The winners of the ALDC Campaigner Awards 2015 were presented at the ALDC AGM held in Bournemouth at Federal conference by Simon Hughes, celebrating the best campaigning teams from across the Country.
This year’s awards were handed out to
- Best Member engagement campaign Winner- Mid Dorset and North Poole
We were impressed by the wide range of activities and events for members and supporters in Mid Dorset and North Poole and their commitment to making every event inclusive, including daily ‘Clerical Club’, ‘Delivery Club’, Action Days and their development their Liberal Youth team.
The communication with members and supporters was of a very high quality and there was a large volume, asking for members to get involved.
Runner up – Stockport
- Best Literature Winner – Portsmouth
Portsmouth successfully utilised national templates repeating their local messages and successes but also creating a number of original artworks including specialised squeeze leaflets and our Map Leaflet – a Portsmouth favourite.
We liked the literature for the strong messaging, liking Gerald with their ward teams, the use of good photos to illustrate the message and ultimately the constantly high standard
Runner up – Weston-Super-Mare
- Best Community Campaign Winner- Tunbridge Wells
The Tunbridge Wells team ran a fantastic and successful community campaign calling for the demolition of an abandoned old cinema site.
They started running street stalls in the town centre every week gathering nearly 15,000 signatures from local people demanding immediate demolition of the eyesore. This included over 5,000 email addresses. It is a great example of Liberal Democrats working strongly with a local community, repeating the messages throughout a range of literature and collecting more data and press coverage.
Runner up – Sheffield
- Best By-Election campaign Winner- Wrexham and Clwyd South
This was a stunning success, taking place after the General Election. They last held a council seat in Llay during the 1980s. Rob Walsh decided to campaign based around the regular delivery of a Llay Focus newsletter, discovering numerous issues on which to campaign including a plan to build houses on a well-used open space called Haywards Field and the reinstatement of a housing insulation scheme in a council house area.
Rob knocked on every door before the by-election took place on Thursday 16th July. Rob gained exactly 700 votes which was 52% of the vote – a swing of over 40% from Labour.
Runner up – Glasbury ward, Brecon and Racnorshire
- Best Digital Campaign Winner – Manchester Withington
The Team in Manchester Withington had a huge online presence, they were able to digitally knock over 1,000 constituents off their list on Polling Day, using social media to tweet a code and #Makeit15 to let us know they had voted for John.
Nationbuilder was also used successfully for emails, campaigns, website, petitions etc. We really liked their interactive map which was set up in order to allow residents to see what the Liberal Democrats had done right on their street. Canvassers could also use this whilst canvassing on the doorstep when the MP or party was accused of having done nothing for them locally. The interactive map remains on the site being updated to show what a difference the Liberal Democrats are making in Manchester.
They also successfully created an entire digital and visual campaign branded #Makeit15. #Makeit15 was on to billboards, hoodies, t-shirts, websites, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, leaflets, posters, ad-vans and much more, getting a great deal of recognition from supporters.
Runner up – Tower Hamlets
- Best Ward Campaign Winner- Milnrow and Newhey in Rochadale
In May 2014 the ward was lost narrowly. The team decided that this wasn’t going to happen again, or at least not through lack of effort. By the end of May a Thank You leaflet had been delivered throughout the ward as well as a survey ‘knock and drop’ to 500 households. This was maintained throughout the 12 months.
From May 2014 to March 2015 many street and area letters were produced on localised issues –In total around 5,000 were delivered – more than one per household.
Not only were clear messages delivered through literature and emails, we were also impressed by the doorstep activity and their activity to increase the number of supporters on postal votes.
The final result put Andy on 2013 votes, 720 ahead of his nearest opponent. This is the highest majority for any party in the ward since 1979 and the second highest ever.
Runner up – Birmingham Perry Barr
- Overall Campaigner Awards Winner – North Bedfordshire
The North Bedfordshire local party fought a strong and successful election campaign, over different platforms with what is thought to have been the most number of ballot papers on Polling Day this year, with 5: Parliamentary, Mayoral, Council, Parish and a Council Tax referendum from their PCC.
These campaigns were fought on a variety of platforms, including:
– a variety of FOCUS leaflets delivered in held and target council seats
– Mayoral literature across the Borough
– social media including: websites, twitter and Facebook
– doorstep and phone canvassing
– email newsletters
We were very impressed by the hard-fought campaigns which ultimately succeeded in re-electing Mayor Dave Hodgson and the 9 incumbent Lib Dem councillors.
We will be running a series of articles on these winners in the members only area of the ALDC website over coming weeks.