Dude, Where's My Text Message?

First to know? Not quite. The best new media campaign in history botched their attempt to keep a lid on the VP pick in order to announce it via text messaging. It turned out to be just too difficult to keep quiet. However, although it was - technically speaking - a risky endeavor, the campaign strategy of collecting phone numbers for text messaging use passed with flying colors. Buzz was everywhere all week about receiving the VP announcement on our phones. Around the end of the West Coast work day, Erin Kotecki-Vest tweeted that her mobile text messaging "DING made my heart jump." By then, the process of elimination left many thinking Biden was the pick, but there was no word from the campaign.

Assuming the goal of the exercise was not just to inform supporters, but to mobilize them, the database of SMS contacts is the newest member of the Obama - no, excuse me - Obama/Biden arsenal. GOTV efforts begin in earnest after the convention and text messaging has been shown to be quite an effective tool for that purpose. In the 2002 South Korean presidential election, Lee Hoi Chan held the lead until Roh Moo Hyun supporters sent out text messages and email to 800,000 voters on election day, turning the tides and winning the election by a 2% margin. A survey based on the 2006 election found that voting reminders via SMS produced an increase turnout by 4%. Besides, it's cheaper and people don't mind that it's automated.

After the story of Biden's Secret Service coverage broke, the first tweet arrived at 9:30 p.m. PT. Twitter, as I expected, brought me the first real news. An email flurry followed. Still no text messages. Then the CNN News Alert came in around 9:50 p.m. PT by email. No text messages. Sarah Burris tweeted from Denver that "search.twitter.com has hundreds of tweets in seconds RE: Biden" a half hour later. Not surprising. The Obama campaign was all quiet, but by midnight Pacific, the web site simply read: "Barack has chosen Joe Biden to be his running mate." Sadly, two hours into the text messaging blitz, my phone was still silent.

Supposedly the campaign began sending text messages around midnight Pacific time, 3a.m. Eastern. According to the LA Times, the text message read "Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee... Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 p.m. ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word!" Finally I received some Twitter action at 2:22a.m. PT with the same message that had yet to come by text. Time for a nudge.

Follow Sarah Granger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sairy

Comments

[phloxy]

I got mine at 3:15 am ET. Since I was asleep since midnight, it was a surprise to me. The point was that I was "in on it".

[tallky]

you probably were overusing your phone. Everyone I know got the message, historic little ditty in the wee hours - it felt great in spite of my sleepless night allowing me to see the CNN announcement first and the HUFF PO blog world full of Biden news early. The text message idea was friggin brilliant and the campaign has a new world of PHONE #s!! Twitter has some twits!

[DRaymond]

Obama should have timed it better. The problem is that by 3am eastern the morning papers would have already gone to press so they pressed the Obama camp to leak it to them in time to make the deadlines. Of course people at the newspapers have phones too.

They should have instead timed the release for nine or ten PM Eastern. Then there would have been less pressure to leak early, it still would have made people feel like they beat the evening news, and things would have felt better.

[aaawyeah]

looks like mine came in at 12:59am PST, but i slept right thru it. was a nice little tidbit to wake up to tho.

[Sometimey]

No text because no VP . . .

Biden's a decoy.

The real VP is General Wesley Clark.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/258932

[Trogenhorse]

O did a great job! He kept the media in the dark until the last possible moment. I appreciate that the press was going INSANE trying to out wit the next president.

Good Job O!

[arcanepsyche]

I totally didn't get the text. :-( I was waiting last night, and then saw the results at about 1am on CNN.com, even now....no text.

[ladeyday]

I opted out of the text as my son pays the bill & I wanted to avoid anything like the massive # of emails that I get at both home and work. But Brack was my last email informant. All times MDT
CNN Alert 10:49 P
ABC 12:12 A
ONE.org 1:36 A
Obama 2:48 A
But I knew before I got the 1st email who it was. Deployment of the Secret Service was as strong a clue as one could get. None of it mattered to me, as my vote for Barack is SOLID.
I'm glad he has all those cell #s. Their owners will help us take it over the top!

[MegInPA]

I got my text message at 3:05am EST. I was only slightly pissed that it woke me up. I was glad to have received the news on my cell phone rather than online or on TV. I guess the hope was that people on the West Coast and Mountain time would get their texts while out on a Friday night with friends, thereby adding to the buzz and chatter.