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.
We’ve added you to our list because of our prior contact. If you prefer not to get this email, our apologies. Simply unsubscribe instantly using the link in the footer below.
-Curt
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.
Since mobile web accounts for 20% of all Internet traffic and 26% of Americans use their mobile phone to participate in the 2010 midterm elections, we thought it would be time to see how well Minnesota federal campaigns and political parties are using mobile web.
The verdict: not very well.
(We, on the other hand, got a perfect score of 6 out of 6.)
We used Google’s handy GoMoMeter to score the sites and see how fast their homepages download. Here’s some quick insights:
- The presidential and senate campaigns all had mobile sites that were quite speedy, though Kurt Bills’ took over 8 seconds to download.
- The Minnesota GOP is worlds ahead of the DFL Party – kudos to them. While the DFL recently updated their site they largely ignored mobile.
- While her mobile website leaves a lot to be desired, Betty McCollum’s campaign got a perfect six out of six from the GoMoMeter.
- While normally an innovative campaigner, Michele Bachmann’s campaign to nearly over nine seconds to download her desktop site.
- Keith Ellison’s campaign has the most benefit from mobile with a MACE of 108.5% within his district. Unfortunately, his desktop site was the second slowest to download.
Here are the complete results:
