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Getting Labour on board is proving to be a lengthy process. But Gensemer insists that a full-scale investment is needed: “I can't come in and say, ‘You do this and you’re golden.’” Changes will have to be made from the bottom up.

It’s the gritty, unglamorous, constant contact that makes the difference. Our politicians may be dazzled by the glamour of a MyBO equivalent. But, despite the natty name, a MyGB just won’t work. “If you don't have the audience, you don't need the tools,” cautions Gensemer.

Everything indicates that MPs must learn to build this audience. Obama’s team aimed to personally respond to all Iowan sign ups within three days. The result? A committed body of volunteers who felt part of something larger than themselves. What worked for the Mid West can work for Middle England. But our politicians need to be willing to surrender control of their message.

As befits a 31-year-old with a buzz cut, Gensemer has no patience for bureaucracy. In the Obama office, approval for any new media plans was attained by a short walk to campaign manager David Plouffe’s desk. The web leaders had the same status as the communications director.

As a result, Gensemer is baffled by the intricacies of Whitehall bureaucracy. “They’re running test scenarios and saying ‘If something’s in the newspaper today that we can talk about tomorrow. How do we get it out tomorrow?’ And the answer is, ‘Well, it goes to so and so and it goes to so and so, then it goes to so and so’…You can’t work like that. You just can’t.”

The boys at Blue State Digital should know. In just one election cycle, they have changed America’s political landscape forever. They hit the ground running 10 days before the Obama campaign started. By election night, they had more than 100 people on the new media team in Chicago and were the biggest division at campaign HQ.

The transition has been rapid. Veterans from previous campaigns, including Gensemer himself, are still in awe of the change: “Four years ago it was 12 people and a bunch of hardware in the corner.”

And it has been permanent. The direct mail, robo-call model, favoured by the Clintons, is out. Blue State Digital’s web strategy is now an integral part of campaigning for every presidential hopeful. Even Karl Rove offered a grudging endorsement of the company: “[They do] good things for the wrong people.” The ‘right people’ are now scrambling to revolutionise their own approach for 2012.

Blue State Digital will be back in the mix for the midterms. But they also have a hand in many other games. The savviness that launched Obama is in demand by everyone from Oscar campaigns to the telecommunications industry. Ideally, Gensemer wants us to realise that there’s really very little difference between them. Donating to a political party should be as simple as buying a book on Amazon.

Nor does the toolset need to be expensive. Gensemer likes to stress that fact that his magicians don’t work for free. But they may be one of the saner political investments out there. Their cost for Obama’s campaign came in at less than one half of one per cent of money raised.

If Labour does decide that they can afford the investment, Gensemer hopes to sit down and have a conversation about their three-year plan. First on the agenda? The idea that authentic communication with the voters always works better than showboating. So goodbye to the tentative Twitterers and Gordon launching himself on Facebook. “If it’s a comfortable thing, then they should do all of it. Absolutely,” says Gensemer, “But to fake it is just pandering.”

When it comes to technology, Gensemer believes politicians should "Stop trying so hard." As his previous work shows, when you’ve got everything else right, you don’t have to.

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