The election was contested by a large number of SNP candidates, following on from their good showing in the 1967 Glasgow Pollok by-election.
In contrast to the Conservatives, Labour had been competing in Scottish local elections for many years.
This was seen as providing Labour party activists a great deal of valuable campaigning experience, whilst the Conservative party electoral machine had only been deployed in the intermittent general elections and by-elections.
The lack of involvement in local elections also meant that the Conservatives were unable to assess party support as well as Labour.
Even in 1974, when the Conservatives had been fighting local elections for several years, the party was still taken by surprise with the surge in SNP support in what were seen as traditional Scottish Tory heartlands.