Like myself, people are feeling pretty nervous about Brexit. The whole situation’s a mess. The Commons vote delay, as well as May going back to Brussels with the possibility of a no-deal scenario… Chaos! However, we’re not here to be all political. In the week prior to the Commons vote, the UK Government thought to splurge £100k promoting Brexit through Facebook ads. In addition to buying ads on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google. Therefore we’re going to discuss the social strategy and analyse its overall impact.
The social splurge strategy
Facebook figures show the tories splurge a whopping £96,684 over 11 ad promotions. Although figures across the other platforms are unknown. Occurring between December 2-8, the strategy is a desperate attempt to avoid facing defeat. The ad campaign features three videos. Ads explain the Brexit deal regarding free trade, the economy and border control. Costing between £10-£50k each and reaching roughly 500,000 users, they spent a total £150k. This includes the £50k spent in November. So it’s fair to say it’s been a costly failure to limited avail!
Splurge impact; a huge failure
Spending £100k+ of taxpayers money in a mad panic to secure the deals approval won’t sit well with people. Especially given the pulling of the Commons vote! In fact, Corbyn slates it as an inappropriate and wasteful use of taxpayers’ money. With the public no closer to fully understanding Brexit’s impact, how can we disagree? Using £150k of public money promoting a botched deal online is wasteful. Additionally, saving the PM’s sinking ship for personal gain threatens our democracy. Coupled with the fact the vote won’t even go ahead, the money’s spent on promoting a lost cause. To add insult to injury, the tories spent an additional £40k on ads supporting the deal.
Facebook issues its figures in line with their new transparency measures. This is in response to criticisms around their political interference. Given the figures, it’s easy to see their social splurge strategy failed. Quite badly as thousands are spent with minimal, if any positive impact on the Brexit deal. Here’s hoping a solution presents itself soon!
