UPDATED 09:45 EDT / JANUARY 27 2015

Twitter CEO Dick Costello NEWS

Twitter ads will target U.K. voters by postcode

Twitter CEO Dick Costello

The days of automated phone calls by political campaigns are numbered as Twitter begins showing targeted ads to voters in the United Kingdom.

The new ads will use Twitter’s location data to specifically target voters not only by GPS or cell tower data, but by their postcode, showing them the most relevant political ads based on their local candidates.

The new feature has arrived just in time for the U.K.’s upcoming general election, where the country votes on hundreds of local candidates for representation in the House of Commons.

“For political parties fighting on a national and constituency level, such exact targeting is another useful tool in the campaigning arsenal,” Twitter’s Gordon MacMillan wrote in a blog post announcing the new location-specific ads. “In battleground constituencies where the race to win a seat is likely to be close, targeting by postcode could prove to be a highly useful tool as part of any party’s digital capability.”

MacMillan outlines several ways politicians could use the postcode targeted ads to better engage their constituents. For example, campaigns can focus on specific local issues that directly affect voters within that area. The targeted ads could create a better dialogue between voters and their Members of Parliament (MPs) on key issues. MacMillan also says that the tool will allow parties to “think at a national level” and “act on a local one.”

The ads could also be used to raise the profile of lesser known candidates. Television and other traditional ads can be too expensive for smaller campaigns, especially for local offices that do not receive as much national attention, but Twitter could help bridge that gap.

While MacMillan’s post focuses on the political aspects of postcode targeting, the new feature could be used in numerous other ways for local ads, including advertising local events or businesses, and even possibly providing better emergency alerts for weather or other disasters.

Will the targeted ads work better than the traditional ones? Maybe. But with 15 million Twitter users in the U.K., 80 percent of whom access the service on mobile devices, British politicians cannot afford ignore the platform as a venue for connecting with voters.


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