I saw first-hand working in Keir Starmer’s Strategy & Insight team during the 2024 General Election the importance of insights in crafting targeted and effective campaigns at both a local and national level. Hours of moderating detailed focus groups across the UK, combined with trawling through seemingly endless data points from targeted surveys allowed us to understand not just who we should speak to, but exactly how we should speak to them.

Without knowing who your target audience is and what they think, you may as well be shouting into the void. It’s like walking into a dark room, unsure of who’s there, what they care about or how they’re reacting to what you’re saying. Insights turn the lights on.

In a world where decision-makers are constantly overwhelmed with information, insights and analytics can reveal which demographics and stakeholders are most likely to support your cause, which areas need more outreach, or what messaging drives the strongest engagement.

In the case of the 2024 General Election, segmenting carefully gathered data allowed Labour to identify their ‘hero voters’: 2019 Brexit-backing Conservative voters, open to the idea of Labour. But to convince these people to vote for Labour, we needed to make sure we were talking about things that actually mattered to them. By conducting targeted focus groups and polling throughout the campaign, we were able to ensure we did so and kept them onside throughout the six weeks. Most importantly, in the last week of the campaign the findings we were getting in focus groups helped refine national messaging to truly encourage people to get out and vote for Labour.

The same can be said for stakeholders in comms and public affairs campaigns. Grand campaigns with significant media and digital spend can be great, but are they reaching the people who actually matter? Surface-level media and political noise too often drives narratives, resulting in campaigns that not only fail to deliver meaningful change for the organisation, but also ignore core concerns of key stakeholders.

In both political and comms campaigns, insights aren’t just a nice to have, they’re essential. By leveraging tools like focus groups, stakeholder interviews or polling, campaigns can make smarter decisions and achieve lasting impact, better equipping them to make strategic decisions. Insights don’t just inform campaigns – they define their success, turning strategy into impact and ensuring every message reaches the right ears, in the right way.