by Ute Pannen
The American magazine Campaigns & Elections organized a three day conference in Washington D.C. to dicuss new issues of the campaign busisness. That campaigning is a buissness became obvious when more then 400 campaign manager from all parts of the US arrived. Martin Frost, who was a Congressman from 1979 to 2005 spoke about his experience as a candidate. Beside of him there was the whole American political sphere represented in its complete diversity, ranging from NGO strategists from Dallas to local politicians from Kentucky. Even international guests like the future presidential candidate of Mongolia, were looking for strategic advices, at Campaigns & Elections.
“You are from Germany – are you from the Green Party?“ I was welcomed, when I was checking in.“ I see, the Greens are here, too. Their campaigning in Germany always was most innovative. Interesting that they took their suggestions from the transatlantic mentor. In any case, it will be interesting how the green grassroots will evaluate the new trends from Washington. All the same, they usually perceive just the word America as more provocative than progressive.
Indeed the conference program was highly forward-looking. Lectures like No retreat, no surrender, Speaking to win und I’m a star everyone loves me were showcasing the American optimism in a way it can only be experienced in this country. The right strategy, the correct body language and the best tv-impression were topics. But the actually new ways were the virtual channels. How can You Tube, blogs and online-adsvertising make the voters active participants in the campaign?
Hillary Clinton has shown how it works. On her website she requested a campaign song and she gained huge response. The particular success of this song contest is the large attention it gathered. Numerous friends and foes submitted their suggestions on You Tube. These videos in turn have been picked up and commended by the print media. Even if rude attacks on Hillary took place, she profited from this attention.
After being a Member of Congress until 2006 Tom Delay recently launched his blog to bring his conservative partisans into a dialog. Delay spoke about the meaning of the political grassroots, which can develop their strengh on the internet. While the Democrats have organized their sympathising NGO’s and acitvists on the web, now the Republicans will seize bloggers support with Delay. One weapon of campaigning is micro targeting. With the help of statistics about voters consumption preferences, personal attitudes and behaviour is predicted. American data protection is less restrictive than German. Data for exampel taken from credit card transactions allows campaigners to choose special groups of voters very precisely. For example it is – based upon statitics - very likely that a single woman, who likes mountainbiking and is living in the city, favors democratic values; whereas a married man living in the countryside with a passion for sailing tends to vote for the Republicans. When it is about the voice of double-minded voters this transparency can help to adress certain groups very easily. Finally the best campaign can only find its way to success with money. Fund raising is integral to a campaign; it adds fuel to the machine. In the session Give and Take – Take and Take it was discussed how to implement a winning fund-raising plan from the ground up. This enterprise presented itself all around, not without self-mockery, and played with its image of a dirty business. This was apparent in the panel Digging for Dirt, which informed entirely impartially about where to find the opponent’s dirty laundry and how to use it aganist him. Campaigning is a business - a shabby one even in the virtual space.
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