Americans experienced the phenomenon of Obama’s new media campaign in different ways. Some received a text message from the man himself. Others found their inboxes pinging several times a day. Thomas Gensemer woke up one morning to find the DC press corps going through his trash.

As one of the gurus behind Obama’s online strategy, Gensemer is the new best friend for every politician trying to jump on the Barack bandwagon created by the media storm around his success. He is managing partner at Blue State Digital, the start-up company that built Obama’s online strategy. The firm has recently set up their London office.

Take a look at Obama’s numbers and you can see why Whitehall, and Washington, is drooling over Gensemer. Blue State Digital raised $500 million for the campaign from more than 3 million donors. Using MyBO.com, their networking site and epicentre of the Obama earthquake, the team persuaded supporters to make more than 3 million get-out-the-vote phone calls.

Most critically, Obama is sitting on a database of 13.2 million email addresses. Come re-election season. “Blue State Digital will be back in the hunt,” he says. But for now an energetic Gensemer is hoping to transform the Labour Party.

He faces quite a challenge. Our political parties may no longer be Luddites, but they are a long way from having a coherent internet strategy. Switch on your computer and you’ll be accosted by Boris Johnson Twittering about the price of fruit or John Prescott working himself into a rage. But you won’t find an organising body that guides you through the process of donation and volunteering. This is what brought in the money for Obama.

Gensemer, whose mind whirs as quickly as his speech patterns, immediately isolates the problem that our politicians face. “They seem to have been captivated by gimmicks.” It’s not that the ability and talent isn’t out there. But “those fresh ideas don't have a seat at the table.”

The problem lies not with the web gurus but in the politicos themselves. Few appreciate the importance of getting a clear message out to a committed online community. Gensemer has witnessed this muddled vision: “When I'm with them, I say: ‘If this room's full of people, what would you ask them to do for you? And can you explain why it matters? Speak.'"

So far, the voices of the Tories have come through the loudest. Although the progressively minded Blue State Digital will not work with the Conservatives, Gensemer reluctantly awards them higher marks for effort. Initiatives like the gurgling baby under the tagline “Dad’s eyes, mum’s nose, Gordon Brown’s debt” – have worked well. So has Webcameron, the Tory leader’s personal website which shows him talking policy while finishing the washing up. ‘That's a good use of the online media to personalise your candidate,” says Gensemer.

Personality is all important. Labour is handicapped by more than just its web page. Everyone at Team Obama admits that their success was partly down to a once-in-a-lifetime candidate. The candidates with less rock star appeal limit Blue State Digital’s power. “I don’t think we could win the re-election for Brown," Gensemer admits.

But he still believes that he could bring tangible benefits to the party. Little and often sums up the company's approach to community interaction. Gone are the days of lengthy internet newsletters that went straight into your deleted items each month. Instead, Gensemer is aiming for emails that lead the reader on a journey, encouraging them to donate or sign up for events en route.

Fifty year old women in the Midlands should consider themselves warned. If Gensemer has his way, this demographic is the target audience for Labour. These women don’t need to be internet savvy or have a massive political interest. But once you persuade a couple to donate £25 or host a party, then you’re up and running. After all, says Gensemer, “there are a hell of a lot more of her than there are bloggers in Westminster.”

Blue State Digital has had some success over here in the past. Displaying a gift for diplomatic understatement, Gensemer explains that: “I don’t think either Ken Livingstone or Jon Cruddas were Barack Obama.” But the online campaigning the company did for both of them showed their powers. Livingstone got 1000 people out and volunteering at tube stations. Cruddas enjoyed a surprise surge in the Labour deputy leadership elections. Gensemer recalls, “It was really simple and really fun to do and he was just up for it.”

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