Lib Dem leader Ed Davey’s madcap antics are attention-grabbing but not necessarily the best way of getting a message across, says Lucia Hodgson
On day six of the general election campaign, I started to wonder if the Liberal Democrats had any non-water themed stunts up their sleeve. We have already been treated to leader Sir Ed Davey in his first wetsuit as he toppled into Lake Windermere from a paddleboard. Next, and again sporting a second wetsuit, Davey plunged down a slip n slide, howling with laughter like a man without a care in the world – or indeed an election to win. He even conducted a Sky News interview sat in a rubber ring. Perhaps next he will challenge fellow party leaders Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak not to a TV debate, but to a water-pistol duel.
Where his rivals have either got off to a different sort of damp start, or found themselves embroiled in slippery candidate selection dramas, the Lib Dems seem to be having lots of fun instead – and therefore, so are we. Ed Davey is not pitching himself as the next Prime Minister. His aim is very different to that of Starmer or Sunak – it is to simply be in the conversation. Despite having just 15 MPs, he’s tapped into the power of a colourful image and made himself an instant meme, and all on his own terms.
Amidst the joviality, however, stunts need to transfer into votes, and Ed Davey’s light-hearted approach to serious issues will be tested at the ballot box. I am always personally sceptical of stunts. A stunt does not a strategy make, and without a strong consistent message to follow the comedic thrills and spills, there is little left in a voters mind other than how un-serious you are. They also have a spectacular capacity to go wrong – who can forget the Ed-Stone, or the Lib Dem’s own yellow ministerial box for an alternative budget? The memory left behind is not the strong policy stance but an unfortunate blip on the electoral trail. When Boris climbed aboard a JCB digger to knock through a polystyrene wall in 2019, I may have been standing to the side, smirking with my head in my hands, but there was no doubt about why he was doing it – there couldn’t have been a better visual metaphor for smashing the parliamentary deadlock (and in hindsight, breaking through the red wall).
For businesses and organisations, the same principles apply. Be as funny or eye-catching as you like, but the message you want to leave in the public’s mind has got to follow closely behind. When the Bond Street tube roundel was changed to ‘Burberry Street’, a whole host of confused tourists and disgruntled Londoners were left wondering what Transport for London were playing at. Kids opening their Tony Chocolonely advent calendar to a missing chocolate probably weren’t going to make the leap between their absent treat and the slave trade. The purpose of a gimmick needs to be immediately clear to the consumer. The simpler the idea and the lower the level of personal disruption, the more likely you are to land a successful stunt.
Stunts are a high stakes game and people will always remember a bad one. The difference between success and failure is whether your tactics are backed by strategy. A tactic – to be in the conversation, to raise a giggle or a social media share – is not the same as a strategy – a proper ‘plan’ (to borrow another favoured election slogan this year) that will win you new customers or votes. The latter is what will truly change the debate and while I am personally hoping Davey’s next feat will be a cross-channel swim, the proof of success will be whether he can convert japes into votes at the ballot box.
Lucia Hodgson is partner at Charlesbye Strategy and a former Downing Street special adviser