Elections in developed countries are more than exercises in democracy that produce new governments. They are showcases for the state of the art in marketing strategy - as this year's general election campaign demonstrates.

Voters are heading to the polls at a tense time for the advertising industry. New technologies are enabling advertisers to target consumers with greater precision but they are also giving people the power to tune out commercial messages.

Cutting through the resistance to advertising had become the name of the game, and the UK political parties have been trying to do so by making targeted appeals using a variety of techniques - from the high- tech to the old-fashioned.

As aresult, a campaign that has involved some of the most sophisticated uses of computers in UK political history has also been marked by an increasing emphasis on such traditional techniques as personal contact with voters.

"You are seeing very disparate tactics that are linked by the acknowledgement that you need to get that connection, that intimacy, with the electorate," says Andrew McGuinness, chief executive of TBWA\\London, Labour's advertising agency.

This focus on forging direct connections with voters - rather than, say, making broad appeals in the mass media - reflects the impact of President George W. Bush's successful US campaign for re-election last year, Mr McGuiness says.

During his race, Mr Bush played the role of a direct marketer, bringing voters into party politics by appealing to their interest in single issues. The UK candidates have less money to spend than Mr Bush, but they have similar goals.

"It builds from the US presidential campaign," Mr McGuiness says. "You started with an interest in the church or guns or whatever it may be, and that led from a subject that was intimate to you back to party politics."

For some marketing professionals, the British campaign's most dramatic development has been the embrace of personal politicking by Tony Blair, prime minister. Placing less emphasis on set-piece interviews with reporters, Mr Blair has been trying to talk with voters - and to be been seen talking to voters.

"I see that as the beginning of a sea change," says Charles Trevail, chief executive of Promise, a UK brand consultancy, who has worked for the Conservative party in the past.

Mr Trevail believes Mr Blair's personal approach will inspire corporate imitators - just as the arrival of New Labour encouraged companies such as British Airways to consider re-branding campaigns.

"People want the dialogue. They want the feeling they have been listened to. The parties are looking for ways of creating dialogue," Mr Trevail says. "Blair's attempt to do that, through the television programmes he has been on and the direct dialogue with consumers, is a way to re-engender trust."

This desire to go directly to the voter also underlies the use of technology - such as the Conservative party's "voter vault" software, which enables it to segment the electorate with greater detail.

"They are cutting out the middleman and trying to go straight to the voter," says Richard Morris, business development director at DDB London. "All the parties are doing more targeted communications - direct marketing, phone polling, phone surveying and SMS text messaging."

As was the case with last year's US campaign, challenger candidates are finding success by using new technologies. The Liberal Democrats, for example, are growing enthusiastic about the use of search-engine advertising for raising money.

In this kind of marketing, advertisers pay to have their messages appear next to internet search results. On one recent day, a Google search for Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, yielded a Lib Dem appeal that popped up next to the the other results.

"It's particularly good at reaching out to people who have not traditionally been in contact with the party," says Mark Pack, the Lib Dem's internet campaign manager.

But what is striking about these efforts is how similar they are to traditional campaigning. Attaching a party's name to internet search results is not much different from standing outside a rival's rally handing out pamphlets.

"It's clever local campaigning," says Will Harris, former marketing director of the Conservative party. "They are good at doing it offline. Now, they are doing it online."

It is a mix of marketing skills that is becoming more familiar in UK politics.