Abstract:
Over the past few decades, established political parties have faced increased competition from a range of social movements and informal organisations looking to recruit activists. Many of these organisations have used the internet to successfully mobilise activists, building digital communities between supporters and leveraging the informal and non-hierarchical nature of the medium. In the age of the internet, political parties wishing to increase their relevance to political activists need to understand how to market themselves to potential members and supporters online. This thesis examines online political marketing and seeks to understand how it can be used to increase party political participation. In particular, it contrasts the New Zealand Labour Party's online political marketing experience with the successful example of Barack Obama's campaign 2008 US Presidential campaign. Utilising grounded theory methodology, this thesis analyses a range of political science literature in the areas of party political participation, political culture, internal marketing and e-marketing. Concepts from this analysis are combined to create an analytical model which is used to understand the various key components of Obama's online political marketing strategy. This analytical model is then applied to the New Zealand Labour Party. This analysis demonstrates that Labour's use of online political marketing lacked most of the online political marketing principles integral to successfully increasing party political participation. The thesis explores the reasons for Labour's failure and in doing so, makes broader conclusions about the challenges political parties can face when attempting to use online political marketing to increase party participation.
