Jared Polis and Politics 2.0
I think I may have just encountered the 2008 version of a politician shaking hands at a campaign event, but it happened online instead of at a high school cafeteria. It says a lot about the changing nature of political campaigns in the Web 2.0 world, and how, just like all media, political advertising is becoming less of a one-way broadcast and more of a conversation. And it's also an example of how print and online media can work together in advertising.
My story begins at my mailbox, which just like every day was overflowing with junk mail I didn't ask for. As usual I sifted out the bills and prepared to drop the rest in the recycling bin. But this time, something caught my eye.
Jared Polis, the Boulder entrepreneur famous for Blue Mountain Arts (sold to Excite for $780 million) who's now running for congress, sent me a laptop!
Well, not exactly. But the card looked like a laptop, and the techie in me just had to open it. The inside of the card spoke straight to my geek heart, sporting a miniature MacBook Pro keyboard with Jared Polis on the screen above. I thought this was one of the more creative mailings I'd seen, so I pulled out my iPhone, snapped a picture and e-mailed it to my Flickr account (something I do at least once a day). You can see it here, or in this post.
A few days later I got an e-mail from Flickr saying someone had commented on my photo. I was tickled to see that Jared Polis himself had found the photo and posted a comment thanking me.
Before I continue, I just want to be clear that I have absolutely no relationship with the Jared Polis campaign, and when it comes to congressional elections I haven't made any decisions about who I'm going to vote for (which ironically is exactly what I told a Jared Polis caller the other day). And when I do, I'm certainly not going to blog about it.
But as an online media person, I do want to comment on how much more interesting and, yes, even FUN this was for me as a voter. It's the kind of experience politicians and marketers of all types should strive for. Compare it to endless robo-calls at dinner, sticky notes on doors and windshields, duffel-bag-carrying doorbell ringers, and of course the mass of mostly uninteresting political mailings. This was the complete opposite of all that.
Whoever came up with the idea of a card-as-laptop mailing is a genius (given Polis' greeting card background, I wouldn't be surprised if it was him). And Polis is very smart to not only search social media sites for content that people are posting about him, but also publicly interact with the content owners. After all, it got me to blog about him, didn't it?
In the context of a presidential election year where the Republican and Democratic candidates both have their own social networking sites -- McCainSpace and MyBarackObama.com -- I think we're seeing a very new kind of politics that's driven not just by the messages politicians send out, but also the degree to which they connect with potential supporters and help them connect with each other.
My story doesn't end there, by the way. My kids, 2 and 5, have since found the mailing and they refuse to let us recycle it. They consider it one of their toys: a play computer. Yesterday a neighbor kid came over and she started playing with it too, and when it was time to go home she refused to let go. To keep the peace, I had to promise her that she could play with it the next time she came over.
So lest you think print is dead as an advertising medium, or that print is something only old people care about, take a look at my kids. I wonder how many other kids are fishing this mailing out of the recycle bin and taking it to mom and dad, who then open it and read the message.
jaredpolis, 
social networking, 
politics
My story begins at my mailbox, which just like every day was overflowing with junk mail I didn't ask for. As usual I sifted out the bills and prepared to drop the rest in the recycling bin. But this time, something caught my eye.
Jared Polis, the Boulder entrepreneur famous for Blue Mountain Arts (sold to Excite for $780 million) who's now running for congress, sent me a laptop!
Well, not exactly. But the card looked like a laptop, and the techie in me just had to open it. The inside of the card spoke straight to my geek heart, sporting a miniature MacBook Pro keyboard with Jared Polis on the screen above. I thought this was one of the more creative mailings I'd seen, so I pulled out my iPhone, snapped a picture and e-mailed it to my Flickr account (something I do at least once a day). You can see it here, or in this post.
A few days later I got an e-mail from Flickr saying someone had commented on my photo. I was tickled to see that Jared Polis himself had found the photo and posted a comment thanking me.
Before I continue, I just want to be clear that I have absolutely no relationship with the Jared Polis campaign, and when it comes to congressional elections I haven't made any decisions about who I'm going to vote for (which ironically is exactly what I told a Jared Polis caller the other day). And when I do, I'm certainly not going to blog about it.
But as an online media person, I do want to comment on how much more interesting and, yes, even FUN this was for me as a voter. It's the kind of experience politicians and marketers of all types should strive for. Compare it to endless robo-calls at dinner, sticky notes on doors and windshields, duffel-bag-carrying doorbell ringers, and of course the mass of mostly uninteresting political mailings. This was the complete opposite of all that.
Whoever came up with the idea of a card-as-laptop mailing is a genius (given Polis' greeting card background, I wouldn't be surprised if it was him). And Polis is very smart to not only search social media sites for content that people are posting about him, but also publicly interact with the content owners. After all, it got me to blog about him, didn't it?
In the context of a presidential election year where the Republican and Democratic candidates both have their own social networking sites -- McCainSpace and MyBarackObama.com -- I think we're seeing a very new kind of politics that's driven not just by the messages politicians send out, but also the degree to which they connect with potential supporters and help them connect with each other.
My story doesn't end there, by the way. My kids, 2 and 5, have since found the mailing and they refuse to let us recycle it. They consider it one of their toys: a play computer. Yesterday a neighbor kid came over and she started playing with it too, and when it was time to go home she refused to let go. To keep the peace, I had to promise her that she could play with it the next time she came over.
So lest you think print is dead as an advertising medium, or that print is something only old people care about, take a look at my kids. I wonder how many other kids are fishing this mailing out of the recycle bin and taking it to mom and dad, who then open it and read the message.
jaredpolis, social networking, politicsLabels: politics, social networking
posted by Dan at
6/23/2008 04:47:00 PM
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