Flyers 'key to campaigning'

Direct mail - marketing materials such as flyers - was crucial to the general election, according to a new book on the subject.

Direct mail materials such as flyers remain one of the most influential marketing strategies in today's digital age, it has been suggested.

The Guardian reports a new book analysing this year's general election by political academics Dennis Kavannagh and Philip Cowley - entitled The British General Election of 2010 - states media pundits miscalculated the influence of direct mail during the parties' campaigns.

Mr Cowley, a professor of parliamentary government at Nottingham University, said: "This was supposed to be the first internet election, decided by blogs and social networking sites. Instead, the key factors were television and direct mail."

The use of direct mail was sophisticated, he stated, as the parties targeted specific voters through commercially-available data.

For instance, women of a specific age were sent materials on pledges about seeing cancer specialists within a certain time, Mr Cowley explained.

Writer Russell Parsons also highlighted the importance of narrowly targeting promotional materials such as flyers in a recent article for Marketing Week.