SMS: The Election Secret Weapon
Originally published in the Hamilton College Spectator on October 24, 2008.
Remember those simpler times when we didn’t know who Senators McCain and Obama would pick as their Vice-Presidential nominees? It feels like decades ago, but there was a time before “Hockey Mom” was a punchline and the media thought “Gaffezilla” was a poorly foreign translated movie. It was August and anticipation was in the air: literally. In the early hours of August 23rd, 2008, the Obama campaign made their announcement of running mate Joe Biden to the world over-the-air through a simple mobile text message.
That text message was the Obama campaign’s secret weapon for voter turnout.
In the weeks leading up to the announcement, the Obama campaign’s media team had been hyping the announcement, using every interview to encourage people to “Text VP to 62262″ to be the first to find out who the nominee would be. Meanwhile the “sign up to find out” message was the centerpiece of a massive online ad campaign for much of August, eventually encouraging 3 million people to sign up.
And by the time the text message went out around 3am on August 23rd, the Obama campaign had compiled what was perhaps the largest list of campaign supporters’ mobile phone numbers ever assembled.
So far, there haven’t been any reports of the campaign using this list to make terrifying “robocalls”, but doing that would squander the value of the list. Rather, the campaign likely plans to use the list of 3 million mobile numbers to send out one final text message right before the election: a simple reminder to vote on November 4. It’s like a reverse American Idol.
Frederic Guarino, a mobile marketing expert at Hemisphere NoBrainer, put the strategy succinctly: “Mobile is a trigger.” By collecting the mobile phone numbers of 3 million likely voters, the Obama campaign will theoretically be able to mobilize supporters to get to the polls, using a tactic cutting edge marketers have been advocating for years for their corporate clients.
Does it work – absolutely. A 2006 study conducted by the New Voters Project found that a text message reminder increased the liklihood of a new voter actually showing up to vote by 4.2% and was considered “helpful” by 59% of recipients. For the campaign consultants, the real value is the price: only $1.56 per vote cast. While it’s just as effective in turning out voters as a “quality” phone call, the call costs about $20 per vote cast, meaning it’s efficacy and cost effectiveness makes it a viable tactic for upstart campaigns. Get Out The Vote just got a lot more accessible.
And yes, even “likely” voters don’t turn out some times. I spent a good deal of time working on my local Congressional primary, which coincidentially was the same morning I bought an iPhone. Even though I was involved in the campaign, I’d completely forgotten it was primary day, and as I sat in the parking lot, checking my email on the iPhone for the first time, I got a message reminding me to vote. The race wasn’t even close, but getting that email on my phone was what got me to the polls that morning.
Rana Sobhany knows a thing or two about the intersection of politics and mobile. She’s a former grassroots campaign consultant turned rockstar publicist turned mobile guru who’s currently the head of marketing for Medialets, a creative ad network for the iPhone, Android, and other rich-mobile devices. “As campaigns begin to shift their focus to digital, the promise of mobile becomes the epitome of personalized reach to constituents. The mobile phone is the most personal device one owns, particularly in middle America where mobile phones are far more ubiquitous and constantly connected than computers. which makes it the clear platform of choice for large campaigns, spearheaded by the Obama camp.”
This tactic could be the difference between electoral victory in several close states, mobilizing enough supporters to turn out to counteract the undecided voters who turn out for the other side. Whether it’s enough to counteract the “Bradley Effect” is yet to be seen, but in a race where pollsters are only starting to come to terms with the “cell phone gap”, use mobile phones could turn out to be one of the most valuable tactics in any campaign’s arsenal.
On November 4th, watch the screens.
Disclosure: David Riordan has previously worked with both Hemisphere NoBrainer and Medialets.
