How much satisfaction should mobile marketers have today that the man elected to become the 44th president of the United States proved beyond doubt the ability of mobile marketing to effect sweeping change?
For when President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office on that cold January morning, he will have proved to the nation and the world that the combination of mobile and the Internet with door-to-door canvassing can elect an intelligent person to the highest office without regard to color, experience or heritage.
All it required was hope and optimism in the face of daunting challenges ahead, and a willingness to take risk – with an atypical message and powerful platforms such as mobile and the Internet.
Sign up to receive Mobile Marketer Daily. The premier mobile marketing publication. Free!
The Obama campaign’s excellent use of text messaging and the Obama Mobile Web site at http://obamamobile.mobi or http://m.barackobama.com should encourage not just politicians.
Marketers have a lot to learn from the way the young senator’s campaign harnessed the imagination and stirred the emotions of millions of Americans through mobile. They should study how this campaign aroused passion and anticipation through 160 characters sent at the right time to the right audience.
How to build brand passion among millenials: Ad:Te
Barack to the future
Voters young and old willingly donated small and not-so-small sums via the Internet to fuel the movement for change and willingly parted with their mobile phone numbers as a show-of-hands for the grassroots effort that the “Yes, We Can” movement required.
Textbook campaign
This publication regularly followed the Obama campaign’s use of mobile. For those who signed up, the text alerts from short code 62262 (OBAMA) were friendly and earnest. It didn’t look like a senator was messaging from on up high, but someone that you would know sending a friendly message asking for your support.
The SMS texts proved that the Obama campaign didn’t take the candidate’s growing popularity for granted. Every opted-in mobile consumer counted, every text endeared with an appealing call to action.
Obama epitomizes frontier of digital marketing: ad
First to mobile
The texts came with familiar regularity: Just before a local appearance, before the debates, before the final primary contest between Senators Hillary Clinton and Obama (please type Obama in the www.mobilemarketer.com search box for all Obama campaign stories).
In what will be remembered as a turning point in mobile marketing history – and it is marketing, because that is what politics is, the marketing of ideals personified by the candidate – the announcement of Senator Joe Biden as Mr. Obama’s vice presidential pick set the standard for the excitement that a text message can create.
More than 2.9 million text messages were said to have been sent out on that particular occasion. The Obama campaign has never really released the size of its mobile database, but the Biden announcement goes down in history as the largest mobile marketing push by text, at least to date.
The Obama campaign sits on millions of names in its opted-in mobile database. Many more names lie in its Internet database, accounting for a large chunk of the $650 million in funds that the campaign raised to elect an eloquent and inspiring man to the White House.
Know the code
This publication does not lean Democratic or Republican. It leans ethical marketing and mobile. The praise for President-elect Obama comes not from a plank, but for his understanding that consumers – voters, in this case – want to be part of the story. Mobile is their lifeline to the outside world.
The Republican campaign, for some strange reason, didn’t get that. The Republican Party is known for its grassroots efforts. Its strategists are adept at mining the electoral database to a point of perfection. But they failed to enlist the enthusiasm of consumers through the most powerful medium of communication today – mobile.
In fact, when penning stories on the Obama mobile efforts, this publication tried each time to be fair and see if the McCain campaign changed its attitude to mobile marketing. It never happened. For example, the McCain short code for SMS signups was hard to find on www.johnmccain.com.
The world only became aware of the McCain short code at the party’s convention in St. Paul, MN. And that SMS appeal was directed to donating to the American Red Cross via text for victims of the hurricanes brewing in the South. Even the Obama campaign pitched the same $5 text donations to the Red Cross, so there wasn’t a point of differentiation.
Take the run-up to the elections. Here’s what short code 62262 had to say in a text message at 2:53 p.m. EDT on Oct. 30:
“Less than a week until Election Day on Nov. 4th! Barack needs your help. REPLY to this msg with your 5 digit ZIP CODE for local Obama news and voting info.”
Four days later, this writer received another text message at 3:15 p.m. EST on Nov. 3 from short code 46708:
“Put your country first and vote on Tuesday! To find your polling location visit Gop.com/ElectionDay. Forward to your friends.”
That message didn’t even mention the Republican presidential candidate John McCain by name. Where was the emotional appeal? Why wasn’t there a stronger call-to-action?
Exactly 24 hours later, another text message pops into the box, this time from short code 62262 on Nov. 4 at 3:28 p.m. EST:
“People who love their country can change it! Make sure everyone you know votes for Barack today. For voting info call 877-874-6226 or VoteForChange.com.”
Bite the bullet
Long story short, there is a lesson here in the Obama victory for marketers gun-shy of using mobile for customer outreach.
Yes, the economy is slowing. Yes, budgets need to be cut. Yes, Wall Street’s demands for sterling quarterly performance have to be met. But you don’t walk away from the future. You don’t trade tomorrow for yesterday. And mobile is the future, and the future is here.
The enthusiasm for mobile was palpable Nov. 3-4 at the ad:tech New York conference for interactive marketing technology professionals (see story).
The GoMobile! Zone was busy on both days. Visitors were researching the many ways they could include mobile in their multichannel plans. They sought advice from the pavilion’s 16 exhibitors – those smart souls who evangelized mobile to an audience of online and brand marketers because they saw the connection between the many interactive channels.
Many exhibitors plan to return to the next ad:tech in San Francisco. Why? They see the value in being spokespeople for an industry whose time has come, slowing economy or not. Consumers have spoken for mobile, just as they have for the first mobile president of the United States.
Inspiring by example
The Obama victory must inspire not just the African-Americans or minorities, but people of all backgrounds. People indeed have high expectations of Mr. Obama and here’s hoping he lives up to them.
Mr. Obama’s election should inspire marketers to take risks and include mobile and the Internet in their media and marketing plans.
There is absolutely no reason why the Fortune 500 brands or even small business should not embrace mobile advertising and marketing, text messaging and the mobile Internet.
The numbers of mobile subscribers is growing nationwide and across the world. Mobile phones are getting more sophisticated. Data plans are more consumer-friendly. Above all, the consumer is ready to dialogue on mobile.
An opted-in mobile database of consumers is gold for marketers and can do for them what it did for a bold man seeking to solve this nation’s problems.
At 12:16 a.m. EDT this morning, a text message popped into this writer’s inbox. The sender was short code 62262.
“We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion to this campaign. All of this happened because of you. Thanks, Barack.”
Kamis, 22 Januari 2009
BARACK OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN’S PLAN FOR SMALL BUSINESS
There are approximately 25.8 million businesses in the United States and over 99 percent of all employers are
small businesses, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will help
small businesses by cutting health care costs, improving access to capital and investing in innovation and
development.
Lower Health Care Costs with a New Small Business Health Tax Credit: Barack Obama and Joe Biden
understand that the skyrocketing cost of healthcare poses a serious competitive threat to America’s small
businesses. Small businesses are the drivers of job growth in our economy, creating, on average, more than twothirds
of net new jobs each year. Yet small business owners face unique challenges in providing health care to
their employees, including higher administrative costs, lower bargaining power, greater price volatility and
fewer pooling options. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will reduce the burden on small businesses in our
economy by offering a new Small Business Health Tax Credit to help small businesses provide quality health
care to their employees. The Obama Small Business Health Tax Credit will provide a refundable credit of up to
50 percent on premiums paid by small businesses on behalf of their employees.
Obama’s Small Business Health Tax Credit will work alongside other aspects of his health care plan to lower
costs and improve competitiveness for America’s small businesses, including:
• Access to a Low-cost National Health Exchange: The Obama health care plan will provide small
businesses with new opportunities to buy low-cost, high quality health plans for their employees through
a national exchange similar that will allow small businesses to get the same benefits of spreading risk
and administrative costs over a large pool that larger businesses currently enjoy.
• Reduced Volatility and Lower Costs by Reimbursing Catastrophic Costs: The Obama plan will
reimburse employer health plans for a portion of the catastrophic costs they incur above a threshold if
they guarantee such savings are used to reduce the cost of workers’ premiums. This reimbursement
(often called reinsurance) is particularly important for small business plans, which can be overwhelmed
by the costs of catastrophic expenditures for even a single employee.
• Investment in Cost Reduction and Quality Improvement Strategies: The Obama plan will
aggressively lower health costs by facilitating broad adoption of standards-based electronic health
information systems, and other value-increasing innovations improving chronic care management, and
increasing insurance market competition.
Provide Zero Capital Gains and Other Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start Ups: Barack Obama
believes that we need to reduce burdens on small business owners, many of whom are struggling to succeed as
health care and energy costs continue to skyrocket. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will eliminate all capital
gains taxes on small and start-up businesses to encourage innovation and job creation. Obama and Biden will
support small business owners by providing a $500 “Making Work Pay” tax credit to almost every worker in
America. Self-employed small business owners pay both the employee and the employer side of the payroll
tax, and this measure will reduce the burdens of this double taxation.
Expand Loan Programs for Small Businesses: Access to capital is a top concern among small business
owners. Barack Obama cosponsored the bipartisan Small Business Lending Reauthorization and Improvements
Act. This bill expands the Small Business Administration’s loan and micro-loan programs which provide startup
and long-term financing that small firms cannot receive through normal channels. Obama and Biden will
work to help more entrepreneurs get loans, expand the network of lenders, and simplify the loan approval
process.
Support Innovation and High-Tech Job Creation: Barack Obama believes we need to double federal
funding for basic research, diversify energy sources, expand the deployment of broadband technology, and
make the research and development tax credit permanent so that businesses can invest in innovation and create
high-paying, secure jobs.
Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will
support entrepreneurship and spur job growth by creating a national network of public-private business
incubators. Business incubators facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in creating start-up companies.
They offer help designing business plans, provide physical space, identify and address problems affecting all
small businesses within a given community, and give advice on a wide range of business practices, including
reducing overhead costs. Business incubators will engage the expertise and resources of local institutions of
higher education and successful private sector businesses to help ensure that small businesses have both a strong
plan and the resources for long-term success. Obama and Biden will invest $250 million per year to increase
the number and size of incubators in disadvantaged communities throughout the country.
Invest in Women-Owned Small Businesses: Women are majority owners of more than 28 percent of U.S.
businesses, but lead less than 4 percent of venture capital-backed firms. Women business owners are more
likely than white male business owners to have their loan applications denied. Barack Obama and Joe Biden
encourage investment in women-owned businesses, providing more support to women business owners and
reducing discrimination in lending. To create greater opportunities for women business owners who would like
to do business with the federal government, Obama and Biden will implement the Women Owned Business
contracting program that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, but has yet to be implemented by the
Bush Administration.
Increasing Minority Access to Capital: Access to venture capital is critically important to the development of
minority-owned businesses. Yet there has been a growing gap between the amounts of venture capital available
to minority-owned small businesses compared to other small businesses. Less than 1 percent of the $250 billion
in venture capital dollars invested annually nationwide has been directed to the country’s 4.4 million minority
business owners. And in recent years, there has been a significant decline in the share of Small Business
Investment Company financings that have gone to minority-owned and women-owned businesses. In order to
increase their size, capacity, and ability to do business with the federal government, and to compete in the open
market, minority firms need greater access to venture capital investment, as well as greater access to business
loans. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will strengthen Small Business Administration programs that provide
capital to minority-owned businesses, support outreach programs that help minority business owners apply for
loans, and work to encourage the growth and capacity of minority firms.
Promote Small Business Ownership in the Communications Industry: Barack Obama joined Senator John
Kerry (D-MA) in calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to immediately address the issues
of minority, women and small business media ownership before taking up a second review of wider media
ownership rules. Obama has continued that fight by urging the FCC to establish an independent panel on
minority and small business media ownership. As president, Obama will support efforts to achieve diverse
media ownership, particularly in an era of increased media concentration.
Support Local Businesses Affected by Hurricane Katrina: In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Barack Obama
introduced the Hurricane Katrina Recovery Act to rebuild the Gulf Coast. This bill included language to
increase the government-wide goal for procurement contracts awarded to small businesses owned and
controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals for recovery and reconstruction activities
related to Hurricane Katrina. Obama also established a government-wide goal for procurement contracts
awarded to local businesses in Katrina-affected areas of 30 percent of that total value for 2006 and 2007.
Provide Emergency Relief: Barack Obama supported legislation to provide emergency relief to small
businesses affected by a significant increase in the price of heating oil, natural gas, propane, or kerosene. This
bill authorized the Small Business Administration to make disaster loans to assist small businesses that have
suffered or are likely to suffer substantial economic injury as the result of a significant increase in the price of
heating fuel.
Support Rural Small Businesses: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support entrepreneurship and spur job
growth by establishing a small business and micro-enterprise initiative for rural America. The program will
provide training and technical assistance for rural small business, and provide a 20 percent tax credit on up to
$50,000 of investment in small owner-operated businesses. This initiative will put the full support of the
nation’s economic policies behind rural entrepreneurship.
Promote Digital Inclusion: The lack of affordable, high-speed Internet access in rural, urban, and minority
communities has created a digital divide between those who have access to the Internet and those who do not.
This severely limits the growth potential of many urban and rural companies. Approximately only one-third of
rural areas and half of urban areas have high-speed Internet at home or work. The areas affected by Hurricane
Katrina have particularly suffered due to a lack of IT infrastructure. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we
can get true broadband to every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal
Service Fund, better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation technologies, and new
tax and loan incentives. As a key step to achieving full broadband access, Obama believes the Federal
Communications Commission should provide an accurate map of broadband availability using a true definition
of broadband instead of the current 200 kbs standard and an assessment of obstacles to fuller broadband
penetration.
small businesses, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will help
small businesses by cutting health care costs, improving access to capital and investing in innovation and
development.
Lower Health Care Costs with a New Small Business Health Tax Credit: Barack Obama and Joe Biden
understand that the skyrocketing cost of healthcare poses a serious competitive threat to America’s small
businesses. Small businesses are the drivers of job growth in our economy, creating, on average, more than twothirds
of net new jobs each year. Yet small business owners face unique challenges in providing health care to
their employees, including higher administrative costs, lower bargaining power, greater price volatility and
fewer pooling options. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will reduce the burden on small businesses in our
economy by offering a new Small Business Health Tax Credit to help small businesses provide quality health
care to their employees. The Obama Small Business Health Tax Credit will provide a refundable credit of up to
50 percent on premiums paid by small businesses on behalf of their employees.
Obama’s Small Business Health Tax Credit will work alongside other aspects of his health care plan to lower
costs and improve competitiveness for America’s small businesses, including:
• Access to a Low-cost National Health Exchange: The Obama health care plan will provide small
businesses with new opportunities to buy low-cost, high quality health plans for their employees through
a national exchange similar that will allow small businesses to get the same benefits of spreading risk
and administrative costs over a large pool that larger businesses currently enjoy.
• Reduced Volatility and Lower Costs by Reimbursing Catastrophic Costs: The Obama plan will
reimburse employer health plans for a portion of the catastrophic costs they incur above a threshold if
they guarantee such savings are used to reduce the cost of workers’ premiums. This reimbursement
(often called reinsurance) is particularly important for small business plans, which can be overwhelmed
by the costs of catastrophic expenditures for even a single employee.
• Investment in Cost Reduction and Quality Improvement Strategies: The Obama plan will
aggressively lower health costs by facilitating broad adoption of standards-based electronic health
information systems, and other value-increasing innovations improving chronic care management, and
increasing insurance market competition.
Provide Zero Capital Gains and Other Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start Ups: Barack Obama
believes that we need to reduce burdens on small business owners, many of whom are struggling to succeed as
health care and energy costs continue to skyrocket. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will eliminate all capital
gains taxes on small and start-up businesses to encourage innovation and job creation. Obama and Biden will
support small business owners by providing a $500 “Making Work Pay” tax credit to almost every worker in
America. Self-employed small business owners pay both the employee and the employer side of the payroll
tax, and this measure will reduce the burdens of this double taxation.
Expand Loan Programs for Small Businesses: Access to capital is a top concern among small business
owners. Barack Obama cosponsored the bipartisan Small Business Lending Reauthorization and Improvements
Act. This bill expands the Small Business Administration’s loan and micro-loan programs which provide startup
and long-term financing that small firms cannot receive through normal channels. Obama and Biden will
work to help more entrepreneurs get loans, expand the network of lenders, and simplify the loan approval
process.
Support Innovation and High-Tech Job Creation: Barack Obama believes we need to double federal
funding for basic research, diversify energy sources, expand the deployment of broadband technology, and
make the research and development tax credit permanent so that businesses can invest in innovation and create
high-paying, secure jobs.
Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will
support entrepreneurship and spur job growth by creating a national network of public-private business
incubators. Business incubators facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in creating start-up companies.
They offer help designing business plans, provide physical space, identify and address problems affecting all
small businesses within a given community, and give advice on a wide range of business practices, including
reducing overhead costs. Business incubators will engage the expertise and resources of local institutions of
higher education and successful private sector businesses to help ensure that small businesses have both a strong
plan and the resources for long-term success. Obama and Biden will invest $250 million per year to increase
the number and size of incubators in disadvantaged communities throughout the country.
Invest in Women-Owned Small Businesses: Women are majority owners of more than 28 percent of U.S.
businesses, but lead less than 4 percent of venture capital-backed firms. Women business owners are more
likely than white male business owners to have their loan applications denied. Barack Obama and Joe Biden
encourage investment in women-owned businesses, providing more support to women business owners and
reducing discrimination in lending. To create greater opportunities for women business owners who would like
to do business with the federal government, Obama and Biden will implement the Women Owned Business
contracting program that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, but has yet to be implemented by the
Bush Administration.
Increasing Minority Access to Capital: Access to venture capital is critically important to the development of
minority-owned businesses. Yet there has been a growing gap between the amounts of venture capital available
to minority-owned small businesses compared to other small businesses. Less than 1 percent of the $250 billion
in venture capital dollars invested annually nationwide has been directed to the country’s 4.4 million minority
business owners. And in recent years, there has been a significant decline in the share of Small Business
Investment Company financings that have gone to minority-owned and women-owned businesses. In order to
increase their size, capacity, and ability to do business with the federal government, and to compete in the open
market, minority firms need greater access to venture capital investment, as well as greater access to business
loans. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will strengthen Small Business Administration programs that provide
capital to minority-owned businesses, support outreach programs that help minority business owners apply for
loans, and work to encourage the growth and capacity of minority firms.
Promote Small Business Ownership in the Communications Industry: Barack Obama joined Senator John
Kerry (D-MA) in calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to immediately address the issues
of minority, women and small business media ownership before taking up a second review of wider media
ownership rules. Obama has continued that fight by urging the FCC to establish an independent panel on
minority and small business media ownership. As president, Obama will support efforts to achieve diverse
media ownership, particularly in an era of increased media concentration.
Support Local Businesses Affected by Hurricane Katrina: In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Barack Obama
introduced the Hurricane Katrina Recovery Act to rebuild the Gulf Coast. This bill included language to
increase the government-wide goal for procurement contracts awarded to small businesses owned and
controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals for recovery and reconstruction activities
related to Hurricane Katrina. Obama also established a government-wide goal for procurement contracts
awarded to local businesses in Katrina-affected areas of 30 percent of that total value for 2006 and 2007.
Provide Emergency Relief: Barack Obama supported legislation to provide emergency relief to small
businesses affected by a significant increase in the price of heating oil, natural gas, propane, or kerosene. This
bill authorized the Small Business Administration to make disaster loans to assist small businesses that have
suffered or are likely to suffer substantial economic injury as the result of a significant increase in the price of
heating fuel.
Support Rural Small Businesses: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support entrepreneurship and spur job
growth by establishing a small business and micro-enterprise initiative for rural America. The program will
provide training and technical assistance for rural small business, and provide a 20 percent tax credit on up to
$50,000 of investment in small owner-operated businesses. This initiative will put the full support of the
nation’s economic policies behind rural entrepreneurship.
Promote Digital Inclusion: The lack of affordable, high-speed Internet access in rural, urban, and minority
communities has created a digital divide between those who have access to the Internet and those who do not.
This severely limits the growth potential of many urban and rural companies. Approximately only one-third of
rural areas and half of urban areas have high-speed Internet at home or work. The areas affected by Hurricane
Katrina have particularly suffered due to a lack of IT infrastructure. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we
can get true broadband to every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal
Service Fund, better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation technologies, and new
tax and loan incentives. As a key step to achieving full broadband access, Obama believes the Federal
Communications Commission should provide an accurate map of broadband availability using a true definition
of broadband instead of the current 200 kbs standard and an assessment of obstacles to fuller broadband
penetration.
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)
Postingan
