Now, here at MSG, we’ve really tried to transition out of doing campaign politics to focus on corporate and non-profit work.
But we are still keen observers of how political campaigns are using online tools to reach voters and win.
Needless to say, we continue to be woefully disappointed in how candidates in Illinois fail to either engage in a coherent online strategy — or simply ignore such a strategy altogether.
Given the ongoing corruption scandals within state government (and Cook County government), a worsening economic climate, and a series of proposed and enacted tax increases — the political climate is ripe for the minority party to make gains in next year’s governor’s campaign, state legislative races, and key congressional races.
In many, if not most, of these cases, the minority party will be outraised and outspent. Which means every cost-effective advantage they can use to reach voters is extremely valuable.
Pop quiz: what is one cost-effective way to reach tens of thousands of voters at the click of a button? You guessed it: a strategic e-campaign.
Unfortunately, not a single major candidate at the legislative, gubernatorial or congressional level is engaged in anything resembling such an e-campaign. (And no, a strategic e-campaign does not involve weekly or daily mass “e-blasts” of event invites and fundraising appeals.)
Here are some examples:
- We met with one congressional campaign who told us they absolutely, positive saw the power of what Obama did online and were committed to engaging in a similar effort. Months later, they remain disengaged online and an increasingly crowded primary field. They continue to spend time and resources walking in parades and attending smallish “party faithful” events of 30-100 people — the equivalent of spending money to run in quicksand. Fail.
- Earlier this week I received an email from one gubernatorial candidate in which he announced his “government reform” proposals. I received the verbose, wordy email at 10:30 p.m. This comes after months of receiving haphazard, every-few-weeks emails that neither communicate a message or anything meaningful about the candidate. Fail.
- Yet another gubernatorial candidate’s “online program” consists almost entirely of Friday afternon “e-newsletters” which include a compendium of information and rundown of campaign events from the prior week or two. These email compendiums only serve as ego-boosters to the candidate (who likes to see their own photos). Please read our prior posts (here and here) about our feelings on the “e-newsletter.” Fail.
I could go on and on about the failure of Illinois political candidates to engage online, but that would make this post far too long. I don’t write this because I necessarily want any of these campaigns to hire our firm — I write this because it frustrates me to see campaigns perform poorly.
Why in the world would a campaign not want to engage in a cost-effective effort that: builds an email list of tens of thousands targeted voters that communicates the campaign’s key messaging with these people on a regular basis.
Seems like a no-brainer to me. It’s money better spent than the bumper stickers, tongue depressors and t-shirts on which these campaigns are no doubt currently wasting their valuable dollars.
You’re leaving voters on the table, folks. Get with the program.