I suppose the election was bound to nudge our local politicians from their slumber. Sure enough, candidates of several persuasions suddenly want to become my best mate. Odd that, as I haven’t seen or heard of them for the last few years. (Transparency note: I am the world’s No. 1 cynic.)
Most of the campaigning leaflets follow the same old format:
- Beaming (and often untrustworthy) face of my new friend
- A list of his or her achievements or political aspirations
- Spurious and unconvincing local connections.
There’s no doubt that the coverage and interest in this 2010 election is better and deeper than ever before. The web, instant reaction and chat, and those darned leaders’ debates have seen to that. But traditional door-stepping and leafleting hasn’t moved on, it seems.
(Drum roll…)
Until today.
I just received a hand-addressed letter that looked like it might be from someone up the road. The envelope is light blue and is of the vintage my mum uses. The writing on the front is in real blue biro by a real human being.
Inside is a printed facsimile of a hand-written letter addressed to me as ‘Dear neighbour’. I’m no calligraphy expert, but plainly the envelope and the letter are not from the same hand.
Nevertheless, the fact that this candidate has put his address on the letter, and has taken a different, more personal approach to marketing, well, somehow it works (even if logic tells me it shouldn’t).
I have never been a floating voter and I’m not going to change my spots now. But I do appreciate good local marketing, whether political or not. In case you missed it, here’s a nifty example I saw earlier.
