EmiLab and Fabbrica di Nichi - from Apulia, a different way of making politics in Italy

Strategia di comunicazione Gianni Florido e la Provincia di Taranto ‘ EmiLab’ and ‘La Fabbrica di Nichi’ From Apulia, a different way of making politics in Italy Barcelona, October 4, 2010 Personal 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 EmiLab Michele Emiliano Amministrative 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 EmiLab Michele Emiliano Amministrative 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 challenge Michele Emiliano Amministrative 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 Emiliano Amministrative 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 150 Michele Emiliano Amministrative 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 Emiliano Amministrative 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 Emiliano Amministrative 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 contents Michele Emiliano Amministrative 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 Nichi Nichi 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) tutti Nichi 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 Primary Nichi 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
He had a powerful and well-organized electoral machine (Fabbriche)
He gave control of part of campaign to people and to Fabbriche, leveraging supporters commitment
There were not a real reason for banning his right for re-election
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 contents Nichi 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 outlook Conclusioni 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 Amenduni Facebook: 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) Proforma Site: http://www.proformaweb.it Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/proformaweb Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/proformaweb Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/proformaweb

EmiLab and Fabbrica di Nichi - from Apulia, a different way of making politics in Italy

by Dino Amenduni on Oct 04, 2010

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EmiLab and Fabbrica di Nichi - from Apulia, a different way of making politics in Italy — Presentation Transcript