Strategia di comunicazione

Gianni Florido e la Provincia di Taranto

‘EmiLab’ and ‘La Fabbrica di Nichi’

From Apulia, a different way of makingpolitics in Italy

Barcelona, October 4, 2010Personal Democracy Forum – Online Political Organizing in Regional and Local Campaigns

Dino Amenduni, Proforma, Italy

Who is the speaker?My name is Dino Amenduni

I’m 26, i’m graduated in work, communication and organization psychology with a post-degree (master) in marketing

I’m the new media team leader and advisor for political communication at Proforma (Proforma – website), adv agency in Bari, city in Southern Italy where i was born and I live

Proforma built strategy and concept of Michele Emiliano’s, Mayor of Bari (2004 and 2009) and Nichi Vendola’s, Apulia Governor (2005 and 2010) electoral campaigns .

Who is the speaker?

I’ve co-led EmiLab, a group of 150 volounteers under30 supporting Michele Emiliano, Mayor of Bari, (Partito Democratico, centre-left party) Michele Emiliano – fanpage on Facebook

I’m social media team leader of Nichi Vendola, Governor of Puglia and national spokesman of Sinistra e Libertà (Left-oriented party out of Italian Parliament) Nichi Vendola – fanpage on Facebook

What are we talking about?

EmiLab – an under-30 electoral think tank

Fabbrica di Nichi – towards a new way of doing politics (and a new political organization)

Key-role of social media in both campaigns

An outlook on (online) politics in Italy

Keynotes

Why did (and how) Emiliano win?

Why did (and how) Vendola win?

How does social media affect both campaigns and how does strategical use of those media change depending on scenario?

Why did both these cases occur in Apulia?

1. EmiLab

EmiLab Logo. Arrow is the main symbol of Emiliano campaign. Its claim was “Bari non torna indietro – Emiliano vai avanti” (Bari doesn’t go back, Emiliano go on) with explicit reference to Emiliano’s challenger, Simeone Di Cagno Abbrescia, already Mayor of Bari (1995- 2004)

Bari: birth of EmiLabMichele EmilianoAmministrative 2009

Michele Emiliano was Mayor of Bari since 2004. In

June of 2008 he started planning his campaign for re-

election. He made a survey during that summer and

realised he was a lot behind his main competitor,

Simeone Di Cagno Abbrescia (Emiliano 39%, Di

Cagno Abbrescia 47%)

We were not surprised by this scenario, as we

were sure Emiliano made a good job as Mayor -

> Emiliano worked well, but informed citizens

without a consistent strategy

Bari: birth of EmiLabMichele EmilianoAmministrative 2009

In Emiliano campaign headquarters a specialistic group of six

young people (average of 23 yrs) was set up. This group was

lead by two managers (myself as communication/new media

coordinator), Fabio Di Fonte as tecnical-IT coordinator, two

content editors, a videomaker, a press agent. This group

was named EmiLab and was born in order to reach these macro-

objectives:

- Social media management (strategical, tactical with

focus on daily content creation);

- Online and offline feedback analysis about Emiliano

and his competitors, on press, TV and on the Internet

- Build and leverage campaign with unconventional

methods

Bari: the real challengeMichele EmilianoAmministrative 2009

The managers of EmiLab have already worked in online

social network building. Di Fonte co-founded

Skakkinostri, website of one of the most popular high

school in Bari, rapidly attractive for 70k young people (14-

25 yrs old), also out of town. Skakkinostri became the

largest local virtual community in Italy

The whole EmiLab starting team was born and lived in

Bari, so they decided to challenge his generation. (“why

do young people need to leave Bari to live better? Is Bari

the problem, or is the lack of courage, talent, expertise of

our peers it?”)

The following step was the activation of qualitative

word-of-mouth

EmiLab – the three questions

Michele EmilianoAmministrative 2009

The team had met many times, so they have made a

short-list with people who fit an “identikit”:

- Personal trust

- Any kind of expertise (political, technical,

organizational, creative, artistic, emotional,

leadership, analitic)

- Love for the city

So the original team started a research for volunteers

EmiLab – from 6 to 150Michele EmilianoAmministrative 2009

Guys who join EmiLab kept on researching and

expanding network with the same methods of

qualitative word-of-mouth, engaging their friends

who fit this ideal profile (trust, competence, love)

So, EmiLab network was based on mutual

acknowledgement of trust and skill

If I trust my friend and my friend trusts another

person, I trust that person

EmiLab – leading actors of campaign

Michele EmilianoAmministrative 2009

EmiLab becomes more ambitious and fulfills quite all

needs of campaigning

Content editing (pictures, photo, video, adbusting,

report, debates, strategic guidelines for online campaign,

journalistic reportages about opponents);

Daily management of ‘offline’ headquarter;

Events organization, both for the group and for Emiliano

Political analysis, monitoring and marketing on social

media

Emiliano won local elections

Michele EmilianoAmministrative 2009

Michele Emiliano won local elections. In first round he

gained 49.2% so he goes to runoff against Simeone di

Cagno Abbrescia (third candidate, Mario Russo Frattasi,

supports Emiliano in second round)

In ballot he reached 59,7%. This exploit depended on

personal style of leadership of Emiliano, on acquiring new

political force from third candidate but, first of all, on

enthusiastic endurance of EmiLab in last two weeks

Dramatic change: Emiliano’s voters was more

motivated to return to vote on runoff (21-22 of June)

EmiLab – some contentsMichele EmilianoAmministrative 2009

Report of 5 yrs of administration -

PDF - Ce ha ffatte Emilane?

No-budget viral video - Spot web - election troubles

Satirical video - Berlusconi votes for Emiliano

Educational video - PubbliCity Progresso

1000 video-request to Mayor - Emiliano answers

Adbusting – Adbusting Di Cagno official campaigns

Official photos of campaign -

Michele Emiliano on Flickr

…and much more

2. Le Fabbriche di NichiNichi Vendola- Primarie 2010

Logo la Fabbrica di Nichi -

Fabbrica di Nichi - official website

Why Fabbrica was born?Nichi Vendola- Primarie 2010

Sometimes good administration is not enough. The fact

that Nichi Vendola (often called with his name only,

‘Nichi’), was not sure of being ricandidated. He fought and

fired controversial politic members in his team before

they were charged of corruption.

After a long and exhausting political fight in his coalition

and despite the extraordinary results on policies for youth,

innovation, energy and environment, he got the

“minimum”: Primary elections. But all political leaders

(also national) are against him.

Nichi is alone against all…or not?

Nichi – solo con(tro) tuttiNichi Vendola- Primarie 2010

‘Solo contro tutti’ – concept for Primary elections. This

campaign had been based on word ‘contro’ (“against”) and con

(=‘contro’ without ‘tro’, that means “with”)

Nichi is not against all (politics), Nichi is with everbody

(people)

Apulia – la Fabbrica di Nichi

Nichi Vendola- Primarie 2010

Like in the 2005, the campaign shifted the Nichi's

weakness in strength, in the opportunity. And he had put

aside by politics, all the top national leader were against

him. But the people, the electors supported him.

So a non-partitic movement born for Governor’s Vendola

to right to run for the rielection

This movement was named Fabbrica di Nichi (Nichi’s

Factory), and was made of many little, local electoral

headquarters, held by people of Sinistra e Libertà, Partito

Democratico, other left parties activist and people who

had never been activist before

Apulia – la Fabbrica di Nichi

Nichi Vendola- Primarie 2010

Why did this model perform well?

The success of this method depends on the capacity to be

light in organization (without monolithic rules to

participate), but dense in production (bottom-up) and

spreading (top-down) of contents of the whole

network

This way of doing politics made Fabbrica a brand: local

bases of this organization are born everywhere, in Italy, in

Europe and worldwide. Now there are 463 active

Fabbriche (also in US, Africa and Asia), lead by

FabbricaZero, the HQ, sited in Bari

Nichi rocked PrimaryNichi Vendola- Primarie 2010

Primary elections are held on 24 Jan 2010

Vendola strokes his opponent, Francesco Boccia,

with 73%

200k people went to vote (80k in 2005 for previous

Primary, still Nichi vs. Boccia – entire population of Apulia

is 4 mln)

UDC (Unione di Centro, a centre party now in rhe

Parliament) announced they wouldn’t join coalition in case

Nichi won. Voters ignored this

Why Nichi won Primary?Nichi Vendola- Primarie 2010

1. He had a powerful and well-organized electoral machine (Fabbriche)

2. He gave control of part of campaign to people and to Fabbriche, leveraging supporters commitment

3. There were not a real reason for banning his right for re-election

4. He communicated wisely, with correct languages and tools, with microtargeting through the Internet and, therefore, with reduced costs

Fabbrica and Regional elections

Nichi Vendola- Regionali 2010

Fabbrica di Nichi has only two months to lead campaign

(elections were scheduled on 28-29 Mar 2010) but Primary

elections made this organization very responsive. Positive

efforts were generated thanks to these actions:

a.Activate sense of comunity, rielaborating main frames

of campaign and putting on hyper-local point of view (i.e.

protect environment as a general idea -> explain how to

protect environment in your town)

b. Suggest creativity tools in managing campaign and in

learning what issues local communty asks Nichi

Fabbrica – new scenario, same keys

Nichi Vendola- Regionali 2010

c. Build new consciousness about Nichi’s project on

people and on regional ruling class;

d. Communicate Fabbrica daily activities and activity of

Vendola during the 5 years as governor of Apulia, via new

media

e. Build and manage entire pieces of campaign (as

political force, as new political organization, as creative

tank)

Nichi won Regional elections

Nichi Vendola- Regionali 2010

28-29 of March, 2010, Regional elections are held:

Vendola won with 48,7% (there are not ballot in

Regional elections); Rocco Palese, his main opponent,

took 43% (even if his party, PDL – Popolo della Libertà,

lead by Berlusconi, won election in rest of Italy).

Palese made his campaign with a budget eight times

bigger than Vendola’s

In 100 days Vendola has turned himself over from a

political failure to an epic re-winner

Fabbrica – some contentsNichi Vendola- Regionali 2010

Hyperlocal actions- Video Guerrilla Gardening

Satirical video -

Women and nuclear energy in Southern Italy

Short movies - Regional policies for development

Report of 5 yrs of administration -

Tweets on Vendola 2005-2010

Massive openings worldwide – Worldwide map of

Fabbriche

…and much more

An outlookConclusioni

What can we learn from these cases?

It’s not mandatory to be expert or ideological to be a political

activist;

It’s not mandatory to be into political organizations to be a

political activist;

Youth people are more likely to be engaged by a charismatic

leader;

Useful skills for campaigning are not only political;

Politics must give power to the people;

Using web 2.0 in a scientific manner returns real results (Emiliano is

the second most popular Mayor in Italy on FB and it was first when

EmiLab worked; Vendola is the most popular politician on FB and the

most popular politician in Europe on social media on aggregate)

Facebook – Nichi first in Italy

Conclusioni

Famecount – Nichi first in Europe

Conclusioni

Why did all happen in Apulia?

Conclusioni

Political proximity between Emiliano and Vendola;

Continuity on skill and expertise building in EmiLab and

Fabbrica

Charisma of both leaders;

Sharing best practices between EmiLab and Fabbrica;

The social phenomena was understimate from national

right-oriented leaders;

New and strengthened sense of affiliation in Apulian citizens

Innovative youth policies -> youth more committed ->

youth more motivated to support political leadershp->

innovation in way of making politics = give credit

to youth

Grazie!Un grande abbraccio

Dino AmenduniFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/dinoamenduni

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/doonie

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/dinoamenduni

Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/doonie (here you can find this

slideshow)

ProformaSite: http://www.proformaweb.it

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/proformaweb

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/proformaweb

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/proformaweb