By: Erika Wuelfrath, Account Coordinator
Are you planning on voting this year? Do you know who you are voting for? If not, you are not alone. Tomorrow’s election will indefinitely mark one of the closest elections in recent history, due to the impressive incorporation of new technological campaign efforts.
A recent survey indicates that approximately 66% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 in the United States own a smart-phone. In a mobile-dominant generation, politicians are changing their conventional methods and beginning to use a tactical advantage towards these digital communities in hopes to more effectively reach their desired audience.
As we all have noticed, the past few months have been swarmed with political advertisements and it is unlikely to browse through a website without seeing banner ads or commercials. Political campaigns are avidly seeking supporters, and like most businesses and organizations, these campaigns are incorporating new technological tactics in order to reach this younger “tech-savvy” generation.
Over the past few months, both President Obama and Governor Romney have incorporated a surplus of mobile digital media strategies into their political campaigns. In late August, Obama became the first candidate to accept donations through SMS text messages—this quickly became a revolutionary development in campaign fundraising. These fundraising tactics have only been seen through various non-profit organizations, and with a successful return rate for Obama, they have proven to be extremely effective. A few months later, Obama and Romney implemented the use of “Square” into their campaigns in hopes to fund raise more effectively. Square has transformed into a widely popular method in mobile fundraising. This small device allows for a quick and painless donation from supporters—by attaching a small device to your smart-phone or tablet, it allows you to swipe your credit or debit cards with ease. This device may appear small, but the distribution efforts made by both candidates have proven this tiny “Square” to be a successful fundraising tool.
Beyond fundraising tactics, mobile applications and advertising efforts have taken this 2012 election by storm. Romney has two main apps. “With Mitt” is an iPhone application that allows supporters to take photos of events, save pro-Romney banner images and easily post them to Twitter and Facebook. His “Romney-Ryan” application introduces supporters to news and updates about the campaign, his action plan if he were elected, as well as a “donate” tab that allows you to directly contribute to his campaign efforts. President Obama has a very similar mobile application strategy. The “Obama for America” application allows supporters to stay up to date with facts and news regarding the campaign, sign up to promote locally, search events in their area to volunteer, and “share” campaign updates with friends directly to Facebook, Twitter, email, and text message.
Advertising is the final component playing a crucial role in this election. While mobile advertising as an industry is relatively new, both campaigns have adopted this strategy to drive their paid political messages to the public. As of right now, both campaigns are implementing Google as a major platform for their messages. Romney has used Facebook mobile as a primary outlet and Obama has reached out to a variety of platforms such as Pandora and more recently, EA Sports.
It is unclear who will take the majority vote in tomorrow’s election. What we do know is that these mobile milestones will set a precedent for all future political campaigns, large or small. The technology of mobile fundraising and applications combined with online advertising was essential for this year’s election—not only because of the countless hours spent on the Internet—but because of the target audience. As an exceedingly high number of mobile users are between the legal voting age of 18 and 29, the outcome of this election affects them exponentially compared to older generations –making them the prime target for these revolutionary mobile strategies.