Tomorrow is the black-tie IPA Effectiveness Awards for the advertising industry where advertising big-wigs will give each other awards. There is much amusement in Westminster at the entry from M & C Saatchi on “how they won the general election”. Truth be told they did come up with that great poster…

To back up their claim to glory they have produced a 38 page, 3736 word brochure putting their case – the snappily titled “Winning the benefit of the doubt“. The report is mostly based on public domain research. Besides Saatchi’s posters it features page after page of the digital campaign and social media messaging. None of which – apart from a dire animation – had much to do with Saatchi…

As has been widely reported the Tories capitalised on innovative targeted use of Facebook advertising and other channels for digital advertising – something Labour has realised it has to urgently play catch-up on. Jim Messina’s Messina Associates was the key advisor on this part of the strategy. Messina’s name does not appear in the report. The messaging strategy was devised by Lynton Crosby’s firm Crosby Textor Fullbrook – they get a little footnote. The digital strategy was executed by Edmonds Elder – they also get a small footnote. Data based micro-targeting was provided by another advertising agency – they get no mention.

“Now I know how we did it” quipped one Conservative Party source sarcastically….