Let me explain something else: The spam-phoning of citizens is so counterproductive that it actually suppresses voters. It is a huge turnoff and a waste of time and effort. I cannot imagine that ANYBODY appreciates the robo-calls they get during the weeks before an election. I got so tired of slamming down my home phone I finally just turned the thing off. (Thank God they don't call cell phones.)
I don't know how much money those phone bank operations cost, but their effectiveness will never be proved to me. So many people I talk to roll their eyes and say things like, "If I get one more freaking call from that (campaign/party/group) I'm staying the hell home on election day."
The single, best way to reach voters is with drive-time radio ads. Second best is TV ads. The low quality of the ads I saw and heard from Romney was pitiful. I cannot believe that alleged professional marketing people made those ads... they tried to cram so many words into each single TV ad that it all became a meaningless, irritating sales pitch to viewers who really don't feel like sitting up in their chairs to concentrate on what is being sold to them during a break in their TV show. Who wants to listen to a fast talker trying to cram everything he wants to say into a 30 second spot? It literally becomes a machine gun of , "Blah blah blah blah." Yikes, that's annoying.
The key is to highlight a single idea, one point, and make the case slowly and clearly, with wit and nuance, no matter whether it is a pro-issue ad or an attack ad. Also, a variety of ads, a mix of ads, is crucial. After awhile, people hearing the same ad for the 50th time just groan, and whatever original effectiveness the ad may have had is diminished. Nobody wants to get beat over the head by a campaign. Mix it up!
The most effective ad I saw was the Ubama ad with Colin Powell that aired in the final week of the campaign. It was perfect, and I am convinced it was worth at least a 1% swing for Ubama. I cannot now think of one Romney ad that left an impression.
Phone banks? Robo calls? How retro...
What a freaking waste...
/rant
(Future candidates - - don't freepmail me unless you can afford very high fees and are willing to give me (nearly) full control of your radio and TV ad development and production.)
GOTV's effectiveness is that you know you have specific voters who favor your candidate. With than info, and with real time updates as to which of them have not voted yet, a campaign can specifically contact those voters. The worst that happens is that they just don't vote, but some of the people you contact will turn out.
Sometimes they don't know where their polling station is; mine changed since the primary. Sometimes they think they need to bring the mailer from the county Registrar of Voters (they don't need to here in CA). Sometimes they don't know they can cast a provisional ballot.
GOTV helps to win elections, and is very cost effective in that it's largely volunteer driven.
What about physically sending people to battleground states? Unless they are quietly selected for their utter diplomacy and charm, I wonder about that one too.
Good suggestions. You sound like a pro.
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Agree about radio: listeners are trapped in their cars, can't skip the commercials, only change channels. However, the radio stations know that and tend to schedule their commercials around the same time.
Disagree about TV: I almost never watch a TV commercial. Unless I'm watching a live ballgame--as I did through most of the SF Giants playoff games--I will skip through commercials via DVR.
The most effective TV ad was the one with Romney singing God Bless America off key, with shots of shuttered factories and the Caman Islands. Devastating, and Romney never effectively answered it.
Yep....at one point during the final frenzy this past weekend, we were getting phone calls with recorded messages about once every twenty minutes from the Romney Campaign, the RNC, or some other GOP-affiliated group.
My wife got so frustrated and angry that she literally yanked the phone cord from the wall and dared me to reconnect it until the election was over.
Empirically the Obama campaign has show the single best way to reach voters is to go to where they are and drag them to the vote. Whether that is having them fill out the ballot and depositing it for them or dragging them to the polls in a bus, it's the same thing: go to the voter, don't rely on them coming in.
Of course if the voter is imaginary, the vote is from fantasyland, but that also doesn't seem to matter....