So, maybe the Obama VP text message didn’t turn out like it was supposed to. And maybe I’m a little embarrassed because I hyped it up. But rather than rant about how horrible it was (because that’s what I thought I’d do that Saturday morning), I’m going to try, try to be objective about. Therefore, I’m going to use a numbered list because nothing is more objective than a numbered list.

1. Sending a text message to 2.9 million or so people at 3:24 AM ET is generally a bad thing. I’m a little strict about this, so I think sending a text after 7pm in most cases is pushing it (unless it’s a severe weather warning or a snow day announcement or about a dozen other reasonable things that I can’t think of at the moment). Therefore, in my mind, any time during the dark AM hours is off-limits. You risk waking up people in middle of the night (like this guy) and losing their trust, their business, and maybe even their vote.
2. Sending a text message containing information that the press leaked hours before is generally a bad thing, too. With mobile marketing, you should try to send timely, valuable information. Therefore, if everyone already knows the information you would like to present in 160 characters on their cell phone, then you also risk losing their trust, their business, and yes, maybe even their vote.

All that said, I don’t blame the Obama campaign for what happened. I really believe that they were caught off guard by the press leaking the Biden VP announcement and therefore found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Hey, if it had been me, if I were working with the Obama’s mobile campaign, I would have been running around like a headless chicken. I can just see myself now:

“HOLY CRAP. It’s after midnight. The biggest announcement that we were going to make pre-elections was just leaked by the press.  And we promised, PROMISED that the opted-in mobile users would be the first to know. What are we going to do? Do we send the message now, before many more people find out about Biden? No, we can’t do that, it’s too late at night. We’ll tick off everyone. But if we wait until morning the news will truly be old news and we will have broken our promise to our supporters and that will be just one more thing they can hold against us. Crap. I can’t make this decision. If I make the wrong choice, it will be my head. But there is no right choice. Crap! I’ll just let the boss make this decision. Then it won’t be on me.”

Now if you replace each one of those crap’s with a unique string of expletives, I imagine that’s about how the situation went. And perhaps this decision-making process was passed up the chain of command several times, each person thinking the same thing. If that was the case, you could easily kill two hours before coming to a decision.

I truly think that this explanation is more likely than someone in the Obama camp saying, “hey, I think it would be a cool idea to send this text at 3am. Who’s with me?”

I think keeping the bigger picture in mind is important. Sure, the Biden text could have been executed better, but look what they got out of it: 2.9 million (and probably more) opted-in supporters that the Obama camp can contact on election day, reminding them to vote. After all, it’s the vote that’s important. And I think this faux pas will be forgotten come November.

Plus, it feels like the Obama camp can easily make up for it with the work that it’s doing right now to help the Red Cross raise money to help the Gulf Coast get through Hurricane Gustav. Yesterday (Labor Day) the Obama campaign sent a text asking supporters to donate $5 to the Red Cross by texting GIVE to 24357. I just did it, and it was really easy. After texting you’ll receive a message asking you to confirm the charge (like all good premium messages should send). And after that you’ll receive a thank you message notifying you that the $5 donation will appear on your next phone bill. It’s a really easy way donate money. If you can spare a few bucks, I strongly urge you to do so.

Well, that’s it for me. Happy Tuesday, yall.

Tags: donate, election, messages, mobile marketing, Obama, premium, Red Cross, text, text marketing, VP

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 11:31 am and is filed under In the News, Miss Mobile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.