know that the Adidas communications team are on the same wavelength as us.

May the force be with you.

Flora

At the grand old age of 38, I sometimes feel a bit like an old fuddy duddy here in the office, surrounded by our young, dynamic team.

My colleagues come into the office in the morning with stories of concerts they’ve been to, new gym classes they’ve discovered, reports on the latest trendy bars and even what famous faces were at a Trekkie convention.  I reply with tales of watching ‘In the night garden’, never-ending tiredness, child-interrupted sleep and dirty nappies.

However, I’m just about to get my own back!  There is a baby boom in the office – several of our crowd are happily expecting their first child, and a second is on the way for Alistair.  We’ll soon be expanding the office to include a crèche!

Exciting times ahead guys!

Jo