» The NDP Dials F for Fail
90+ days ago, I joined the BC NDP to vote in the leadership race. Since then I have received scores of robocalls from each candidate, major endorsers, Jack Layton and the official party (reminding me to vote, I’m guessing), and human calls from volunteers working for each candidate. In the past week alone, I count 14 calls. Many of them leave voicemail.
I haven’t listened to a single robocall message or voicemail. Once I realized that I was on the list, I started screening my calls. I’m conscientious enough that I listen to the first second of voicemails before deleting them. This has really underscored my need for visual voicemail.
Robocalls and voicemails often don’t even get to who they’re supporting in the first second, so calls placed to me have been worth nothing to their campaigns. Despite the fact that Obama overwhelmingly demonstrated the value of text messages in his 2008 campaign, I have not received a single text. Texts are cheaper to send than robocalls (and much cheaper than volunteer calls) and they can’t be ignored without delivering their payload.
I have not been invited to Like anyone on Facebook or Follow anyone on Twitter. In the past week I’ve received 16 emails from candidates, about half of which follow guidelines for email newsletter metadata. Because I didn’t opt-in to any of these, I have been marking them all as spam and haven’t opened any of them.
I can only assume that the barrage of phone calls and emails is effective for some voters, or else the campaign directors just don’t know what else to try. But I hope the NDP don’t expect this incompetence to win them the next provincial election. It’s embarrassing that Canadian parties still haven’t learned from the lessons of America in 2008.
When it came to the most recent Toronto mayoral election, Joe Pantalone “won Twitter” and I think Facebook too. When it came to the actual election, Rob Ford’s use of telephone town halls won him the whole game. Social media is great for engaging social media users. Telephones are great for engaging groups who actually vote in large numbers.
s.
15 Apr 11 at 8:57 am
Though you’re 100% right about text messages.
s.
15 Apr 11 at 9:02 am
I recognize that I’m not a normal voter, but I have trouble imagining what it’s like to be the kind of person whose voting is influenced by robocalls? There were some analyses put out after Obama’s campaign that showed that text messages were far better bang-for-buck than phone calls, but I was too lazy to dig them up before posting this…
Jared
15 Apr 11 at 9:14 am
Honestly, robocalls won the election with the largest constituency in Canada.
s.
15 Apr 11 at 4:16 pm
Although I think that the robocalls were just the first step for Ford; the telephone “town hall” meetings that they connected to were the more innovative and interactive things that, according The Star story, helped him to win the election.
Don
15 Apr 11 at 7:58 pm
Right, but the voter engagement started with the calls, and that’s why they’re important. The other stuff wouldn’t, and indeed couldn’t have happened without them. (And note that apparently Obama did something similar before the 2008 election in the States.)
s.
15 Apr 11 at 8:44 pm
Just a guess without research: robocalls win the oldster vote? Amirite?
Layton is pissing me off at the Federal level because of his active cannibalization of the Liberal Left. He should be removed — he can’t lead to victory and has no concept of strategy.
Jack
17 Apr 11 at 3:25 pm
I believe the NDP is playing the long game: become the opposition-in-waiting. So a few rounds of Conservative majority are worth putting up with if it pushes the Liberals to third place.
Jared
18 Apr 11 at 10:09 am
Ed Broadbent thinks the NDP can win a majority.
It is unfair to compare provincial or federal elections to municipal races; municipalities are historically won by the candidates best able to get out the vote and get their name remembered, as turnout is usually so low and those that vote so uninformed.
Robocalls might be an effective strategy at the municipal level (vote, for ME!) but less so in a more big media-oriented game such as a federal election where character, image and party affiliation are more critical.
stewie
18 Apr 11 at 4:56 pm
[...] my friend Adam said that I should have got involved with the leadership campaign instead of whining about robocalls – but the only volunteering opportunity I was aware of was making those very calls! The [...]
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