Voteforchange.com – How Obama won the election

Is it really possible that a website can win a presidential election.  We heard it over and over again ‘register to vote, go to voteforchange.com’.  I was curious.  I’ve moved to a new district since the last election, so I needed to re-register.  I went to voteforchange.com.  I expected a blatant advertisement for Obama, but it wasn’t.  It was simply an easy way to register to vote.  They asked all the pertinent information and put it into a form, which I then printed, signed and sent to the supplied address. 

The brilliance of this move is threefold.  1) They obtain my name, number, email and other information.  2)  They identify me as being at least not totally against the Democratic party (I was actually on the fence).  3)  They provided an easy way for me to complete a task that I had identified in my mind as being annoying and time-consuming.

Now I’m a marketer, so I know that they’re going to use my information to contact me.  They sent me a few emails a week (which I ignored), and called a few times asking me to volunteer for Obama’s campaign (I said no).  I wondered if this strategy was effective.  Election day came.

No less than 3 Obama supporters at three different times of the day came to my door asking if I had voted yet. There was a veritable standing army of Obama supporters outside the polling station.  Obviously a lot of people who got the same phone calls and emails WERE in fact interested in supporting Obama.  So, what’s the point?

The point is that Obama was brilliant in his combination of radio, TV, and Internet advertising and that through these mediums he was able to win the highest office in the land.  Whether or not you agree with his politics (and obviously a lot of people do, you have to admit that his campaign was a brilliant feat of marketing prowess.

Note:  I didn’t link to voteforchange.com because it is different now.  They’ve changed it so it’s just a redirect to barackobama.com.  If anyone has a link to the original site feel free to leave it in the comments.