Victorian Labor eyes voter phones to win votes for Dan Andrews

The wunderkind behind Australia’s most sophisticated digital political strategy reveals how voters’ phones have become the new front door for Labor ­campaigners.

Eloise Young ran Dan Andrews’s ­social media strategy, which has a combined 1.7 million followers over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok

The social media guru behind Australia’s most sophisticated digital political strategy has revealed its core secrets, including how voters’ phones have become the new front door for Labor ­campaigners.

For several years, Jacinda Ardern fan Eloise Young ran Victorian Premier Dan Andrews’s ­social media strategy, which has a combined 1.7 million followers over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

The community engagement on Mr Andrews’s platforms soared up to 451 per cent as the pandemic hit Victoria during the prolonged 2020 shutdown, Ms Young has revealed.

Fuelled at times by funny memes, Ms Young used everything from Homer Simpson to Home Alone and the tragedy of the pandemic and the Black Summer bushfires to market her boss.

There was a poignant post of Mr Andrews with his late father Bob on Father’s Day, reminding people of the need to remain at home during the pandemic, and a drawing by a six-year-old of the Premier published on Facebook.

Dan Andrews’ Father's Day Twitter post.

On her website, Ms Young declares: “Our strategy with Dan was simple: make it memorable, relatable and honest.

“We wanted to do things that were unexpected for a politician – but not unwelcome.

“That meant taking risks and trying new things, plus dreaming up a million weird and unexpected ways to talk about government policy. We explained rental reform using Home Alone and Seinfeld references. Created a Mean Girls ‘burn book’ for dangerous and congested level crossings. Made a mix tape to encourage people to stay home during the pandemic. And we kept Victorians informed and up-to-date during unprecedented challenges.”

The social media strategy evolved from bite-sized tabloid takes on the world to include providing more detailed information for the consumption of voters, such as bushfire alerts and pandemic developments.

Ms Young has until now been virtually unknown outside Mr Andrews’s office, which she quit in June, according to LinkedIn. She has since conducted a podcast interview on September 10 with former Victorian Labor assistant secretary Stephen Donnelly.

They talked about the marrying of social media with traditional door-to- door campaigning techniques in what is looming as the next big thing for campaigners in Australia, following on from the US Democrats.

A post by Eloise Young for Dan Andrews

A Spotify playlist prepared by Eloise Young for the Victorian Premier

“You are trying to access ­people through their phone,” Ms Young told Mr Donnelly in his Labor-focused podcast Socially Democratic. “But using the same techniques (as door-knocking), so effectively if someone answers the door by engaging with you online, whether that’s liking something, commenting, tweeting out support for you, whatever that is.

“That’s your opportunity, that’s effectively the conversation that you would have with them on your doorstep.”

The Andrews approach is aimed at all voting age demographics, drawing on internet and current affairs, with heavy engagement among 18 to 35-year-olds. Mr Andrews’s edict that it is not time to get “on the beers” has become part of youth culture and widely referred to on the internet.

Ms Young ran a team of just four people in the Premier’s office and they used an at times risky, constantly evolving strategy based on trying to create an authentic politician, letting voters into the private life of Australia’s longest-serving political leader and providing Labor with a formidable campaigning weapon through social media contacts.

Mr Andrews appears to have continued the strategy since Ms Young’s departure, posting a picture with his children on Father’s Day eve earlier this month.

For years, there has been a sense of political mystery around the Andrews social media strategy but Ms Young’s resignation and move to consulting has led to her opening up on what is being done. Ms Young said the New Zealand Prime Minister’s strategy of offering private family moments such as with her baby or cooking was an example of what people were looking for when engaging.

For years, there has been a sense of political mystery around Dan Andrews’ social media strategy. Picture: David Crosling

This lifestyle approach was counterbalanced by more detailed, rolling posts in Victoria during the pandemic and 2020 bushfires, which took over from the more tabloid approach used for some policies.

The imperative in Victoria was to ensure that whatever was produced was authentic, timely and offering something new for users.

The huge consumer interest can then be married with on-the-ground campaigning, which has been at the heart of Victorian Labor’s dominance since 2014.

The secret to the wider campaigning strategy for Labor will be marrying the often shallow engagement online with deeper campaigning techniques like door-knocking by Labor’s Community Action Network.

The CAN is a small army of Labor supporters, volunteers and unionists who have done the bulk of the on-the-ground campaigning in the 2014 and 2018 elections.

Ms Young for years has used raw, boiled-down techniques to sell Mr Andrews’s policies to the community. “How can you make the policy come alive? How can you make this something that somebody is going to want to share with their aunty?” she said.

On LinkedIn, she claims that between December 2019 and December 2020, ­Facebook audience growth soared 59 per cent from 601,000 followers to 956,000, Twitter went up 201 per cent from 105,000 to 316,000 ­people and Instagram rose 451 per cent from 34,000 to 188,000.