MarketingVOX: Text messaging made its foray as a campaign tool for the 2008 American elections, reports The Wall Street Journal, when Senator Hillary Clinton asked supporters to register for text-based campaign updates.
Hillary is not the first 2008 candidate to dip into the mobile messaging pool. John Edward began went courting for mobile numbers over a year ago. However, her highly publicized admonition to the texting public has drawn attention to the inclusion of the medium in campaigns for the next presidential term. Senator Barack Obama is also expected to begin a mobile messaging campaign.
In other countries the use of text messaging has been a common, if not dominant, form of campaign solicitation. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is said to have earned her seat as President in 2001 with text messaging.
“Political campaigns generally lag in adopting new types of advertising or technology,” The Wall Street Journal writes, but the high-profile nature of the 2008 candidates, coupled with President Bush’s low approval rating, have driven competitive stakes high. In addition to text messaging, candidates are also competing on younger media like Youtube, blogs and MySpace.
Reports thus far pin text messaging as a mediocre persuader. Julie Barko Germany, deputy director at George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet, notes texting is “not as cheap as email and…not as easy to use as email.” However, she points out that if candidates want to motivate die-hard supporters, mobile phones are with them all the time.
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