Introduction
Introduction
The revolution will be digitised
Ross Colquhoun has led as the Head of Digital for the Scottish National Party over the past decade, playing a key role in eight winning national elections. He is a co-founder and former director of National Collective, co-editor of the book 'Inspired by Independence' (Published by Wordpower in 2014), and an alumnus of Edinburgh College of Art’s leading School of Visual Communication.
As a director, producer and editor, he’s collaborated with Golden Globe winning actor Brian Cox, best selling crime writer Val McDermid, award winning actor Alan Cumming, leading actor Martin Compston, former Machar Liz Lochhead, folk singer Julie Fowlis, actor and comedian Elaine C. Smith, UK number one album band Mogwai, the late artist and polymath Alasdair Gray, and an array of other leading political, literary, and cultural figures.
Scottish National Party
2014 - Present
Scottish National Party
Shortly after the independence referendum of 2014 I was recruited by the brilliant team at Scottish National Party HQ as Head of Digital.
In November 2014, Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister and I helped to organise and stage manage a rally at Glasgow's SSE Hydro. It was the largest indoor political event in British history with around 12,000 attendees.
The SNP's membership reached over 110,000 by March 2015, an increase of over 80,000 in under 6 months. 1 in 34 people of voting age in Scotland are now members.
In May 2015, we won 56 of Scotland's 59 Westminster seats, an absolute majority and 50 seat gain, 4,255 votes away from winning every seat in Scotland.
In October 2015, I launched the new SNP website and campaigning platform in preparation for the Scottish Parliament election. Within a little over a month it reached 1 million page views.
In May 2016, we won a historic third term in government at the Scottish Elections. The SNP surpassed its 2011 constituency vote share and achieved the largest ever popular vote in Scottish history at 1,059,897. It was also the first time that any party in Scotland had received over 1 million votes.
In September 2016, we launched The National Survey, the biggest listening exercise in the the SNP's history.
In the 3 years period between 2015 and 2017, the SNP won 4 national elections and helped to achieve an overwhelming majority remain vote in Scotland during the EU Referendum.
A survey in January 2018, of the UK’s political party members by Queen Mary University London found that SNP members have the highest satisfaction rates out of any UK political party.
In October 2018, the SNP overtook the Conservatives to become the second largest political party in the UK, with around 125,482 members. 3% of the Scottish electorate are now members of the party. And based on the UK electorate (2017), if a UK-wide party had the same proportion of the electorate as the SNP, it would have around 1,384,440 members. This is 2.5 times the size of the UK Labour Party.
In the same year, I directed Golden Globe winning actor Brian Cox in our Christmas special campaign film.
In 2019, we won the UK General Election in Scotland with a landslide 45% vote share. Taking 7 seats from the Scottish Tories, who stated that ‘the union was on the ballot paper’. Our election campaign cost 81p per vote, the best value out of any UK political party.
In the same year, I directed the actor Alan Cumming in our Christmas special pro-independence campaign film.
That year, I also launched the Yes campaigning platform in preparation for a future referendum on Scottish independence. To date, over half a million people have pledged their support for Scottish independence.
In 2020, support for independence polled at its highest ever level at 58% in an Ipsos Mori poll, with every age demographic below 64 years old showing majority support.
In 2021, I wrote, directed and produced the SNP’s online Get Out The Vote rally, hosted by Alan Cumming and Mhairi Black, and featuring Brian Cox, Val McDermid, Martin Compston, Elaine C. Smith, Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), Iona Fyfe and more.
We won a landslide Scottish election victory, breaking electoral records along the way. We secured the highest number of votes ever, highest number of constituency seats ever and highest vote share ever in a Scottish election.
Securing a mandate for an independence referendum for Scotland.
Analysis by The Herald also indicated that our digital campaign achieved the highest success with the lowest spend on Facebook ads, compared to other parties. The SNP spent £59,299, equalling £926 per seat won. Scottish Labour Party spent £187,809, equalling £8,537 per seat won - this total being 3 times as much as the SNP spent.
Scottish National Party
2014 - Present
Scottish National Party
Shortly after the independence referendum of 2014 I was recruited by the brilliant team at Scottish National Party HQ as Head of Digital.
In November 2014, Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister and I helped to organise and stage manage a rally at Glasgow's SSE Hydro. It was the largest indoor political event in British history with around 12,000 attendees.
The SNP's membership reached over 110,000 by March 2015, an increase of over 80,000 in under 6 months. 1 in 34 people of voting age in Scotland are now members.
In May 2015, we won 56 of Scotland's 59 Westminster seats, an absolute majority and 50 seat gain, 4,255 votes away from winning every seat in Scotland.
In October 2015, I launched the new SNP website and campaigning platform in preparation for the Scottish Parliament election. Within a little over a month it reached 1 million page views.
In May 2016, we won a historic third term in government at the Scottish Elections. The SNP surpassed its 2011 constituency vote share and achieved the largest ever popular vote in Scottish history at 1,059,897. It was also the first time that any party in Scotland had received over 1 million votes.
In September 2016, we launched The National Survey, the biggest listening exercise in the the SNP's history.
In the 3 years period between 2015 and 2017, the SNP won 4 national elections and helped to achieve an overwhelming majority remain vote in Scotland during the EU Referendum.
A survey in January 2018, of the UK’s political party members by Queen Mary University London found that SNP members have the highest satisfaction rates out of any UK political party.
In October 2018, the SNP overtook the Conservatives to become the second largest political party in the UK, with around 125,482 members. 3% of the Scottish electorate are now members of the party. And based on the UK electorate (2017), if a UK-wide party had the same proportion of the electorate as the SNP, it would have around 1,384,440 members. This is 2.5 times the size of the UK Labour Party.
In the same year, I directed Golden Globe winning actor Brian Cox in our Christmas special campaign film.
In 2019, we won the UK General Election in Scotland with a landslide 45% vote share. Taking 7 seats from the Scottish Tories, who stated that ‘the union was on the ballot paper’. Our election campaign cost 81p per vote, the best value out of any UK political party.
In the same year, I directed the actor Alan Cumming in our Christmas special pro-independence campaign film.
That year, I also launched the Yes campaigning platform in preparation for a future referendum on Scottish independence. To date, over half a million people have pledged their support for Scottish independence.
In 2020, support for independence polled at its highest ever level at 58% in an Ipsos Mori poll, with every age demographic below 64 years old showing majority support.
In 2021, I wrote, directed and produced the SNP’s online Get Out The Vote rally, hosted by Alan Cumming and Mhairi Black, and featuring Brian Cox, Val McDermid, Martin Compston, Elaine C. Smith, Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), Iona Fyfe and more.
We won a landslide Scottish election victory, breaking electoral records along the way. We secured the highest number of votes ever, highest number of constituency seats ever and highest vote share ever in a Scottish election.
Securing a mandate for an independence referendum for Scotland.
Analysis by The Herald also indicated that our digital campaign achieved the highest success with the lowest spend on Facebook ads, compared to other parties. The SNP spent £59,299, equalling £926 per seat won. Scottish Labour Party spent £187,809, equalling £8,537 per seat won - this total being 3 times as much as the SNP spent.
National Collective
2011 - 2014
National Collective
In 2011, I co-founded and became director of National Collective, the non-party cultural movement for Scottish Independence. I was director of the movement until September 2014. We set out with the aim of imagining a better Scotland and inspiring others to engage with politics and campaign through art, written and spoken word, events, local groups and social media. By the end of the campaign we had over 4,000 members, including the support of many of Scotland's most prominent artists, writers and thinkers.
In 2013, we stood up to the world's largest oil trading company after receiving legal threats, and won.
In the summer of 2014, we organised a mammoth 30 day national grassroots pro-independence festival that took place across Scotland during July. The Yestival tour showcased the grassroots cultural movement for Scottish Independence and included communities in the Scottish Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, central Scotland, Western Isles, the Highlands, Orkney, Shetland, the North East, Angus, Perthshire and Fife as well as all of the country’s seven cities. That same summer we also our put on our first ever Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme at the Scottish Story Telling Centre titled 'National Collective presents...'.
We published our first book in collaboration with Wordpower titled “Inspired by Independence”. It was a snapshot of the cultural campaign for Scottish independence. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that it was “a beautiful addition to my bookshelves” and the contemporary historian David Torrance described it as “a rather splendid piece of publishing”.
Later that year I organised #YesBecause day, a social media event designed to encourage people to explain why they are voting Yes in 140 characters on Twitter and demonstrate the unfettered reality of the Yes movement. For 24 hours it was trending in Scotland, UK and in the top 3 Worldwide, reaching over 10,000,000 people across the planet with 101,238 tweets.
During Scotland’s Referendum, National Collective had more followers on Facebook and Twitter than the Scottish Tories, Scottish Labour, Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Greens. Our innovative people powered digital campaign punched well above its weight, reaching millions of people in every part of Scotland via political messages, infographics, videos and website updates, at a time when online campaigning was still in its infancy.
Despite being a sectoral campaign and partly self-funded, research by Heriot Watt University found that 30.8% of pro-independence campaigners were active in National Collective's campaign during Scotland's Referendum.
After Scotland's Referendum The List magazine awarded us second place in their 'The Hot 100', beaten to the top spot by Peter Capaldi, the newly announced Dr Who.
During this period Scotland saw unprecedented levels of political engagement and a referendum turnout of 84.59%.
National Collective organiser Andrew Redmond Barr wrote an account of our grassroots campaign in the book “Summer of Independence”, described by the late Ian Hamilton QC, who returned the Stone of Destiny to Scotland, as “a remarkable book”.
National Collective
2011 - 2014
National Collective
In 2011, I co-founded and became director of National Collective, the non-party cultural movement for Scottish Independence. I was director of the movement until September 2014. We set out with the aim of imagining a better Scotland and inspiring others to engage with politics and campaign through art, written and spoken word, events, local groups and social media. By the end of the campaign we had over 4,000 members, including the support of many of Scotland's most prominent artists, writers and thinkers.
In 2013, we stood up to the world's largest oil trading company after receiving legal threats, and won.
In the summer of 2014, we organised a mammoth 30 day national grassroots pro-independence festival that took place across Scotland during July. The Yestival tour showcased the grassroots cultural movement for Scottish Independence and included communities in the Scottish Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, central Scotland, Western Isles, the Highlands, Orkney, Shetland, the North East, Angus, Perthshire and Fife as well as all of the country’s seven cities. That same summer we also our put on our first ever Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme at the Scottish Story Telling Centre titled 'National Collective presents...'.
We published our first book in collaboration with Wordpower titled “Inspired by Independence”. It was a snapshot of the cultural campaign for Scottish independence. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that it was “a beautiful addition to my bookshelves” and the contemporary historian David Torrance described it as “a rather splendid piece of publishing”.
Later that year I organised #YesBecause day, a social media event designed to encourage people to explain why they are voting Yes in 140 characters on Twitter and demonstrate the unfettered reality of the Yes movement. For 24 hours it was trending in Scotland, UK and in the top 3 Worldwide, reaching over 10,000,000 people across the planet with 101,238 tweets.
During Scotland’s Referendum, National Collective had more followers on Facebook and Twitter than the Scottish Tories, Scottish Labour, Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Greens. Our innovative people powered digital campaign punched well above its weight, reaching millions of people in every part of Scotland via political messages, infographics, videos and website updates, at a time when online campaigning was still in its infancy.
Despite being a sectoral campaign and partly self-funded, research by Heriot Watt University found that 30.8% of pro-independence campaigners were active in National Collective's campaign during Scotland's Referendum.
After Scotland's Referendum The List magazine awarded us second place in their 'The Hot 100', beaten to the top spot by Peter Capaldi, the newly announced Dr Who.
During this period Scotland saw unprecedented levels of political engagement and a referendum turnout of 84.59%.
National Collective organiser Andrew Redmond Barr wrote an account of our grassroots campaign in the book “Summer of Independence”, described by the late Ian Hamilton QC, who returned the Stone of Destiny to Scotland, as “a remarkable book”.
Edinburgh College of Art
2005 - 2008
Edinburgh College of Art
In 2005, I started studying Visual Communication BA (Hons) at Edinburgh College of Art. During my studies I was the first person in the world to create art out of E. coli bacteria. The work was created in collaboration with University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences.
In 2006, I founded Edinburgh College of Art Football Club and was player-manager. In our first two years we were crowned champions of the University of Edinburgh Division 2 and Division 1.
From 2007-2012, Kurt Smith and I ran the international arts and culture website, Human Resources. The website showcased the latest and most innovative art, design, motion graphics, and music from around the planet. It started during the pre-Tumblr, Instagram, and Pinterest era. At its peak it received around a million visitors each month and was voted 2nd in Dazed and Confused magazine’s international arts and culture website of the year.
And in 2008, I graduated from Edinburgh College of Art's School of Visual Communication and started working in the design industry after being head hunted by Scotland’s oldest design agency.
Edinburgh College of Art
2005 - 2008
Edinburgh College of Art
In 2005, I started studying Visual Communication BA (Hons) at Edinburgh College of Art. During my studies I was the first person in the world to create art out of E. coli bacteria. The work was created in collaboration with University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences.
In 2006, I founded Edinburgh College of Art Football Club and was player-manager. In our first two years we were crowned champions of the University of Edinburgh Division 2 and Division 1.
From 2007-2012, Kurt Smith and I ran the international arts and culture website, Human Resources. The website showcased the latest and most innovative art, design, motion graphics, and music from around the planet. It started during the pre-Tumblr, Instagram, and Pinterest era. At its peak it received around a million visitors each month and was voted 2nd in Dazed and Confused magazine’s international arts and culture website of the year.
And in 2008, I graduated from Edinburgh College of Art's School of Visual Communication and started working in the design industry after being head hunted by Scotland’s oldest design agency.