Has Romney Updated a 2008 Obama Tactic?
If there’s one thing in the presidential campaign that can grab attention, it’s a running mate announcement. Four years ago, Obama sent nearly 3,000,000 people this text message at approximately 3:09AM EST:
Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 PM Eastern time on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word!
While there were a lot of finger-pointing for that early wake-up text and some in the media called it earlier, the campaign effectively used the carrot of the VP announcement to build up their SMS list.
Well, it seems someone in the Romney campaign paid attention. The campaign sent out this text message at 8:17AM EST this morning:
Who will be Mitt’s VP? Download the app and you’ll be the first to find out: http://mi.tt/QR50iY
While this message hit our West Coast SMS trackers at 5:17 AM (Mormons must not sleep in), we thought this is a great update, overall. Here are some takeaways:
- If your campaign is large enough to create an app, look for creative ways like this to drive downloads.
- But developing a single function app, like Mitt’s VP, is a bad idea. It’s a waste of resources and inertia–better to send them to the main campaign app.
- Less is more. Obama use 158 characters in his message. Romney use 96. While the messages have different intents, use words wisely to maximize impact.
- A personalized URL shortener, like http://mi.tt, is fantastic. Just make sure that it contains actual words and not an alphanumeric code. We typed in the wrong address and were bounced to a cute bit.ly error page. That kills word-of-mouth.
- And by all means, invite us to forward the text message. According to PEW, 10% of adults they surveyed said text messages to friends and family in the 2010 midterms. That’s a ton of people even on a statewide race.
What are your thoughts on this text?
When this image popped into my team’s email and Facebook timelines, our immediate responses ranged from jaws dropping to light vulgarity. This perplexing image did little more than distracted us, especially considering the organization that sent it.
The group that sent this was not the Humane Society, nor do they have anything to do with animal rights.
There’s a common theory that if you use cute pets you can sell anything.
When it comes to politics, I’m not humorless, but on this matter I flatly disagree:
- There’s a place for cuteness and humor in politics, such as photo ops with candidates and events, not crappy overused stock photography of kittens.
- People are easily distracted, and there’s a lot of noise in campaign season. Every effort needs to be on message and drive users to action.
- When you’re dealing with an issue that impacts the quality of life of many, ask yourself if you really need to be cute or funny. What’s to gain from taking a direction?
And if you still need to soften a message, use imagery that reinforces why your campaign is important and who impacts, not LOLcats.
Besides choice of image, here’s where this attempt falls flat:
- The campaign needed to add what to expect from the list. And the key statement “Msg. & Info rates may apply.” Failure to do so could lead to suspended accounts or worse with your mobile provider.
- Not only the copy, but images need to be MMA compliant, for they can quickly find its way onto Pinterest or Facebook images without the copy attached.
- They included their Facebook URL. If the primary goal is to get them to sign up for SMS updates, don’t distract them with another call to action even if it’s passive.
Images and emotions matter in campaigns, and they’re also tied together. Be sure to use them wisely.
There’s a lot of noise in political channels.
Unfortunately, very little of it will help you win a campaign, reach out to constituents or support your advocacy efforts. That’s why we created PoliMinute, a once-a-week update on mobile and politics with articles from our blog and other sourced content.
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Here’s some of what you missed last month:
#1 Don’t Burn Your Mobile List!
Many supporters subscribe to e-mail lists for insights on campaign activities, wins and other information. What they don’t expect is the tsunami of donation asks – which effectively ‘burn’ email lists. It’s often the primary reason why e-mail open rates so low compared to other industries. Campaigns who think they can do the same with their SMS lists are sorely mistaken:
http://goo.gl/1CnRR
#2 Text2Give? It’s More like Text2Lose.
Text2Give campaigns, the tool used successfully by nonprofits, was heralded as the great fundraising equalizer against Super PACS. Supporters could donate to a campaign on impulse, $10 at a time, without filling out any forms. Though the FEC approved its use in early June, there’s still a lot of excitement. Unfortunately, the numbers aren’t just there yet from our own analysis. C&E has their own take on this fundraising method:
http://goo.gl/FgLBv
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#3 Looking for Mobile Examples? Look no further than the GOP.
While Obama use mobile tools with great effect in 2008, Democrats largely ignored them in 2010. There are more than a few examples of how GOP candidates and incumbents leveraged mobile to connect with voters and supporters. This article is a little dusty, but the work that Rep. Devin Nunes (campaign ad: http://goo.gl/VClAC) should generate some ideas. Mobile Marketer covered the Congressman’s efforts last fall:
http://goo.gl/U8MSm
Want to incorporate mobile tools in your campaign?
We’d be happy to sit down and brainstorm ideas with you. Contact us at 651-222-9201 or via email at info@polimobile.com.
