Rospars Laments Passion's Absence
BY Nancy Scola | Monday, November 1 2010
When it comes to the innovation use of digital tools, why has the 2010 election cycle been, frankly, a little dull? It comes down, writes Obama '08 new media director Joe Rospars, to a lack of passion:
Without a massive national campaign until 2012, candidates and organizations competing in the midterm elections have had to adapt new media tools and opportunities to smaller scales.
Those efforts at adaptation have faced many of the same pitfalls marketers of all kinds have had when trying to sort out what to do with the Internet and social media.
In the face of a rapidly evolving landscape and new tools around every corner, many organizations have retreated back to the bad old days -- implementing Twitter and Facebook versions of their tired blast e-mails that contain little more than press releases or direct-mail copy.
Others have cobbled together derivative, copycat campaigns -- borrowing tactics from successful digital initiatives. Many of these efforts lack the crucial ingredient to drive real results: true passion.
So, how should marketers look at the digital efforts of the 2010 election to this point? It should be a wake-up call that there are no shortcuts.
Rospars acknowledges that presidential races are simply different beasts than even big-name Senate races. But even given the changed context, we've just gone through a cycle where cutting a funny web ad constitutes a breakthrough in candidate-constituent communications. Alas, there doesn't appear to be a way to read the whole of Rospars' piece without handing over some coin to PR Week. But that's the gist.