Chicago:
Where SiliconValley Meets Silicon Prairie
Besides known as the “windy city”, Chicago has a place within the hearts of all political junkies. Where else would the phrase “vote early and often” come from? This political football weighed in on the election year of the Great Chicago Fire (1871). All the winning party had to do was blame the other party for the mismanagement of the fire, fueling fear and causing a number of voters to vote more than once.
ElectionMall founders grew up in Chicago; host to more than 25 conventions including the 1968 convention that led McGovern to change the rules of selecting delegates. No longer were delegates chosen by political bosses but were selected by voters in state primaries and caucuses. This marked the end of conventions as a forum for debate to its more current celebratory and scripted function.
Chicago is a city that lives and breeds politics and has spawned a new generation of campaign technology. Don’t look for Silicon Valley here. Chicago is the Silicon Prairie, the birthplace of politics, the land of Lincoln, a place where democrats and republicans both have a say, the home for political debate and drama. Chicago is a place that defined Ravi and Simer Singh and led to the creation of ElectionMall.com back in 2000 where much of the current uses of campaign technology were envisioned, years ahead of its time. |
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National Party Conventions Feed Your Campaign Success
Even though it would be hard to imagine an American presidential election without the national party convention brouhaha, there was a time when American politics went without. These political conventions are an American invention that our founding fathers did not envision. In fact, they distrusted political parties, likening them to a return to British rule. But that was then, and this is now. National party conventions are here to stay. Like the Super Bowl, this is where the fight begins. This enormous, televised media event marks the ten campaign weeks left before Election Day.
This year, the national conventions saw tens of thousands people online, exchanging views and debating issues. Convention season marks when election season begins to weigh heavily on the minds of voters. Make sure that your campaign is accessible to the average voter. Try out ElectionMall’s Voter Shout Box that lets users share their opinions and insights publicly while reading what others have to say with a powerful scrolling marquee. Ride the wave of this unprecedented presidential election year. Go to www.electionmallshopping.com/campaign software and watch voter traffic increase on your website. |
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What We Learned About This Year’s Political Super Bowls
Media buys are now a must with so few weeks left in the election season. With the prevalence of cable, even tight-budgeted campaigns can have air time. Simply pick a zip code and submit your video.
A recent LA Times article (Campaign 2008 August 17, 2008) reports that cable TV offered double the coverage of the 2008 election year than broadcast networks. This means that record number of viewers have been watching cable during the extended primary season. Buying cable spots is not only affordable, it is strategic. Your money goes further on cable because your campaign has more opportunities to impact growing numbers of potential voters.
No matter how long and what quality video you have, ElectionMall can make that video sing. No matter what your timetable, we have the expertise to bring out the best of your video. Our work is all about high quality.
If commercials are not your cup of tea, we have online fundraising that costs nothing to set up. Just pay a small percentage of what you raise. Need some Robo calls? Email blasts? Another GOTV service? We can get you up and running in a short amount of time. Make sure to time your campaign right with the right Robo calls, direct mail and air time. Traditional ways to reach out to voters still work and impacts your Election. |
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Use Your Speed to Raise and Spend
One key campaign behavior for the election season is SPEED – how much money can you raise and how fast can you spend it all? Watching how fast things can change in a campaign (just read the political news in the last six months) makes you realize how important it is to have resources in order to spend what you have when and where the campaign trail dictates. Many of our customers return to us because they tire waiting for the campaign webmaster to update the website or input the targeted data collection. Our SaaS tools make it easy to get the changes you need done. Sometimes doing it yourself is the best use of your time. |
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Grassroots Free of Weeds
ElectionMall deepens the roots of your campaign with our traditional Grassroots Builder [hyperlink] that lets you mobilize volunteers in traditional ways and allows you to increase your Grassroots efforts. Online Grassroots (Netroots) means more social networking and community building which results in a battle ready rally party for your campaign. |
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Your Campaign Checklist
Now that your campaign is to the wire, use our checklist and make sure your campaign plan is still intact. The Campaign Checklist is how to stay focused when the finish line begins to look blurry.
Campaign Checklist
- GOTV experts know that voters need to be contacted at least three times before you have a real impact. Make sure you use proven GOTV services. Call us. We will direct you to what brings you the best results.
- Text messaging is both inexpensive and effective. Don’t miss out on this newest voter outreach method. Princeton University research shows that text messaging an individual could increase that person's likelihood of voting by four percentage points. With text message fees partially paid by the recipients, the cost is cheap - about $1.56 per vote, versus about $67 per vote by direct mail (Source, San Francisco Chronicle, August 23, 2008).
- Try out our eForm Generator Tool [hyperlink]. Capture data, names, email addresses, home addresses, and cell phone numbers. As demonstrated by Obama’s campaign, the use of text messaging from collected cell phone numbers can give your campaign a database that gives you that needed edge in a close race.
- Now is the time to shop for your campaign stuff. ElectionMall is the only company currently offering you door hangers, very popular in the political sphere. Try out our unique plastic cups and branded Party pot holders. Find stuff not found anywhere else.
Last minute shopping needs? We have the fastest turnaround time in the industry. Bring more voters to your website by offering coffee mugs, pins, buttons, pens, and whatever else you can think of that chronicles your campaign’s inclusion in this unusual and historic election year.
- If you are a PAC or a 527; whether you have a small or large budget, ElectionMall has strategic media buys for you. ElectionMall can help you plan your air time in any sized city in America. Check out our pricing with Savina at vp@electionmall.com.
- YouTube has become a political destination this election year. ElectionMall can troubleshoot, edit, and upload your campaign videos to YouTube and make sure you are part of the political “must see”. Several YouTube candidate videos have seen air time on cable and network broadcast news because of compelling video content.
- Want to reach the political influentials? What is the key to knowing people in this political space? It’s simple. Build a website, add a few pictures, embed a video. Be in a place where influentials can seek you out. ElectionMall has ready made websites or individual web pages that gets your campaign into the mix without a waiting period.
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Building Awareness
Take Action Now
Now that the real battle to win elected office has begun, don’t fall behind. ElectionMall’s Take Action Web Page is a ready made website that brands to your campaign website. All actions needed to win are streamlined onto this one vital web page. With just weeks left, a hosted web solution is still a good campaign tactic.
Collect donations; sign up volunteers, capture voter email addresses, and enable people to register to vote; all necessary in this last stretch. Remind them to early vote. Add modules, social networking, a photo gallery and “friend to friend” features linking back to your official website. Create that online poll to set the next few weeks of your campaign. Contact Evan at evan@electionmall.com for your best scenario. |
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Today's Voter Space is VoterSpace.com
Some say that this presidential election year is the most important since 1928 – no incumbents, no clear favorites, all true but we’ve heard it before – in actuality, this is the most unique election year because of Clay Aiken, this year’s American Idol. The fact that millions of Americans executed their right to vote using technology is one of the great stories this election year. This is the story behind ElectionMall’s VoterSpace.
ElectionMall’s brainchild, VoterSpace.com, is a place where voters can circulate widgets for favorite candidates and send their own “eYardsign” or electronic messages via the web. VoterSpace makes it possible for hundreds of candidates to have a web presence in minutes and is the one place in virtual space where candidates and voters can find and interact with each other.
VoterSpace has been touring around the national party conventions with former American Idol Contestant Antonella Barba as the voice and spokesperson behind this unique outreach to both voter and candidate – a virtual place for all major parties to promote democracy.
VoterSpace walks you through how to register to vote and even motivates users to vote. Use VoterSpace to remind supporters to early vote. The advantages of early voting are two fold; you have a secure number count and you now have
a warm body to bring people to the polls – vote early and vote often (think Chicago).
Check our ElectionMall directory to see which states accept early voting.
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