How Topham Guerin took its Morrison-winning social media tradecraft to Boris Johnson’s Brexit campaign
ABC News reported that Topham Guerin (the New Zealand digital agency whose work helped the Coalition win Australia’s 2019 election) had been engaged by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives for the Brexit campaign. Co-founder Ben Guerin had detailed the agency’s social-media tradecraft, which he called “the battle of the thumbs”, at the Friedman Conference.
- Publication
- ABC News
- By
- Michael Workman and Stephen Hutcheon
- Published
- 8 November 2019
- Type
- Press coverage
- Topics
-
- political campaigning
- social media strategy
- Brexit
What we did
- TG, led by Sean Topham and Ben Guerin, moved from the 2019 Morrison win to Boris Johnson’s Brexit campaign
- A boutique New Zealand digital agency, its founders then in their 20s
- Ben Guerin gave an 18-minute account of TG’s social-media tradecraft, “the battle of the thumbs”, at the Friedman Conference
Read the full article at ABC NewsTopham and Guerin came up through the ranks of the Young Nationals, the youth wing of New Zealand’s conservative National Party, and worked on the fringes of political campaigns both in New Zealand and Britain before launching their own firm in 2016.
Their first big break came in 2017 when they were hired by New Zealand’s National Party to help then-prime minister Bill English take on a resurgent Labour Party under new leader Jacinda Ardern.
The big break came when the Liberals hired TG to take a leading role in the digital campaign ahead of the May poll, working in the election engine room alongside the party’s federal director, Andrew Hirst, and his team.
“This is the single most important point: the best social media strategy is water dripping on a stone. You’ve got to be pushing the same consistent message day-in, day-out,” he said.
“They are Topham Guerin, or TG, a boutique digital marketing agency from New Zealand headed by Sean Topham and Ben Guerin, two Kiwis still in their 20s.”
ABC News
“the battle of the thumbs”
Ben Guerin
Questions & answers
What links Topham Guerin’s Australian and UK campaign work?
The same New Zealand agency, led by Sean Topham and Ben Guerin, ran digital for the Coalition’s 2019 Australian election win and was then engaged by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives for the UK Brexit campaign.
How has Ben Guerin described Topham Guerin’s social-media approach?
He gave an 18-minute account of the agency’s tradecraft, which he called “the battle of the thumbs”, at the Friedman Conference.