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Jacinda Ardern with a megaphone at the University of Auckland, September 2017

New Zealand · 2017

Let's do this

Relentless positivity

Ardern's phrase at her first press conference as leader, setting the tone of the campaign.

53 days out, with Labour at 24%, Jacinda Ardern took over and got it into government through a coalition. See how to turn a change at the top into a campaign reboot.

A tribute to Jacinda Ardern, Andrew Little, Andrew Kirton, Neale Jones, Anaru Ryall and the more than 6,500 Labour volunteers of 2017. An independent project with no link to the party.

In 30 seconds

  1. 24% → 36.9%. From polls to votes: Labour changed leader seven weeks before the election and, though second, formed a government with NZ First and the Greens.

  2. 72 hours to redo the plan. Ardern set a tone of relentless positivity on day one and made her first press conference a campaign restart.

  3. A change at the top is news for a few days: set the tone in the first hour, have structures ready for newcomers and fix weak spots fast.

First steps

  1. Build the database of voters, supporters and volunteers
  2. Recruit and train volunteer leaders who look after other volunteers
  3. Write a succession plan: who takes over, who speaks, what gets redone

Try it now Adapt it with the coach

If you're new to this, start with the fundamentals, from the vote goal to what the research says. Read the fundamentals

Who did it

This playbook is built from what Labour's people said and wrote: above all Ardern's own account in the book Stardust and Substance (2018),…

This playbook is built from what Labour's people said and wrote: above all Ardern's own account in the book Stardust and Substance (2018), the campaign leadership's statements to the press in August 2017, Newsroom's report on the field operation with interviews with the organisers, and the New Zealand Election Study (NZES), published as an open-access book by ANU Press.

  • Jacinda Ardern

    Labour leader from 1 Aug 2017; prime minister 2017–2023

    Took over 53 days before the election, decided tone and slogan in the first hours, and later told the story of the campaign's decisions in a chapter of Stardust and Substance and in her memoir A Different Kind of Power (2025).

    Sources

  • Andrew Little

    Labour leader until 1 Aug 2017

    Took the blame for the polls, stood down, nominated Ardern in caucus and promised her full support through the campaign.

    Sources

  • Andrew Kirton

    Labour general secretary and 2017 campaign manager

    Spoke for the campaign in the first days, described the wave of donations and volunteers and cast Labour as the underdog against a well-funded National.

    Sources

  • Neale Jones

    Ardern's chief of staff during the campaign (Little's before that)

    Chief of staff first to Little and then to Ardern, he held a senior campaign role and sat on the team that negotiated the coalition with NZ First and the Greens; he told the story on the Brave New Words podcast.

    Sources

  • Anaru Ryall

    Labour field director

    Ran the volunteer network (Community Action Network) and four field organisers, checking calls and door knocks against targets every day.

    Sources

  • Alice Soper

    Labour field organiser in Wellington

    One of the four organisers reporting to Ryall; explained that talking about what voters care about is what trains volunteers, and that with the August surge only the ground troops had been missing; the system to absorb them was already there.

    Sources

  • Rob Salmond

    Deputy chief of staff in the leader's office, in charge of data

    Explained to the press Labour Connect, the database adapted from the Australian Labor Party, and how data analysis had come to predict supporters better than volunteers' hunches.

    Sources

  • Grant Robertson

    Labour finance spokesperson

    Answered the fiscal-hole accusation and fronted, on 14 September, the retreat on tax policy.

    Sources

  • Jennifer Curtin, Lara Greaves and Jack Vowles

    New Zealand Election Study (NZES) researchers

    Measured where the Ardern effect's votes came from, who switched and how men and women rated the leaders, in the book A Populist Exception? (ANU Press, 2020).

    Sources

In their own words

What the campaign's people said about the decisions they made.

What the campaign's people said about the decisions they made. Paraphrased unless marked.

6 more quotes

The story

At the end of July 2017, Labour was heading for its worst result in decades.

At the end of July 2017, Labour was heading for its worst result in decades. The Greens were growing at its expense, TV polls had it at 24% and its internal poll at 23%. Seven weeks before the vote, the party changed leader. It kept its platform and restarted the campaign from one press conference, a run of interviews and a field operation already in place.

24% → 36.9%
for Labour, from the TV polls before the change to the 23 September resultofficial
53 days
between Ardern becoming leader and polling dayofficial
NZ$300k
in donations in under two days, with about 1,200 volunteer offerscampaign figure
475,000
phone calls and door knocks by more than 6,500 registered volunteers, according to Arderncampaign figure

From rock bottom to government

  1. 16 Jul 2017Green co-leader Metiria Turei admits she failed to declare income while on a benefit in the 1990s. The Greens rise to nearly 14% and Labour falls.
  2. 26 JulWith the internal poll heading toward 20%, Little discusses stepping aside and suggests Ardern, deputy leader for five months. She refuses and asks him to stay.
  3. 1 AugWith TVNZ and Newshub at 24%, Little resigns. Ardern is elected unopposed, with Kelvin Davis as deputy. At her first press conference she asks for 72 hours, promises relentless positivity and says there will be no Plan B. That evening, on The Project, she is asked whether she would have to choose between career and children.
  4. 2–3 AugOn The AM Show, Mark Richardson presses the question about children; Ardern calls it unacceptable when asked of women at work. The party announces NZ$250k in under a day and over NZ$300k in under two, with about 1,200 volunteer offers.
  5. 9–11 AugTurei resigns. Ten days after the first press conference, the Newshub-Reid poll gives Labour 33%, up from 25%; almost two-thirds of the gain comes from women.
  6. 20–22 AugOfficial campaign launch on 20 August, with the slogan Let's do this. The first TV ads air about three weeks after the change. On 22 August, Ardern says she would act in the first term on the recommendations of a tax working group.
  7. 31 AugColmar Brunton gives Labour 43% to National's 41%: its first lead in 12 years. Ardern urges caution. An hour later, in the first debate, commentators give Bill English a narrow win.
  8. 4–14 SepSteven Joyce, National's campaign chair, alleges an NZ$11.7 billion hole in Labour's numbers; Grant Robertson calls the claim false. On 14 September, Labour retreats: no new tax before 2021, and any capital gains tax only with a mandate at the following election.
  9. 23 SepNational 44.4% (56 seats), Labour 36.9% (46), NZ First 7.2% (9), Greens 6.3% (8). Turnout 79.8%. Special votes, counted two weeks later, take two seats from National.
  10. 19 OctWinston Peters announces that NZ First will form a government with Labour; the Greens provide confidence and supply. Ardern is sworn in as prime minister on 26 October, aged 37.

Three layers

Three layers worked at different speeds, and each needed something from the others.

  • The leader's officeArdern, deputy Kelvin Davis, chief of staff Neale Jones and finance spokesperson Grant Robertson. They decided the tone, the media schedule, the debates and the responses to attacks.
  • The party and the campaignGeneral secretary and campaign manager Andrew Kirton, president Nigel Haworth and the creative agency, Augusto. In weeks they redid hoardings, TV, radio and online ads and direct mail, and managed the money coming in.
  • The fieldDirector Anaru Ryall, four regional organisers, volunteer leaders trained in May and June and thousands of volunteers. They took in the wave of sign-ups and turned it into calls and door knocks.
What isn't known. The donation and volunteer figures for the first days were released by the party itself and repeated by the press; they are not audited and vary by day (NZ$250k in under a day, over 300k in under two, a peak of NZ$700 a minute).

The 6,500 volunteers and 475,000 calls and door knocks come from Ardern's account and have not been independently verified. The NZES shows that much of Labour's gain, especially among women, came from the Greens rather than National: it was largely a reshuffling of the left vote. Labour came second in votes and slipped in the final week. It was not possible to listen to the full podcast with Neale Jones or to read Stardust and Substance directly (only Ardern's extract) or the 2025 memoir; what is said about them comes from extracts, interviews and reviews. Sources call Kirton both campaign manager and general secretary; there is no public record of how the debates were prepared, so what this playbook proposes on that is adaptation, not account.

The terrain

What was specific to New Zealand in 2017, and what you need to swap if your country is different.

What was specific to New Zealand in 2017, and what you need to swap if your country is different.

Platforms

Free-to-air TV and the TV polls
The TVNZ (Colmar Brunton poll) and Newshub (Reid Research) bulletins set the campaign narrative: two polls at 24% brought Little down, and the 31 August poll with Labour ahead aired an hour before the first debate.
Breakfast shows and talk shows
The AM Show, The Project and talkback radio hosted the first interviews. That is where, in the first 24 hours, the questions about motherhood came up.
TV debates
Several debates between the two main leaders from 31 August, on TVNZ, Newshub and Stuff, plus a finance debate. They mattered more as a readiness test for a new leader than as vote-shifters.
Facebook and YouTube
Weekly live Q&A sessions on Facebook with the leader, and targeted video on YouTube and Facebook.
Radio with context ads
Ads made for the listening moment, for example on Auckland transport during the traffic report.
Street hoardings
Thousands of hoardings with the previous leader's face had to be replaced; the new slogan was prepared as a template for every candidate and electorate.
Labour Connect, phones and door-knocking
A database adapted from the Australian Labor Party, combining electoral rolls, census and party data; calls logged digitally, phone banks and door-to-door conversation.

Local conditions

  • Mixed-member proportional system (MMP) with a 5% threshold: whoever comes first does not necessarily govern; what counts is the sum of seats with partners.
  • Nine years of National government, a new prime minister (Bill English) and an opposition swinging between 23% and 30% in the polls.
  • A small country with few big national outlets: a handful of TV bulletins, breakfast shows and newspapers reaches almost the whole electorate.
  • A short campaign: 53 days between the leadership change and the vote, with advance voting from 11 September and about 1.24 million votes cast before the day.
  • Scandals in neighbouring parties: Green co-leader Metiria Turei resigned on 9 August, and a leak about Winston Peters' pension on 27 August sent NZ First down in the polls.
  • A precedent of women at the top (Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark) and, even so, questions about motherhood aimed at the new leader within 24 hours.
  • Tax was Labour's historic weak spot: a capital gains tax had been used against the party in 2011 and 2014.

The method

Labour had no time to build a new campaign.

Labour had no time to build a new campaign. It had a moment of peak attention, a new leader and a field structure built months earlier. It used the attention to change tone and perception, and the field structure to give the newcomers work.

Three fronts

Make the change the restart
The change of leader is the campaign's biggest news, and it lasts a few days. Decide tone and slogan in the first hour, ask for a short, public deadline for the new plan and fill every programme in the next 48 hours.
Positivity with expectations in check
An optimistic, policy-led tone to dismantle the image of a negative party, but no premature victory talk: underdog against a strong opponent, caution about good polls, firmness in saying the result would not stay at 24%.
A structure ready to take the wave
Database, organisers and volunteer leaders trained before the change. When thousands of people signed up, there was already somewhere to send them and something to ask each of them.

The restart cycle

The sequence Labour followed from 1 August to 19 October, organised so you can repeat it in a change of candidate, a crisis or a change of course.

  1. Decide in the first hour Tone, slogan and three priorities. Ardern says much was fixed in hour one. The rest can wait 72 hours.
  2. Open with the press conference Thank the person who left, answer the readiness question in one word, name the tone, ask for a set deadline and reject the opponent's label.
  3. Do the rounds Evening TV, radio and breakfast shows in the first 24 hours. Expect the personal and gendered questions, and have the answer ready.
  4. Turn attention into action Donations and volunteer sign-up open on day one, with a clear ask and an immediate hand-off to the local group.
  5. Redo the materials Hoardings, ads and templates for every candidate with the new brand. At Labour, the first TV ads came out in three weeks.
  6. Measure and talk Calls and door knocks counted every day against targets, prioritising areas with high support and low turnout.
  7. Close the flanks Identify the point the opponent will attack (for Labour, tax) and fix it before it defines the final stretch, with the right spokesperson and the leader owning the decision.
  8. Get out the vote and negotiate Advance voting treated as election day for the last two weeks; after the count, respectful negotiation with the possible partners.

And again.

Toolkit

What Labour built, organised for you to copy in a change of candidate, a leadership crisis or a campaign restart.

What Labour built, organised for you to copy in a change of candidate, a leadership crisis or a campaign restart. What is documented comes from the case; what is an operational proposal filling a gap is labelled as such.

Choose your country to see the equivalent tools and the legal points to check.

Operations

Three circles: a small office that decides and speaks, a headquarters that produces and raises money, and a field that existed before the change. In a change at the top, the office needs roles defined in hours, not weeks.

Minimum team for a restart

Leader and main spokesperson
Speaks at the press conference, on the shows and in the debates. Sets the tone and owns the hard decisions in public, as Ardern did with the tax retreat. Must not be the only voice.
Chief of staff and strategy
Ensures continuity between the outgoing and incoming leader (at Labour, Neale Jones served both), builds the schedule for the first 72 hours and sits at the negotiating table afterwards.
Campaign manager
Speaks for the machine, not the leader: donation and volunteer numbers, and the underdog framing against a well-funded opponent. That was Andrew Kirton's role in the first days.
Economic and rebuttal spokesperson
Answers the attacks on numbers and tax, presents the independent check of the platform and fronts the course corrections, sparing the leader the first impact.
Deputy and second stage
Doubles the schedule, covers regions and audiences the leader cannot reach and validates fast decisions, like the slogan Kelvin Davis approved on the spot.
Press and rapid response
Prepares answers to the predictable questions (readiness, motherhood, age, polls), monitors the interviews and corrects the same day whatever is false. Proposal: one person dedicated only to this for the first two weeks.
Debate preparation
A proposal, since the case does not document how it was done: a small group that rehearses with someone playing the opponent and the moderator, prepares three messages and the rebuttals to attacks already known.
Field director and organisers
Take in sign-ups, pass them to volunteer leaders and check the numbers against targets every day. At Labour, one director and four regional organisers.
Data
Keeps the database that combines electoral rolls, census and party data, and says where to call and knock.
Creative and production
An agency or in-house team that redoes hoardings, ads and templates for every candidate within days, with the new slogan.

Restart rhythm

  1. Hour 0–1Decide tone, slogan and the three platform priorities. Tell headquarters and the field before the press conference.
  2. Day 1Caucus vote, press conference, first social media post with the slogan, donation and volunteer pages open, evening interviews.
  3. Days 2–3Breakfast shows and radio. The campaign manager releases donation and volunteer numbers. At the end of the 72 hours, the leader presents the revised plan.
  4. Weeks 1–3Official launch (here, on 20 August), hoardings replaced, TV, radio and online ads produced and launched.
  5. Every weekLive Q&A session on Facebook with the leader.
  6. Every dayThe field director checks calls and door knocks against targets: a 6.45am leadership teleconference on the previous day, an 8am call with head office, the previous day’s numbers sent to the team, field organisers reporting against their goals in the afternoon and phone banks in the evening, with a daily ranking of top callers.
  7. Last two weeksWith advance voting open since 11 September, every day treated as election day. On the day, volunteers remind tens of thousands of supporters where to vote.
  8. After the countWait for the special votes and negotiate with the possible partners. The coalition was announced 26 days after the vote.

Labour could rebuild its campaign in weeks because the field had already gone through recruitment (January to May) and team-building (May and June). Without that base, the same wave of sign-ups would have been lost.

Plan B

  • A written succession plan before you need it: who takes over, who speaks, what material must be redone and how fast.
  • Hoarding and ad templates without the leader's face, ready to swap photo and slogan within days.
  • Donation and volunteer pages that can withstand a traffic spike and route people automatically to the local group.
  • A second spokesperson for bad news: in the tax correction, the finance spokesperson fronted first.
  • Ready answers to personal and gendered questions, so nothing is improvised live.
  • Paper or spreadsheet call logs for when the digital tool fails or there is no signal.

Technology

Nothing here was invented in 2017. The difference was having the tools in place before the change and knowing what to ask of the people who arrived.

  • Labour Connect (voter and volunteer database)Licence between sister parties; alternative: open-source or paid campaign CRM

    Adapted from the Australian Labor Party for MMP and the Māori electorates; combines electoral rolls, census and party data to list likely voters and volunteers. According to Rob Salmond, in 2014 volunteers were still slightly better than the data at predicting who backed Labour; by 2017 data analysis had pulled ahead. National was using the Feedback system, taken from the Australian Liberals.

  • Volunteer pageFree to low cost

    Over 5,000 online sign-ups in the three weeks after the change, nearly doubling the pool. Each sign-up went to a volunteer leader.

  • Online donationsPayment platform fees

    Took the donation peak of the first days, with totals released by the campaign almost in real time.

  • Phone bank with digital loggingLine costs; tool inside the CRM

    Calls were now logged digitally instead of on printed sheets; teleconferences and a daily ranking of top callers.

  • Door-knockingFree (volunteers and printed material)

    Face-to-face conversation, prioritising areas with high support and low turnout, such as South Auckland.

  • Weekly Facebook LiveFree

    Live Q&A with the leader every week.

  • Targeted video on YouTube and FacebookPaid media, within legal spending limits

    Video ads aimed at specific audiences, plus the launch video made with footage of the launch itself.

  • Radio with context adsPaid media

    Spots made for the moment the person is listening, like Auckland transport during the traffic report.

  • The leader's first social media postFree

    The opening photo captioned Let's do this became the campaign slogan.

  • Media monitoringFree (alerts) to paid (clipping services)

    Proposal: news alerts and transcripts of the breakfast shows to catch, the same day, the questions and claims that need an answer.

Channel cheat sheets

Columns of the daily contact sheet

Date · Electorate and area · Volunteer · Calls made · Calls answered · Doors knocked · Doors opened · Support (yes / maybe / no) · Voting early? · Wants to volunteer? · Issue the person raised · Daily target and gap

The campaign did not publish a detailed budget. What is known: Labour itself described National as far better funded; the leadership change brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars within days, which paid for new hoardings and ads; the database came from a sister party. The biggest cost was the months spent recruiting and training volunteer leaders before the change.

Communication

Above all, this case is a media-relations operation: one press conference that redefined the campaign, 48 hours of interviews, carefully managed expectations, debates with a first-time leader, gendered questions answered with a rule, and a course correction made in public.

The first press conference formula

  1. Thank the person who left Acknowledge the predecessor's work and show unity. Little promised 100% backing; Ardern praised him at the press conference.
  2. Answer readiness in one word The first question was whether she was ready to govern. Answer: yes, and the caucus agrees. If they push, turn the question around: why wouldn't I be?
  3. Name the tone Say out loud what the campaign will be like. Ardern promised relentless positivity and the campaign of their lives.
  4. Ask for a short, public deadline 72 hours to revise the plan. It buys time without looking improvised and creates a second news story, the revised plan.
  5. Reject the opponent's label Take the nickname that stuck to the party and deny it with humour. Ardern joked about being just a lick of new paint.
  6. Anchor the expectation Neither promise victory nor accept defeat: the party would not end on 24%. No Plan B, as Helen Clark used to say.
  7. Close with an invitation A short phrase that calls people to take part (here, Let's do this) and a page to take part on the same day.

Message and press rules

  • Gendered questions: answer for yourself calmly, then name the rule for all women. Ardern was willing to talk about her own plans but called it unacceptable to demand that of women at work.
  • Expectations: when the polls are bad, say the result will be different; when they turn good, urge caution. Ardern said the polls could swing back on the day Labour went ahead.
  • Always the underdog: the machine talks about the well-funded opponent; the leader talks about the country. It protects against a late slide and keeps volunteers working.
  • Stay positive and still rebut false claims with verified numbers, call them what they are, and go back to your agenda.
  • Reject the personality cult: Ardern turned down the Jacindamania label and spoke of a collective moment. The campaign has to survive a bad week for the leader.
  • Close the flank before the final stretch: if a promise has become a target, correct it early, with the technical spokesperson explaining and the leader owning the decision.
  • First debate: the goal is to show readiness, not to win on points. Bring three messages, a rebuttal for each known attack and a rehearsed close.
  • Same slogan everywhere: the press conference, the first post, every candidate's hoardings and the ads all say the same phrase.
  • On election night, do not claim what the votes did not give you: the system decides who governs, and the negotiation starts with respect.

Sample opening statement

Good morning. Today the caucus chose me to lead the party into this election, and I want to start by thanking my predecessor, who put the party ahead of himself and will have a central place in this campaign. I've been asked whether I'm ready. I am, and so is the team. I'm going to ask for 72 hours to review the plan with my deputy and the campaign team; on Thursday I'll set out the priorities. One thing is already decided: this will be a campaign of ideas, of positivity, with no personal attacks. We know we're the underdogs and that the other side has more money. I also know we won't finish where the polls put us today. Anyone who wants to help can sign up on our website right now. Let's do this.

Take it to your context

What works anywhere, and what depended on New Zealand in 2017.

What works anywhere, and what depended on New Zealand in 2017.

Works anywhere

  • Treat a change of candidate or course as the campaign's restart, with tone and slogan decided on day one.
  • Ask for a short, public deadline for the new plan instead of improvising answers on everything.
  • Manage expectations both ways: firmness when the polls are bad, caution when they improve.
  • Have answers ready for personal and gendered questions, with a clear rule on what is and is not acceptable to ask.
  • Build the field structure before you need it, so the wave of interest has somewhere to go.
  • Open donations and volunteering the minute attention arrives.
  • Split the roles: the leader talks about the country; the manager, about the machine; the technical spokesperson, about the numbers.
  • Correct in public, and early, the promise that has become a target.

Depends on context

Proportional system with coalitions (MMP)
Where the most votes wins (first past the post), there is no second chance in negotiation: the goal has to be first place. In list-based proportional systems, plan from the start who you can and cannot govern with, and say so.
Concentrated media and TV polls
In a small country, one press conference and two breakfast shows reach almost everyone. Where media is fragmented, the first press conference must be followed the same day by podcasts, creators, regional radio and your own livestreams.
Labour Connect, from the sister party
Without access to such a tool, use an open-source campaign CRM or a shared spreadsheet with a form. What matters is cross-referencing who supports, who rarely votes and who wants to help.
Widespread advance voting
Where it does not exist, concentrate mobilisation on the last weekend and the day itself. Where it does, treat every day of the last two weeks as election day.
A leader already known and well rated
Ardern was deputy leader and a popular figure before the change. Replacing a leader with someone unknown takes more time for introduction and less reliance on personality.
Facebook as the main network in 2017
Today and in other countries, swap Facebook Live for livestreams on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or a WhatsApp or Telegram channel, depending on where your audience is.

Moves to take with you

Pick the moves that fit your context and add them to your kit.

Pick the moves that fit your context and add them to your kit. Each one works on its own or combined with moves from other playbooks.

  1. A restart decided in the first hour

    When a candidate or direction changes, tone, slogan and three priorities are decided in the first hour, and the first press conference asks for a short, public deadline for the rest. In New Zealand, Ardern asked for 72 hours, promised relentless positivity, said the party would not finish on 24% and turned the press conference and the next morning’s interviews into a campaign restart.

    How to set it up, step by step
    Works when
    It works when the change is the campaign’s biggest news and everyone is paying attention for a few days.
    Don't use when
    It fails if you only swap the face and keep the plan that failed, or if you try to improvise a new programme in hours, which opens flanks.
    1. Week −20 Write a succession plan in advance: who takes over, who speaks, what gets redone
    2. Week −8 In the first hour, decide tone, slogan and three priorities
    3. Week −8 Brief headquarters and the field before the press conference
    4. Week −8 Presser: thank the predecessor, answer on readiness, name the tone, ask for 72 hours
    5. Week −8 Publish the first social post with the slogan and the sign-up link
    6. Week −8 Do the evening and morning shows with answers ready
    7. Week −7 Present the revised plan by the promised deadline

    Team

    • Leader: sets the tone, speaks at the presser and owns the hard decisions
    • Chief of staff: ensures continuity and builds the first 72 hours’ schedule
    • Campaign manager: speaks for the machine: donations, volunteers and the underdog frame

    What to measure: People who acted in the first 72 hours (a donation made or a volunteer sign-up routed to a local group), counted through the links from the presser and the first post.

    Risks to watch: A campaign built around one person is exposed when she has a bad week: change the emphasis, not the programme, and refuse the personality cult.

  2. A field ready to catch the wave

    Months ahead, the campaign builds the database and recruits and trains volunteer leaders, so everyone who turns up has somewhere to go and a first task. In New Zealand, the leadership change brought in more than NZ$300,000 in under two days and about 1,200 volunteer offers; more than 5,000 online sign-ups in three weeks each went to a volunteer leader.

    How to set it up, step by step
    Works when
    It works when an event such as a leadership change, a scandal or a debate can suddenly bring a wave of interest the structure has to absorb.
    Don't use when
    It fails if the structure only starts when the wave arrives: without leaders trained in advance, sign-ups get lost.
    1. Week −34 Build the database of voters, supporters and volunteers
    2. Week −30 Recruit volunteer leaders who look after other volunteers
    3. Week −17 Train the volunteer leader teams
    4. Week −10 Load-test the donation and volunteer pages for a traffic spike
    5. Week −8 On announcement day, open donations and sign-ups routed to the local group
    6. Week −8 Route every new sign-up to a volunteer leader
    7. Week −7 Measure how many sign-ups did their first calling or door-knocking shift

    Team

    • Field director: receives sign-ups and checks the numbers against targets
    • Volunteer leaders: call each new sign-up and bring them to their first shift
    • Data: keeps the database that crosses electoral rolls, census and party data

    What to measure: New sign-ups who did their first calling or door-knocking shift within seven days, as a share of sign-ups, not just how many signed up.

    Risks to watch: A donation spike brings donors the law bans or caps: check every donation, declare what the law requires and return what you can’t accept.

  3. Calls and doors counted against the target

    The field director checks calls and doors knocked against each electorate’s targets every day, prioritising neighbourhoods with high support and low turnout, and in the last two weeks every day of advance voting is treated as election day. In New Zealand, according to Ardern, more than 6,500 registered volunteers made 475,000 calls and door-knocks.

    How to set it up, step by step
    Works when
    It works when there is a database that tells you where to call and enough volunteers for daily shifts.
    Don't use when
    It fails if the target becomes mere pressure: a leaderboard without support burns volunteers out and invites inflated numbers.
    1. Week −8 Set daily call and door targets for each electorate
    2. Week −7 Prioritise neighbourhoods with high support and low turnout
    3. Week −6 Open phone banks with digital logging and a paper sheet as backup
    4. Week −6 Check numbers against targets every day, with a team teleconference
    5. Week −2 Once advance voting opens, treat every day as election day
    6. D-day week On the day, remind every supporter where and when to vote

    Team

    • Field director: sets targets and checks the numbers every day
    • Regional organisers: support the volunteer leaders in each region
    • Data: tells you where to call and knock

    What to measure: Calls answered and doors opened per day against each electorate’s target; in the last two weeks, reminded supporters who confirm they have voted.

    Risks to watch: Contacting people who haven’t consented breaks data law: use only lists the law allows, respect anyone who asks not to be contacted, and look after the people doing the shifts.

  4. A ready answer to the personal question

    Before the first interviews, the team prepares short answers to the predictable questions (readiness, motherhood, age, polls) and a rule for gendered ones: answer for yourself, then say what nobody should be asked. In New Zealand, Ardern answered about her own plans and called it unacceptable to ask women that at work; the moment went around the world, and nearly two thirds of Labour’s gain in the next poll came from women.

    How to set it up, step by step
    Works when
    It works for new candidates, especially women and young people, who will face questions others don’t.
    Don't use when
    It fails if the answer accepts the premise (promising not to have children, say) or turns into an irritated refusal on air, which makes the story about your temper.
    1. Week −10 List the predictable questions: readiness, motherhood, age, polls
    2. Week −10 Write with the team a short answer and a rule for each one
    3. Week −9 Rehearse live with someone playing the presenter
    4. Week −8 In the first interviews, answer for yourself and then name the rule
    5. Week −8 Monitor the interviews and correct anything false the same day
    6. Week −7 Plan security, comment moderation and support for the team

    Team

    • Press and rapid response: prepares the answers and monitors the shows
    • Leader: answers calmly and turns the question into a rule for everyone
    • Moderation and safety: handles comments and the harassment that follows

    What to measure: Volunteer sign-ups and donations in the week after the first interviews, counted through the form with the source “interview”, not how far the clip travelled.

    Risks to watch: A new leader, especially a young woman, becomes a target for harassment: plan security and moderation beforehand, and never leave the candidate to improvise the answer alone.

  5. Close the flank before the home stretch

    When a promise becomes the opponent’s target, the campaign rebuts anything false with verified numbers and corrects course early, with the technical spokesperson explaining and the leader owning the decision. In New Zealand, after weeks of attacks over tax, Labour announced on 14 September that there would be no new taxes before 2021, and Ardern said publicly that the original call had been hers.

    How to set it up, step by step
    Works when
    It works when a known weak point is defining the home stretch and there are still at least ten days to go.
    Don't use when
    It fails if late or repeated: backing down in the final week or shifting position twice confirms the charge that you can’t be trusted.
    1. Week −20 List in advance the weak points the opponent will exploit and decide the answers
    2. Week −4 Rebut any false claim about the numbers with verified figures
    3. Week −3 Measure whether the issue dominates on the doors and the phones
    4. Week −2 Decide the correction before the last ten days
    5. Week −2 The technical spokesperson explains first; the leader owns the decision publicly
    6. Week −1 Give volunteers the new doorstep answer and return to your own agenda

    Team

    • Finance spokesperson: answers the attacks and explains the correction
    • Leader: owns the decision publicly, without blaming the team
    • Field director: gets the new answer to volunteers the same day

    What to measure: How often the issue comes up on doors and calls, logged in the “issue the person raised” column, week by week after the correction; if it doesn’t fall, the correction hasn’t reached the field.

    Risks to watch: Backing down has a cost, because the opponent will say you can’t be trusted. Do it once, early and with numbers, and never answer with a personal attack.

Practice

Rehearse with the case's missions and situations.

Decide like the leadership

Six real moments from the 2017 campaign. Choose what you would do and see what happened.

Plan in 6 phases

The sequence of a 2017-style campaign restart, from months before to the negotiation, as a checklist.

The sequence of a 2017-style campaign restart, from months before to the negotiation, as a checklist. Your progress is saved in this browser.

  1. Before you need it (months before)

  2. Hour zero and day 1

  3. First 72 hours

  4. Weeks 1 to 3

  5. Final stretch

  6. The count and after

Rules

Law and ethics that apply to a campaign restart like this one.

Law and ethics that apply to a campaign restart like this one. Always check your own country's electoral law.

Donations in the open
A donation spike also brings donors the law bans or limits. Check every donation, declare what the law requires and return what you cannot accept.
Contact only with consent
Calls, messages and emails to people who signed up or to lists the law allows you to use. Respect people who ask not to be contacted and data protection rules.
Ads identified and under the cap
Every ad says who paid for it, and spending respects the limits of the election period. Targeting is allowed.
Contrast with facts
Positivity does not stop you pointing out the opponent's mistakes, but every claim needs a source. The 2017 fiscal-hole accusation is the example of what not to do: a figure disputed by economists that became a centrepiece of the campaign.
Look after the person speaking
A new leader, especially a young woman, becomes a target for harassment. Plan security, comment moderation and team support before you need them.
Transparency in the coalition
Say before the vote who you will govern with and, afterwards, publish the agreement. Voters have a right to know what was traded in the negotiation.
No inauthentic tactics
No fake profiles, bots, bought followers or undisclosed paid influencers to manufacture the wave.

Limits

What this method doesn't do, and when it fails.
It does not guarantee first place
Labour finished on 36.9% to National's 44.4%. It governed because of the proportional system and NZ First's choice, not because it won the vote.
Much of the wave came from its own side
The NZES shows the gain among women came mainly from the Greens, who collapsed after Turei resigned. Much of it was a reshuffle within the left.
You cannot plan a change seven weeks out
It was an emergency bet that worked because of a leader already known, scandals next door and a field built in advance. In most cases, changing leader so late deepens the crisis.
Positivity alone does not hold off attacks
After the 31 August peak, the attacks on tax and the fiscal hole slowed Labour down, and the party slipped in the final week. It had to back down on a promise.
Dependence on one person
A campaign built around a leader is exposed to her wear and tear. Ardern resigned in January 2023, Chris Hipkins succeeded her as prime minister, and Labour lost that year's election.
The coalition limits the platform
The capital gains tax, which Labour had taken to the 2011 and 2014 elections, did not make it into the agreement with NZ First; in April 2019, Ardern ruled it out for good.
What came next
As of 26 October 2026, Labour is in opposition, led by Chris Hipkins, and New Zealand votes on 7 November 2026, with advance voting open from 26 October. Ardern published her memoir A Different Kind of Power in June 2025.

Check yourself

Five questions to check what stuck.

Five questions to check what stuck. The explanation appears after each answer.

1. What did Ardern do with the campaign plan on day one?
2. How did Ardern answer the question about having children on the breakfast show?
3. When Labour went ahead in the polls on 31 August, what was Ardern's stance?
4. Why was the wave of volunteers not lost?
5. According to the NZES, where did much of Labour's gain among women come from?

Sources

This playbook was built mainly from Ardern's account in Stardust and Substance, statements by the campaign leadership and reporting with…

This playbook was built mainly from Ardern's account in Stardust and Substance, statements by the campaign leadership and reporting with the organisers published between August and October 2017, the New Zealand Election Study published by ANU Press, and later interviews. All pages were accessed on 26 October 2026.

33 sources

Who did it

Data

Press

Analysis

Image: Ulysse Bellier, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (adapted)

Updated 26 October 2026

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