John McCain is out of touch with the American public.
At a time when nearly 60% of Americans use text messaging, how does the McCain campaign not have a text message element? His competitors, Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton sure seem to be more in touch with the American public, especially younger adults who must find the McCain campaign to be so yesterday.
Text messaging today is as important to the American public as the fireside chats of the FDR era that targeted radio listeners. In fact, statistically, text messaging is more important than radio was in the 1930′s. So why has McCain refused to add a text message mobile marketing element to his campaign?
Barrack Obama is using a cutting edge text message campaign to sway voters. Last summer, the Illinois senator launched a text message initiative to organize volunteers and encourage supports to text GO to 62262 (OBAMA).
The Obama campaign’s site offers free ringtones from Obama’s speeches, Obama wallpapers, and voters can send questions to get policy statements. The text campaign also includes information on how to donate or volunteer for the campaign. Now, that’s change.
Obama’s text campaign is also the only one to regionalize its database. This has been valuable in getting the public out to see the senator during his local political speeches. Prior to one of his regional visits, the Obama text message campaign sends thousands of text messages to his supporters and encourages them to show their support by showing up at his rallys.
While Obama’s text message campaign may be the most active, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards actually had their text message campaigns going before Obama did. Clinton and Edwards are certainly not the only politicians using text message campaigns.
President Bill Clinton recently stated that he’s no longer a text message virgin and he demonstrated such during a speech on his wife’s campaign.
Hillary Clinton’s efforts were admirable, but not nearly to the same effectiveness of Obama’s. The Clinton campaign failed to use a vanity short code and never got the recognition that Obama’s has today. Maybe text messaging is one reason why Obama is the clear favorite of younger voters over both candidates.
Text message campaigns on the political front are clearly here to stay. A University of Michigan and Princeton University study found that using text messages to remind voters to get out and vote increases voter participation by 4% among young voters. Given young adults propensity for using cell phone text messaging, you can bet Obama will be sending reminders on election day.
The efforts of Obama and Clinton contrast starkly to the John McCain campaign that has yet to add any element of mobile marketing. “It’s not surprising given his age,” said Bob Bentz, director of marketing at Advanced Telecom Services that supplies text message solutions to businesses. “Only 11% of those over 65 use text messages and Mr. McCain is a bit older than 65. You would think that somebody on his campaign would have advised Senator McCain that text messaging is an important way to communicate with young, politically-active adults.”
Maybe that’s one reason why Barrack Obama has a huge advantage among younger voters.
When it comes to text messaging, John McCain just doesn’t get it.