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Mobile Technology will Be Key In The Next Race To The White House

http://shilpika.wordpress.com/ 4/22/2010
Posted by Shilpika in Response Posts.

Barely six months into the new presidency and political strategists are already planning ahead for the 2012 elections. The 2008 elections saw technology and the Internet catapult a fairly unknown senator into the limelight and into the Oval Office.

“The game-changer in the Obama campaign…was that technology was not an add-on: It represented a carefully considered element of almost every critical campaign function,” says EchoDitto’s Michael Silberman.

Silberman Offers Insight Into Facebook Voter Mobilization on ReadWriteWeb.com

November 1, 2010 http://www.echoditto.com/press/michael-silberman-offers-insight-facebook-voter-mobilization-readwritewebcom

The debate surrounding social media’s impact on politics continues across the web and Tuesday’s election will once again put to test, in this case Facebook’s, ability to generate results in the polls. more

According to an article on politicsmagazine.com, new technologies by 2012 will only serve to level the playing field, regardless of the candidate’s resources.
http://www.politicsmagazine.com/magazine-issues/march-2009/2012-welcome-to-the-campaign-of-tomorrow/

“The availability of low-cost video devices, video websites with social networking features and even mobile devices with one-button upload capabilities will allow voters more engagement. Campaigns will have the capacity to act or react, respond, pinpoint and address the questions that specific voters care most about.”

While sophisticated technology and innovative social media tools will be pivotal to the next elections, advanced mobile technology will probably have the most significant impact on the race to the White House.

The tech-savvy Obama team used mobile technology extensively during the 2008 elections from iPhone applications to geo-targeted text messages to connect with voters.

However, technological advancements in mobile technology will completely revolutionize political campaigning in the future.

Smart phones will get cheaper and more sophisticated. Like Moore’s law suggests: Computation gets twice as fast and half as cheap every two years. Mobile networks and platforms, too, will be more robust and cost-effective.

Mobile giving – donations through cellphones, now restricted mainly to charitable organizations may become an integral fundraising tool for the next elections. Mobile phone owners may even be able to use their handsets to cast votes within the next few years. Recruiting volunteers, organizing rallies and monitoring elections through mobile services will not be uncommon, too.

Digital content, social networks in particular, will increasingly be accessed and distributed through mobile devices. eMarketer forecasts that over 800 million people worldwide will be participating in a social network via their mobile phones by 2012, up from 82 million in 2007 allowing users to actively engage with digital content. http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000489

Accessibility, speed and cost-effective mobile technology will equip the common man with tools to influence opinion and drive change in the 2012 presidential race.

As Jonathan Spalter, Chairman of Mobile Future, puts it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-spalter

“Anyone involved in political organizing should look at the growth of mobile communication as the next Holy Grail of American and grassroots advocacy.”

Amen.

2012: Welcome to the Campaign of Tomorrow

http://www.politicsmagazine.com/magazine-issues/march-2009/2012-welcome-to-the-campaign-of-tomorrow/

Even as we celebrate the dawn of a new presidential administration, political strategists are already looking ahead to 2012. While the political industry has traditionally been a laggard when it comes to the adoption of new technology, the advances made in the 2008 election signal that more and faster change is coming. Political campaigning will be revolutionized four years from now.

Perhaps the greatest impact will be accessibility. New technologies will further level the playing field, no matter a candidate’s resources. The technologies will make both online and offline mediums more affordable. An underdog Senate candidate will be able to better compete with a deep-pocketed incumbent by advertising efficiently through more strategic targeting and more direct engagement with voters.

Targeting
The next wave of candidates will reach an individual within a single household with a distinct message addressing that individual’s singular lifestyle, preferences and political ideology. As a result of addressable advertising technology currently being developed, voters will see fewer and fewer ads that don’t address their own specific concerns. A single, 30-year old, conservative-leaning male working in finance may see an ad for a candidate’s fiscal policy more regularly than his neighbor, a 35-year old, working mother of two, who may instead see an ad addressing the candidate’s education policy.

Just as we saw the Obama campaign experiment with advertising in video games in 2008, 2012’s candidates will be armed with the technologies to send tailored messages into any household. They will have the potential to modify and geo-target messages more quickly and pin-point them more exactlyeven on TV. Spot Runner’s Geo-Voter Targeting technology determines the most cost-effective and efficient way to reach key voters. With this technology, candidates at any level of government will have the ability to pinpoint different neighborhoods with versioned messages speaking distinctly to that area’s needs and concerns. Additionally, local candidates will be able to deliver their messages more cost effectively on TV and regional and national candidates will be able to tailor their messages to more succinctly address unique communities’ needs.

Engagement
Campaigns will also be able to converse with and react to voters on a level not seen in previous election cycles, largely through interactive television and video technologies. People will be able to access, experience, respond to, and share a candidate’s video messages at any point throughout their day with the click of a button.

The availability of low-cost video devices, video websites with social networking features and even mobile devices with one-button upload capabilities will allow voters more engagement. Campaigns will have the capacity to act or react, respond, pinpoint and address the questions that specific voters care most about. A voter in a small Salt Lake City suburb will have the same access to a candidate addressing a packed hall in Las Vegas, Nevada, as a person standing in the room, via mobile messages, Twitter, Facebook and other response-driven technologies.

TiVo is currently experimenting with brand advertisers and click-to-buy or click-for-more technology. With similar technology, voters will click through videoson TV, on the Internet, and on mobile devicesto get the information they want, pose their own questions and share their views directly with candidates, friends and family on the issues that matter most to themand they’ll be able to do so instantaneously.

Of course, as video is integrated more seamlessly with other platforms, including mobile and outdoor, this will also improve targeting. After buying organic produce at the grocery store, ‘Joe the Consumer’ may see a video ad on the screen at the checkout counter about a candidate’s green policy, all before swiping a credit card; he may even be able to add a few dollars to his bill as a donation to the candidate.

Campaigns of the Future
Soon, tens of millions of ordinary citizens will be able to amplify, transform or reject a campaign agenda, allowing each one of us to join political movements on behalf of the candidates and causes that matter most to usor build our own movement. Technology will continue to empower voters to be something more than members of a passive audience.

Tomorrow’s campaigns will not only be ‘futuristic’ but historic in ways that we just began to imagine in 2008. This last year signaled the re-emergence of the democratic ideals and individual empowerment that seemed to be fading away. Four more years will give each of us more of a say and more ways to say it.

Nick Grouf is the co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of privately-held Spot Runner, Inc., a technology company that is developing the next generation of advertising services.

Robert Shrum, senior advisor in the Gore and Kerry campaigns, is a senior fellow at the Wagner School of Public Service at NYU and Spot Runner advisor.