Barack Obama has already made history by leveraging the Internet in ways politicos never envisioned. After watching how Howard Dean mobilized supporters and donors using the Web in his failed bid for the democratic nomination in 2004, Obama did his research, hired some smart Internet marketers, leveraged his experience as a community organizer, and built an online political machine. He raised funds by directly appealing to supporters, adding easy to use viral elements to expand his base of donors rapidly. He created a facebook page and got millions to "friend" him, using it as a platform to mobilize supporters and donors. He developed an e-mail list which ultimately totaled 10 million and got many of them to help with grassroots campaigning (he also got over 3 million of them to donate to his campaign - sensing a theme here;). He used YouTube as his own media channel, ultimately uploading over 1800 videos during the campaign (with over 100,000 more created by his supporters, including the famous Obama girl), 3 times the number of John McCain (and his videos were collectively viewed over 9 times the rate of McCain's). By doing so, he controlled his message and communication with the electorate, and was able to quickly respond to and neutralize negative messages from his opponents (his team did the same with blogs as well).
Now the Internet candidate is the Internet President-Elect, and having seen the power of the medium, he will leverage it as a platform for his philosophy of participatory government. While he can't leverage his supporter e-mail and donor base directly, he is encouraging them to sign up on change.gov (in fairness, he's interested in everyone signing up, not just democrats). On it you can apply for job in the new administration, read the latest news in terms of the transition, and watch his weekly radio address via a YouTube video (without a Republican response). The valued currency will no longer be donations (although given the cost of the financial bailouts, the US treasury could use them :), but engagement. The site has blogs, calls to join America Serves, and, of course, a place to register and provide your e-mail address. This is perhaps the most powerful component of presidentobama.com (which was available as of 11/14/08 by the way, for any domain squatters, along with the .org and .gov versions). Imagine 10 million people on the change.gov e-mail list getting a weekly newsletter on issues and pending legislation. Being asked to lobby their congressman or senator on short notice to pass a bill. Or encouraged to show up at a rally or town hall meeting to show support or opposition for pending legislation. If he decides to capture mobile phone numbers, he could add text messages as a media vehicle.
Online chats and news conferences, pictures and videos of white house and government events, soliciting comments on proposals (as well as polling the public) - all will be components of what has been referred to as "Obama 2.0". Of course, Web 2.0 participation works both ways, and how President Obama handles voter resistance will be the true test of the Internet President. Regardless, it will be nice to have a President interested in listening to the voice of the people after the last 8 years.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Mobile Advertising - Truth or Dare
Mobile advertising. People will have coupons downloaded to their phone and run to Target to make a purchase. Or, using GPS technology, Starbucks will send an ad for an extra shot of expresso just as you pass the local storefront. Maybe people will even watch superbowl commercials over again (or for the first time) on their way home from where they watched the game. It all sounds great, and I've heard it before. We were discussing mobile banking back in 2000 at Citigroup. Guess what - it hasn't really taken off. Turns out people are just fine with sitting at their computer to pay bills and transfer balances. So is mobile advertising truth?
Well, what we do know about mobile is people will buy content, mostly ringtones and games so far. In fact, NBC makes more from selling shows over mobile phones than from the Internet (where many shows are now free on Hulu.com). Just think, on the Web someone pays $.99 for a song, but via their cell phone because the bill is at the end of the month, they think nothing of downloading part of that same song for $2.95! Yes, paid for content on mobile phones is a success and will continue to be as long as it is just added to their monthly bill.
People also like Internet access on their phone, and the ability to text. And overseas, some of the applications I described above are happening. So, will mobile advertising take off? I'm not so sure. One of the great myths of couponing is that companies want people to use them. For the most part, that's really not true. Companies want customers, ideally full paying ones. To get new ones (or to get old ones to buy more), they issue coupons. But the dirty little secret of couponing (which I learned almost 20 years ago at Colgate-Palmolive) is that less than half a percent of coupons distributed are actually used. So the couponing budget is relatively modest. Now if you give some a coupon at point of sale, like on his/her mobile phone, and they use it 80% of the time, that can get expensive. And if, God forbid, they were planning on going into the store anyway, well then you've really hurt your margins.
And what about a mobile device as Good Old advertising? Well, given the screen size it will have to be creative. My view - there will be some smart agencies and advertisers that will come up with some great success stories, probably by figuring out how to integrate communications such as messaging into the "advertisement", but overall I "Dare" anyone to get rich from Mobile Advertising.
Well, what we do know about mobile is people will buy content, mostly ringtones and games so far. In fact, NBC makes more from selling shows over mobile phones than from the Internet (where many shows are now free on Hulu.com). Just think, on the Web someone pays $.99 for a song, but via their cell phone because the bill is at the end of the month, they think nothing of downloading part of that same song for $2.95! Yes, paid for content on mobile phones is a success and will continue to be as long as it is just added to their monthly bill.
People also like Internet access on their phone, and the ability to text. And overseas, some of the applications I described above are happening. So, will mobile advertising take off? I'm not so sure. One of the great myths of couponing is that companies want people to use them. For the most part, that's really not true. Companies want customers, ideally full paying ones. To get new ones (or to get old ones to buy more), they issue coupons. But the dirty little secret of couponing (which I learned almost 20 years ago at Colgate-Palmolive) is that less than half a percent of coupons distributed are actually used. So the couponing budget is relatively modest. Now if you give some a coupon at point of sale, like on his/her mobile phone, and they use it 80% of the time, that can get expensive. And if, God forbid, they were planning on going into the store anyway, well then you've really hurt your margins.
And what about a mobile device as Good Old advertising? Well, given the screen size it will have to be creative. My view - there will be some smart agencies and advertisers that will come up with some great success stories, probably by figuring out how to integrate communications such as messaging into the "advertisement", but overall I "Dare" anyone to get rich from Mobile Advertising.
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