The only good election campaign is one that does its job

Many of these “experts” were paid hundreds of thousands of pounds by the political parties for their advice. Much of this was a waste of mone

Miliband in Salmond's pocket for the Toy campaign poster (AFP/Getty Images)

Since the general election I have heard many so-called experts talk about how “Labour ran the best campaign, but…”

This is crazy. The only measure of a good campaign is whether it achieved its goal. And all except for the Conservatives’ and the SNP’s patently failed to do so.

Many of these “experts” were paid hundreds of thousands of pounds by the political parties for their advice. Much of this was a waste of money.

The Lib Dem and Labour campaigns should be categorised as “poor”. We won’t remember the ads and the PR stunts failed to cut through. Indeed, the “Milistone” project – a stone plinth carved with Labour pledges – was ridiculed. Mr Miliband’s wooing of Russell Brand may have solidified Labour’s vote among London’s youth, but it failed to have an impact outside the capital. The Lib Dem’s “vote tactically” message was inevitably impotent.

The Tories’ campaign was negative and obsessed with the economy, but it was effective enough to win the party a majority of seats. Mr Cameron getting “pumped up” on the hustings, while a tad ridiculous, did boost Tory polling. And the highpoint was the early poster with Ed Miliband in Alec Salmond’s pocket; it set a media narrative about the SNP that endured in England.

However, the fact that Mr Cameron failed even to win as many seats as an embattled Tony Blair achieved (355) in 2005 disqualifies it as a “great campaign”.

The only one to admire was the SNP’s. We can say this because the SNP took minimal media flak and (that acid test again) virtually all the seats in Scotland.

Danny Rogers is group editor-in-chief of Brand Republic Group