Presidential campaigns are public proving grounds for business tools. 2012 gave us a $2B presidential campaign and provides us a great lesson for how and how not to apply mobile marketing to our businesses and organizations.

3. @curtprins
#minnebar

4. Who am I?
• 18+ Years in B2B marketing
– Technology & Services
– Emerging startups to F100
• 5 Years in Mobile
– Raised $15K in Text2Give campaigns
– Consulted in corporate environs
• PoliMobile launched in 2011
– Tech startup pivoted into a mobile agency
– Focus on advocacy & political campaigns
– 2012 win ratio: 80%

5. Why this is relevant:
1. Presidential campaigns are startups.
2. Burn through billions of capital
3. Hotbeds for ‘open’ innovation
4. 2012 is called “mobile election”

6. Campaign Mobile Factoids:
• 88% of registered voters have a mobile
• 37% of voters used their mobile for
political info and discussion with
others (26% in 2010)
• 56% of registered voters age 18-24
discussed a candidate on their mobile
• 10M Tweets during the first two-hour
debate—most from mobile

7. Obama Factoids:
• 10M people donated $1B+
– Directly raised $726M
– 55% came from small donors (<$200)
• 1 in 10 gave via mobile
– SMS tied to prior donors
– Open use of Square was “successful”
(campaign code for a disappointment)
– Text2Give was “successful”
• 1M app downloads

8. Romney Factoids:
• 6M people donated $992M
– Directly raised $467M
– 24% came from small donors (<$200)
– Use of Square was “very very successful”
(limited to 5,000 users)
• Announced running mate via app
– 200K downloads in the first 48 hours
• Project Orca launch nightmare:
– 30K volunteer users--all pissed off
– Mobile web or app?
– Data center crashed frequently
– http://curtpr.in/harpoon-orca

9. How did they do?

10. Romney: Obama:
D+ C-

11. Five Lessons

12. Lesson One:
Make info accessible.

13. Mobile Web:
• Research behind mobile internet
– 66% of voters ages 18-29 own a smartphone;
68% voters with household incomes $75K+
– Estimated 80M voters accessed info via their
smartphone; 200% increase from 2008.
– 78% will leave if not mobile optimized
• Campaigns took different routes
– Romney created a separate mobile site
– Obama redesigned site to be responsive
– Smashing Mag: http://curtpr.in/YxIY9M

14. http://m.mittromney.com
• Dedicated mobile site
– Design flexed to various mobile browsers
– Relatively fast: 687K pages load in 8.75sec
• Navigation intuitive
• Pages were appropriate in length
• No content parity with main site
– Negative for info searchers
– Severely limited features

16. http://barackobama.com
• Site is responsive to mobile
browsers
• Content and capability parity
• Extremely long load time
– 4.2Mb page
– 30+ seconds to download
– Crashed many browsers
– Toilet paper theory of mobile design

18. Lesson Two:
Be everywhere.

19. Mobile Advertising:
• Mobile advertising exploding
– Spending exceeded $5B worldwide
– 2011 spend: $1.8B
• Exceptional targeting capabilities
– Google’s AdWords/AdMob added
congressional district focus
– Most platforms offer geofencing by radius or
geotargeting by zip.
• Both campaigns took notice

20. Obama’s Mobile Campaigns:
• Used video ads in Spanish to
target Latino voters
• Placed ads Electronic Arts mobile
games: Scrabble, Tetris & others
• Fundraising tied to mobile ads
generated 60% more $$$ than web
• Included mobile to reverse post-
debate funk

21. Romney Mobile Campaigns:
• Habit began in the Iowa Caucus and
New Hampshire primaries
• Spent more Facebook, Apple’s iAds
and Google AdMob
• Boost app downloads
• Used click-to-call features to
successfully recruit volunteers
• Didn’t increase mobile budgets to
maintain lead

22. Lesson Three:
Remove all barriers.

23. Conversion Matters:
• Most forms were 2-3 fields
• Both campaigns restricted by FEC
– Donation forms could not be shortened
– Require full address and employment info
– Obama leveraged Quick Donate
• Text2Give Streamlined Donations
– No reporting requirements
– Donations limited $50 per billing cycle
• Obama texted existing donors

24. Lesson Four:
Apps are not the answer.

25. Apps to the Rescue?
• Few campaigns can afford dev.
– Tight timelines and multiple updates
– Labor intensive
– <6% of eCommerce comes from apps
• Only 12% use apps more than 3x
• Both campaign launched apps
– iOS and Android formats
– Allocated significant funds to drive
downloads
– Required too much focus for limited return
– Only 20-25% iOS users allowed push
notifications

28. Lesson Five:
Don’t forget to engage.

29. What Happened to SMS?
• 98% of mobile phones accept SMS
• SMS volume continues to grow
• Youth and voters of color average
over 50 messages a day
• Open rates exceed 90%
• Both campaigns failed in SMS/MMS
– In 2008, Obama built an SMS list of 3M,
then let it collect dust
– Opt-in invitations were well hidden
– SMS was often used a reminder for prior
email campaigns

30. So what did
Obama & Romney
teach us?

31. Takeaways:
• Mobile Web: Make your info mobile
friendly, but do it wisely.
• Mobile Ads: Don’t ignore their power.
• Barriers Bad!: Shorten forms, remove
anything that blocks conversions.
• Most Apps Suck: Don’t start here,
graduate to apps once you get mobile
and understand user needs.
• SMS: This mobile tool has ubiquity,
and must be added to your mix.

32. Questions?

33. Thank you!
curt@polimobile.com | 612-600-6318 | @curtprins
PDF Copy: Text POTUS to 75309