E-mail’s Moment of Truth
by Patrick Ruffini :: January 1st, 2008 11:51 amWe are now in the final hours before Iowa. In a sense, we are starting to wind down this campaign, at least where the Internet is concerned. Online activity should be reaching a crescendo — and yet, at this critical moment, it seems like the most of what’s clogging my inbox this New Year’s are 2004-style fundraising appeals. Welcome to 2008, same as 2007, 2006, 2005, and 2004?
I’ve been there before, and I can see the logic. People respond better closer to election time, opens go up, and unsubscribes go down. Better to concentrate the distasteful fundraising asks when people are actually paying attention. If someone scores unexpectedly on Thursday night, you can bet the first thing a Googler will see is an Iowa-special splash page with the ubiquitous red “Contribute” button.
But let me play Devil’s Advocate here for a moment. If fundraising response rates go up closer to elections, won’t those of other action items go up commensurately? Won’t people also be more apt to march to the local office to volunteer, or make phone calls remotely to the early states? If an email generates 50,000 live phone contacts in New Hampshire, is that worth more or less than an extra $200,000 spent on Boston TV? Several campaigns have rolled out calling tools, and yet these are seldom if ever promoted in email blasts. For many campaigns, it’s still mostly just fundraising. For Republicans and Democrats alike, e-mail is the new finance direct mail.
That points to a troubling breakdown in how the ethos of the Internet failing to change the culture of the campaigns. We have this incredible self-organizing medium that is capable of generating buzz and activity far beyond what a bricks-and-mortar approach alone can muster. And yet the part of it that dominates is the part that takes this incredible energy and converts it to cold hard cash to be funneled through a decidedly un-Internet-like top-down machine. The community that donated the money will have little say over how it is spent, or (in most cases) even the slightest bit of participation in the campaign activity they helped fund. The message from most campaigns to you is not: “Take direct action for the candidate.” It’s, “Let us (the campaign) take direct action on your behalf by buying media and printing mail.”
All of this sounds like I hate online fundraising. I don’t. I love it. You still need ads, direct mail, and all the functions of the traditional campaign. The fact that none of the Republican campaigns save for one are competing in all the early states, while all the Democrats are, speaks to the fact that Republicans haven’t raised enough money to cover the basics.
The point I’m making is that Internet supporters are unlike high-dollar donors, who understand clearly that their role is largely a financial one, and unlike direct mail donors, who represent the mass of your party’s supporters (and will, for example, write heartfelt notes back in longhand about the direction of the country, never realizing that the letter they got in the mail was not a personal communication).
The people on your e-mail list are the A-list of your hardcore supporters. They’re high on the savviness scale (moreso than traditional low-dollar donors), and collectively will do whatever is asked of them (unlike high-dollar folks, who won’t always lick envelopes). If you’ve got a list of 500,000 names, it’s a fairly safe bet that that the list represents something close to your 500,000 most committed supporters under the age of 65 in the entire country. The Internet (and Google!) is too efficient a communications medium for hardcore political junkies to miss your Web site and sign up.
Given this, doesn’t it make sense that this kind of audience be given something more meaningful to do than just give money two days out from Iowa? Like help with GOTV? The clock is winding down on the 2008 primary season, and by and large, it does look like we’ve failed to find a killer app that’s not fundraising.
There are some shining exceptions, of course. Mitt Romney’s campaign effectively unleashed the medium by letting supporters create their own ads. This crowdsourcing created value that the traditional campaign alone couldn’t, using the Internet for it was meant for: expanding the playing field. In a refreshing change from the usual fundraising bat, Hillary Clinton’s campaign asked for a million volunteer hours rather than a million dollars, recognizing that the total value of the former exceeded the latter.
And though fundraising is by and large an unalloyed good, let’s also not forget that the most successful online campaigns have taken it to a ridiculous, distorted extreme. Is there any evidence that Ron Paul has translated his $19.5M 4th quarter kitty into a significant footprint in IA/NH, or used it to rise out of 6th place in virtually every poll? Last-minute fundraising can be addictive for the campaign teams that get their fix off ever-rising returns, but it’s often too late and too haphazard to do very much good.
To test my assertion, here are the last three emails from each of the major campaigns, and whether or not they were fundraising related. The ironic part is that some of the worst offenders in terms of fundraising mania are the net-savviest campaigns (Obama, Edwards, Paul).
Democrats (7 of 9 fundraising)
Clinton
12/26 - “Braving the elements” - Fundraising
12/24 - “Happy Holidays”
12/20 - “Wrapping paper” - Watch video
Obama
1/1 - “Breaking news: Obama widens lead in Iowa” - Fundraising
12/31 - “Let’s do this right” - Fundraising
12/28 - “Our moment is now” - Fundraising
Edwards
12/31 - “Now is the time” - Fundraising
12/30 - “You Can Make the Difference” - Fundraising
12/30 - “You’re the best” - Fundraising
Republicans (6 of 15 fundraising)
Romney
12/31 - “Happy New Year!” - Call-a-friend with a Romney pre-recorded message
12/28 - “Romney Week in Review” - Weekly update
12/24 - “Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays” - Holiday wishes
McCain
12/31 - “Thank You for an Incredible Year” - Fundraising
12/29 - “Spend Primary Night in New Hampshire” - Fundraising
12/28 - “The McCain Update” - Weekly update
Huckabee
12/31 - “Our negative ad” - Watch video & read blog
12/31 - “Meet the Press” - Watch video
12/28 - “Old Political Tricks” - Fundraising
Giuliani
12/31 - “Looking Good” - Fundraising/strategy memo
12/27 - “Surrender Is Not an Option” - Watch video
12/21 - “Merry Christmas & Happy New Year” - Holiday wishes
Thompson
12/31 - “Watch Fred’s Video to Iowa” - Fundraising
12/28 - “We did it” - Fundraising thank you/watch video
12/28 - “I spoke with Fred this morning” - Fundraising
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I will tell you political analyst want to be what needs examined and that is your head. We all know that to be the fact don’t we Teeny Weeny Ruffini?
Your post is spot on. I think the problem is rooted deep in the haphazard way most campaign structures work. I think the lack of communication and down right hostility between different departments on large campaigns would make the relationship between our national intelligence agencies look warm and inviting.
To have real change campaign organizations need to be flatter and have A LOT more integration. How many times does political scream that communications is ignoring them or scheduling complains that finance is too slow. The petty turf wars and fluid nature of most campaign organizations requires less offices and cubicles and more big rooms with verbal, yes verbal you crackberry addicts, conversations.
The point about treating your email list like your A-Team is so true. I am wondering when the first campaign will have the foresight (and guts) to put a webcam up in their campaign office…maybe even their war room? Seriously, only video, no audio and no charts or graphs on the wall with secret stuff - just real time video of staff and the occasional candidate doing thier jobs. Can you imagine the response from the “faithful”? They would pay money to tune in and keep your site up on thier desktop ALL day. Thousands of people PAY $ to watch Rush sit in a chair and talk into a microphone. The precedent is there. I think that the fear of screwing up keeps most of these innovations in check and that the real “leaps” forward will come from the dark horses and longshots. You gotta give it up for Ron Paul’s legion of supporters. He has connected with them in such a way that has motivated them to go far and beyond financial commitment.
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