Pleon, the leading European communications consultancy, today revealed the results of a recent European Issues Tracking analysis of the British political power struggle that emerged within the governing Labour party during September 2006.
The analysis, conducted as a media survey, demonstrated a series of distinctive regional diversities of opinion and considerable pan-European interest in the internal political struggle between British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and his heir-apparent, Gordon Brown. The survey also revealed itself as a valuable measurement tool for gauging the varied perceptions of political issues across cultural lines.
At the beginning of September, Tony Blair announced he was going to step down as Prime Minister before July 2007, prompting one of the least surprising -- but still attention grabbing -- internal governmental debates in the history of Blair's 'New Labour'. The timing of the announcement - just prior to the party's annual conference at the end of September - meant that the story rumbled on as the main focus of the UK political agenda for the entirety of the month.
Commenting on the survey, Pleon UK CEO Jennifer Helfer said, “Here in London we recognised the event as the most significant domestic political month of the year, but we wanted to know how it had been viewed in Europe and the impact it had on Blair’s reputation and the country overall.”
Working in partnership with the Pleon Media Analysis division in Bonn, the UK team produced a detailed pan-European analysis report, looking at the top 2-3 publications in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Russia, Spain, Netherlands, Italy and France. Offices from each of the eight countries sent top stories to a multi-national team in Bonn, who used the European Issues Tracking Tools to translate and code the content on a rating scale that compared how positively each article had supported either Brown or Blair in their reporting of the news for the duration of September.
“The results were somewhat surprising with the current Prime minister proving to be more popular than we would have thought, and despite his often berated international policy he was generally considered to be more ‘European’ than Brown, in most European media” said Helfer. “Results across the region ranged from the Russian disdain for Brown’s political tactics, to Spanish sympathy for Blair's personal ambush, to French focus on 'Cheriegate'.”
As in the UK, the main thrust of the story in Europe quickly focused on the personal rivalry and distrust between the two Labour party members. However, in the majority of European press, perceptions of Blair bordered on the sympathetic as media viewed Brown as a “usurper” of Blair’s power. Southern European countries in particular equated the situation to a “civil war” within the Labour party with negative attributes ascribed to Brown who is seen has having increased political pressure on Blair by means of intrigue.
Not surprising to Helfer was the bigger communications lessons that the survey provided, namely the importance of not making assumptions and the need for European tools that can provide competitive intelligence and insights into the hearts and minds of Europeans.
“So often clients and communications professionals make assumptions about an issue based on their own personal perceptions and viewpoint or spend a large amount of time and money conducting large research projects. By leveraging our local-on-the-ground expertise and issues tracking tools we were able to quickly put our finger on the pulse of European perceptions on this issue.”
Although the survey was a test-run of the Issues Tracking Tool, Pleon is already using the resource to provide clients with pan-European insights into competitor movements and as a message measurement tool.
For further information please contact:
Ian Mackie
Pleon UK
+44 207 479 5623
ian.mackie(at)pleon.com