The UK’s Liberal Democrats have begun a web-based campaign against a recent proposal within parliament that would exempt MPs and Peers from the provisions of the 2000 Freedom of Information Act. The campaign is one of the first non-partisan campaigns to be advertised and promoted heavily on the internet in the UK, a testament to the growing reach and influence wielded by new-media/blog sites.

Mark Pack, the LibDems web-campaign coordinator, argues that “The real effect of the Bill would be to (a) prevent the disclosure of detailed information about MPs’ expenses claims and Parliament’s spending and (b) allow MPs to lobby public authorities in secret, in the knowledge that what they write could not be disclosed under the Act.”

He added, “one of the attractions of Messagespace… is the good onscreen location of the ads.”

The campaign will run on NHSBlogDoc, Guido Fawkes’s Diary, Wat Tyler’s Burning our Money blog, and PoliticalBetting.com

Norwich Union’s comms strategy required engaging with Government as a key stakeholder in two separate and distinct areas:

• corporate responsibility, and
• directing regulation and legislation affecting the insurance and finance industry

The firm’s work and multi-stakeholder partnerships in helping the community, sponsoring worthwhile causes and acting as the industry leader was given a boost by targeting ads to opinion makers and influencers within the Whitehall ecosystem.

Throughout the first week in May, MessageSpace was able to raise awareness of Norwich Union’s sponsorship of UK Athletics by leveraging our politically influential and engaged audience of MPs and policy makers across Westminster and Whitehall and driving traffic toward the Community Sports Fund microsite. The initiative aims to get the public involved in UK athletics at its grassroots level, giving 200 sporting initiatives around the country the opportunity to win valuable funding. The ad campaign was seen to have strengthened the broader message, utilising the latest in web innovations to communicate the benefits of the initiative to the influentials on a local level.

This is a month-long video advertising campaign running up until the premiere for Taking Liberties, a new British made low budget film.

Irreverent but revelatory, outrageous but true, the film combines real stories of liberty loss with never-seen-before footage, cheeky stunts and comment from leading politicians, celebrities, human rights organisations, academics and lawyers. These include Mark Thomas, Boris Johnson, Henry Porter, Ken Clarke, Tony Benn, Clare Short, Michael Mansfield, Clive Stafford Smith and Philippe Sands.

With a soundtrack which includes Oasis, Radiohead, Stranglers and Franz Ferdinand; Taking Liberties is the most explosive and controversial film to hit screens this summer. They wanted to generate word of mouth coverage and political blogs reach a key “buzz generating” demographic.

Norwich Union is the biggest backer of British sport and to convey that message to a high-level audience they selected MessageSpace to make their involvement more widely known.

Xchangeteam, the UK’s pioneering people resourcing company which provides talent across the freelance and permanent spectrum in marketing and creative services.public affairs is now advertising on select MessageSpace sites. They’re taking full advantage of the MessageSpace network’s reach within political Britain, and are promoting their up-and-coming Public Affairs, Policy and Government Relations recruitment services department.

Roger Majerski, an Xchangeteam member (and avid Guido Fawkes’ Blog reader) was enthusiastic about partnering with MessageSpace, and was thrilled at the prospect of utilising the MessageSpace behavioural targeting functionalities. “Xchangeteam is not a typical recruitment company – we use our industry backgrounds to cherry-pick talent rather than have a sales scattergun approach. We pride ourselves on our personal approach, industry knowledge and tough vetting procedures.”

We’re very pleased to announce the roll-out of MessageSpace Lite, this evening. When we began development on this project, we had one goal in mind – to simplify the process of online advertising. We realised far too many advertisers (and potential advertisers, by extension) were turned off by lengthy processing times for having their banner ads show up on their favourite sites. Additionally, the entire process was deemed “too complicated.”

MessageSpace Lite aims to reverse that trend, as the easy-to-utilise system is aimed at first-time advertisers seeking to reach an active and highly influential political audience in Britain. Most campaigns can be expected to go live within one business day, if not sooner.

A potential MessageSpace advertiser only needs to fill out their details and determine their campaign budget and parameters. They then pay online, and upload their banner graphic.

Our CIO, Jag Singh, is rather enthusiastic about the system (and the fact that he makes a cameo appearance in the ad). “Its beauty lies in its simplicity – it’s so easy to use! It’s quite literally a man-on-the-street lobbying tool.”

To take full advantage of this new service, we thought it best to ramp up our efforts at introducing video ad-serving technology, and we can finally announce that we’ve succeeded! Iain Dale, of 18 Doughty Street fame, was kind enough to lend a head hand. Thanks Iain!

Conservatives Abroad – an organisation within the Conservative Party aimed at the ex-pat community around the world – is now running adverts on MessageSpace sites with a conservative-leaning audience. The campaign aims to assist and enable those living throughout the world to continue participating in British politics.

A young Briton currently working in Prague commented on the ex-pat outreach effort, “The party of government for my home country is of great relevance – and I can’t get a vote here [in the Czech Republic] anyway.”

MessageSpace partner sites like Conservative Home and Iain Dale’s Diary attract a considerable international audience hailing from various parts of the world every day.

Conservatives Abroad’s attempt to reach an audience that is interested in their home country’s political discourse is a natural fit with MessageSpace’s existing online advertising facilities.

Britain’s brewing industry is facing an unprecedented set of challenges – yet is burdened with an unfair tax regime. The industry believes reforming the way beer is taxed needs a fundamental change of approach, to put an end to the unfavourable treatment of beer compared with other drinks.
The Beer and Pub Association chose to advertise on blogs in the run up to the Chancellor’s budget in order to reach readers in the Treasury and Whitehall.

Ireland’s Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) began running a series of ads today aimed at directing potential supporters to their website, in conjunction with the upcoming Northern Ireland Assembly elections.

The UUP‘s decision to effectively and efficiently reach out to voters by advertising on Northern Ireland’s pre-eminent political blog Slugger O’Toole provides a glimpse into the future of political campaigning – and MessageSpace is both excited and proud to play its role. MessageSpace has also provided the UUP with the capability to tweak the blog advertising campaign in real-time according to various criteria.

Whilst there have been numerous complaints with regard to the general public being disenchanted and disenfranchised by the various political parties, the UUP has now become the UK’s first political party to embrace and utilise the concept of advertising to a mainstream audience by harnessing the power of weblogs.