Ahead of the UK General Election Day on May 7, 2015, the brand storytelling agency Aesop has researched political parties’ and leaders’ activities as seen by voters (read: consumers). The team compared them to brands in their ability to communicate believable, convincing stories and engage audiences—just like commercial consumer brands—and revealed the best performers in each category.

The online survey, conducted by Red Dot Research in April 2015 on behalf of Aesop, embraced 1,500 voters of 18 y.o. and older. They were asked six questions to identify their objective opinion on how well the parities articulated the countries main challenges, how well they painted the future, how charismatic their leaders were, etc.

As a result, the team has revealed four mini-charts of the best political storytellers, the most believable parties, the best storytellers among younger Millenials (18-24), and the most charismatic political leaders (see the picture below).

Tories tell not «very believable» stories

There is a general negative trend in perception of messages broadcasted by political parties ahead of the UK elections.

Overall, nearly 50% of the respondents do not believe what political parties are telling them. Among those skeptics just 24% find Tories’ communications truthful and believable, 12% believe UKPI, other parties gain even less trust.

Cameron proves to be the most charismatic

The Prime minister is named the most charismatic (30%) leader and a competent storyteller (32%), while his opponent Nigel Farage is following him closely (29% and 30%, respectively). Interestingly, more men (36%) than women (22%) identify Farage as charismatic. Similarly, 32% of male voters think Farage is getting his party’s message across more convincingly, while just 28% of female voters think so.

Millenials vote differently

Generally, the younger voters (18-24 y.o.) are the most optimistic about the upcoming elections. 48% believe Labour articulates the countries problems in the right way; only 27% think that Tories do so. Despite the fact that younger Millenials find that the Labour leader Miliband lacks charisma, they find the party as being the best communicator.

Another independent recent survey commissioned by the7stars’ newly-launched research division Lightbox and conducted by Dipsticks Research supports the Aesop research findings. 30% of 18-24-year-old respondents, according to the study, support the Labour, Tories (14%) and Green Party (12%).

Regarding the media channels the younger Millenial get information on the elections and political programmes of the parties ad their candidates, the respondents cite Facebook (14%), traditional newspapers (13%), Twitter (5%) and radio (3%).

55% of the 18-24-year-old respondents would prefer to vote online if there was such an option. At the same time, 62% consider traditional TV to be the most influential media on voters of all ages.