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Editorial

It’s nice to feel loved, so Mount Albert in mid-2009 was a pleasant place to be. Winter may have come early, recession seemed not to take the hint and kept hanging around, but a bunch of new friends would ring several times a week to chat. Do I like Melissa Lee? Perhaps that David Shearer? Motorway or tunnel? Would I like muscle with my Russell? Do I agree with the candidate that Mount Albert needs better footpaths and schools, more police and lower taxes? Tough one, that.

But all things come to an end, and one day the calls just stopped. My wife and I ran in the rain to a voting booth, ticked a box each and trudged home. Alone again, naturally.

And quite grateful for it. We know Mount Albert will remain an unloved, uncontested suburb—after all, voting for the same party for 24 successive elections is hardly cause for political parties to prove their devotion. It mattered a great deal to the candidates and their supporters, but voting in the by-election felt like taking a small part in someone else’s very big circus.

Despite attempts to speak to me one-on-one, the political parties and pollsters are unable to move beyond their scripts, pitches and prepared questions. They can’t talk to me in a truly human dimension. Their efforts to communicate are inevitably ham-fisted.

Of course, I care enough about democracy to do my own research. But being suddenly the target of political and media attention reminded me how difficult it really is to get a message across in a world with near-infinite demands and lures on our time and thoughts. For business people, marketing has become a bewildering set of options and traps. As James Hurman points out in our cover story on page 58, even the biggest brands have been spending their money on messages that have actually had a negative return.

He has some answers with timeless appeal: interestingness and conversation. And on page 82, Simon Young gives some pointers on working out who would find you interesting in the first place.

Today, your brand is built from the grassroots up, and the other features in this issue reinforce the point. Be interesting. Talk with me. Maybe one day our politicians will do the same.

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