Policymakers, academics and practitioners are being brought together for an event at Nottingham University Business School (NUBS) to discuss how marketing concepts and frameworks can be used to strengthen democratic-voter engagement.
The symposium, Marketing for Greater Good: Strategies to Strengthen Democratic Engagement – held on Wednesday 9 April 2025 – aims to share the latest insights on how to strengthen engagement with voters through the lens of 'political marketing' and to present a toolkit on how to tackle the rise of cynicism and misinformation in politics.
The number of people engaging in the electoral process is an indicator of democratic health. However, voter disengagement, cynicism and widening disconnection between voters and electoral participation is on the rise and this trend is not restricted to one jurisdiction. In fact, voter engagement has been declining across the globe since the beginning of the 1990s and this growing trend raises many concerns among policymakers, researchers, and elected officials.
Dr Christopher Pich, Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing, Tourism and Analytics, who organised, and will be hosting the event, said:
If voter disengagement continues to rise, it poses direct threats to the integrity of electoral democracy, the stability and governance of states and empowers disruptive voices, ideologies, and messages. Therefore, research examining voter engagement, disengagement and re-engagement remains a priority issue and an under-developed and under-researched area of study for researchers, practitioners and policy makers."
The guest speakers – including Sir Mark Spencer (former leader of the House of Commons, and former Chief Whip), Professor Paul Baines (Professor of Political Marketing at the University of Leicester), Deputy Carine Alves (Assistant Chief Minister of Jersey), Chris Curtis MP (Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North, and former Political Research Manager at YouGov), and Professor Roger Mortimer (Director of Political Analysis at Ipsos MORI and Professor of Public Opinion & Political Analysis at King's College London) – will also examine how marketing principles and frameworks can be used to co-develop and coordinate strategies and programmes to impact policy on civic engagement, voter engagement and citizenship.
One of the key strategies to strengthen these areas is the development and delivery of targeted outreach programmes in educational institutions. These programmes have the potential to provide voters with impartial support, guidance and education on the electoral process-system and the importance of civic engagement, voter activity and citizenship.
However, a recent report by the House of Lords (2023) entitled 'The Ties that Bind: Citizenship and Civic Engagement in the 21st Century' concluded that the current provision of civic and voter engagement programmes needs to be overhauled. These programmes require attention especially as the new Labour Government launched a consultation on a new strategy for young people in the UK (November 2024) and intend to legislate lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 ahead of the next General Election.
The Crown Dependency of Jersey is one jurisdiction that has witnessed similar challenges to the UK, with inconsistent and limited civic and voter engagement programmes. Jersey is responding to this identified problem and is in the process of co-developing targeted outreach programmes designed to strengthen these programmes in educational institutions across the island. Since 2022, Dr Pich has led a collaborative research project supported by the Government of Jersey which has resulted in an agenda to co-design, deliver, and appraise targeted educational programmes for different stakeholder groups in Jersey ahead of the island's 2026 General Election.
It is envisaged the co-designed targeted educational programmes will develop into an island-wide curriculum framework for policy makers, strategists, and industry specialists, which will strengthen voter engagement and reaffirm the importance of civic responsibility and citizenship.
Finally, there is clear applicability and upscaling opportunities for the co-designed targeted outreach programmes and co-developed curriculum framework to contexts (local, regional, national, and international) beyond Jersey. This will go some way in addressing disengagement, cynicism and the widening disconnection between voters and electoral participation.
