I want to know how many PhD dissertations will be written about the technical end of both President Obama’s and Governor Romney’s campaigns.
As a great source for some in-depth graduate school research, there’s a very long but insightful article in The Atlantic by Alexis C. Madrigal that explores the back end of the Obama campaign that helped drive his election win. “When The Nerds Go Marching In” is a textbook look at the difficulty and ultimate success of the process, and why both sides will be studying the schematics of this campaign over the coming years.
For radio brands, the article is a teaching tool that contains important clues about the value of the User Experience (or UI), and why testing and pre-testing have become so important in all things web. But it runs much deeper than that.
As Larry Rosin (whose exit poll data was spot on for this important Presidential race) has opined many times, elections are a zero sum game. Unlike radio, where being #2 25-54 Men or top five with 18-49 Adults can be a winning position, in politics, there’s a winner… and there’s a loser. And it all comes down to how it all plays out during a relatively short period of time. The guy with 49% of the vote goes home to lick his wounds, while “Mr. 51%” moves on to four more years. It’s a tough game.
So what can radio operators learn from those behind-the-scenes strategists, technologists, and geeks? In the lead was the Obama campaign’s CTO Harper Reed. Here are some of his observations, with a spin for broadcasting:
- Youth matters – Most of the Obama team was in their 30s from companies like Twitter, Google, Facebook, Craigslist and other tech mega-brands. Many weren’t especially political motivated at the beginning, but they learned about the race and what was at stake over the ensuing weeks and months. The takeaway here is that young people with strong tech skills can learn what makes the radio business tick. The reverse isn’t necessarily true. Every radio company needs a team of young tech “natives” whether they know radio or not.
- A culture clash can be a positive – As both the nerdy tech team and the old-line politicos learned, each group had an impact on the other. The young core of computer geeks energized an old political machine, but the veterans taught these techies about the importance of a cause. This is precisely how it ought to work in radio, a business populated by broadcasters with decades of passion and experience. Bringing in digital and social specialists may produce some stress, but each side can teach the other important lessons about their respective skills areas and passions. I have seen this new breed of twentysomethings develop a respect for the power of radio, while their intelligence and curiosity about all things tech rub off on the old school radio guys.
- Don’t trust technology – The Obama team had a healthy respect for failure – what can go wrong. Every PD has been trained for this, but the truly great ones constantly game out where events and promotions might go awry. And then they do everything humanly possible to prevent it from happening. The same was true of this team. While they were confident, leader Harper Reed noted, “I know we had the best technology team I’ve ever worked with, but we didn’t know if it would work.”
- Looks are deceiving – Harper Reed (pictured above) is one strange looking dude – even he admits that. And yet, the campaign looked beyond the clothes, the hair, and the mustache. Oftentimes, radio managers – and even owners – balk at hiring people or promoting employees with – shall we say – external differences. That’s a real mistake.
- Socializing can be effective – Bringing together lots of different people, personality types, and other odd folks who were part of the campaign was challenging, but a weekly Wednesday “drinking and hanging out session” proved to be successful. These are the moments where instead of whining about the other side, you’re having good times with them. At the radio stations where programming, sales, and digital hang out, there’s usually a greater spirit of cooperation and understanding.
- (Pre)test your messaging – If were on the Obama campaign’s email list, you know how incessant they were. It turns out that every one of those messages had been pretested on 18 smaller groups, with the goal of measuring response rates. In this way, they were able to narrow their focus to only the most effective emails. Radio stations could do this, too, sending different treatments (subject lines, five promotions versus two, etc.) to smaller groups, tracking the response, and then improving their full-scale email blasts by using the most effective email. You test your music – why not test your email messaging?
- Don’t be afraid of new platforms – One of the highlights of the campaign’s digital efforts was President Obama’s appearance on Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything.” Amazingly, it produced 30,000 new voter registrations, and improved the campaign’s credibility with the tech community. For radio, stepping out onto smaller platforms and trying new ways to reach the audience is important for staying ahead of the competition, reaching smaller (but important) pockets of listeners, and learning about new ways to succeed and grow.
- Look for efficiencies – The Obama campaign saved a great deal of money on TV ads with a tool they developed to find the lowest rates, creating a big difference in the cost per ad ($666 versus $594). And while the article doesn’t document it, we now know the Obama campaign used far more radio than the other side. Again, there are many ways to reach voters, just as there are unique and different ways to connect with listeners. Seeking out less used media outlets and creating efficiencies is just smart marketing.
- It’s about the money – The campaign developed a Quick Donate tool (not unlike Amazon’s one-click model) that allowed for donations via text messaging. While commercial broadcasters may be wondering why this is worth mentioning, their counterparts in public media should take note of this simple, but immediate fund-raising innovation. So often, would-be public radio contributors cite convenience or simply being forgetful as reasons they don’t become “members.” But tapping into a smartphone’s impulse characteristic is just smart and could translate into big dollars.
The analogies between radio and politics are becoming more apparent every year. The difference, of course, is that radio programmers have an endless number of ratings contests to weather, while the politicos are faced with that winner-take-all reality.
There’s a level of stress and even desperation that you read about in every book or article about Presidential races. But as technology plays a larger role in the campaigns, we’re going to get even better textbook lessons about how to compete and win using these new tools.
And you can bet that on the To-Do list of the Republican National Committee is a long list of technical needs – personnel and financial – for the next go-round. It has become an essential part of winning elections.
And radio ratings and audience building.
Thanks to our resident political junkie, Paul Jacobs, for bringing this article to my attention.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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