The media reaction to the Chancellor’s Spring Statement included a typical mixture of explainer articles, fiscal analysis and quotation. The widely circulated messaging from the speech can provide valuable lessons on how to properly measure and understand the impact of communications.
To generate our evaluation, the Roxhill Insights team analysed 5,788 articles about the Chancellor and Spring Statement that were published in UK news outlets in the 48 hours following the announcement on 26 March, with additional research on 7,550 articles published in the equivalent period following the Autumn Budget.
The team performed detailed sentiment analysis, in-depth message tracking and influence mapping to compare the two.
Here are our three main takeaways.
1. It all depends on how you’re quoted
Crafting a narrative for something as complex and far-reaching as the Budget depends on distilling key phrases that can resonate through the media to the general public. Following the Autumn Budget, messages like “pounds in pockets” and “rebuild Britain” landed well – visible in 47% of UK coverage.
Similarly, Reeves’ promise to “end austerity” gained traction in 12% of coverage. However, the majority of these articles presented it negatively, with Reeves’ vocabulary used against her. The Budget was heralded as “austerity for the private sector” and “austerity by another name”.
March’s statement followed the same story: “plan for change” was widely repeated, in 34% of articles quoting the Chancellor. However, 87% of these articles framed it with Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride’s criticisms in the House of Commons – that Reeves has “reneged” on her promises to the British people.
Insights takeaway: context is king when it comes to smart media evaluation. When dealing with large volumes of coverage, automated analytic tools must be combined with deeper insight taking into account the news context and looking beyond the data. This is crucial to properly understanding the impact of your comms, adding value and nuance to reporting.
2. Syndication skews the picture
What’s more, these stem from just two negatively-weighted articles, both written by the PA Media news agency and syndicated across 120 different regional outlets – from the Enfield Independent to the Ilkley Gazette.
Unhelpfully for Reeves, Mel Stride’s criticism was syndicated across 120 news outlets.
By contrast, any evaluation of the reception of Reeves’ Autumn Budget should take into account that “more pounds in people’s pockets” and “invest, invest, invest” were in the headline of two articles syndicated 80 and 47 times respectively.
Smaller, more concentrated coverage datasets are more susceptible to this effect.
Insights takeaway: properly interrogate your media analytics. Should each syndication count as a unique article, or just the original? Is hyper-local impact crucial to your campaign, or are your business outcomes more sensitive to higher-reach national and international coverage? The answer – and the approach – should be tailored to the campaign you want to evaluate.
3. Tracking a narrative: ‘fixing the foundations’ to ‘getting Britain building’
Building metaphors are tried and tested in government communications. For Labour, they also have literal meaning in light of plans to address the UK’s housing crisis.
Between the Autumn Budget and the Spring Statement, Reeves moved her metaphors neatly from “fixing the foundations” in October to “getting Britain building” in March.
The Independent’s Andrew Grice found that October’s messaging (“Fixing the foundations to deliver change”) was “a bit clunky”, but more broadly the message was well received – 83% of articles quoting Reeves’ title did so positively. It was the second most widely reported message, followed closely by “rebuild Britain” which was quoted positively 80% of the time.
In March, “getting Britain building” tried to recapture this success, and while it was associated positively with Labour’s planning reforms, it gained little traction outside construction trades.
Messaging continuity between the statements was also received negatively – Reeves’ building metaphors appeared alongside accusations of “doubling down” on unpopular autumn policies, and The Telegraph podcast classed “fixing the foundations” among “Rachel Reeves bingo words”.
Insights takeaway: tracking a narrative as it develops can be as complex as planning one. Plotting how metaphors evolve, for example, requires a 360-degree approach to monitoring influence and conversation, and understanding this is indispensable when strategising fresh media interventions.
By mobilising AI-enabled human intelligence, Roxhill Insights can help make better sense of your media data, informing campaigns and strategy with actionable recommendations. To find out more, please get in touch with Will – will.burgess@roxhillmedia.com
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