Obama's Healthcare loss... failure to exploit his assets
Why isn't the Obama administration using mobile to shape the healthcare debate?
Obama’s
challenge with mobile is the same as for many marketers. Generating interest in
the initial campaign can generate huge follow on opportunities, but maintaining
a dialogue with a consumer which they perceive is valuable can get tough pretty
quickly. And yet, this is where brand loyalty is cemented and brand zealots are
born. Consumers demand some form of value in a dialogue. During the
Presidential Election the value was really worthwhile: “change”, now continued
investment is required to continue to provide a valuable exchange with the
consumer.
Obama
has a significant database of voters which he can communicate with, but he
needs to move from the existing political dialog and move to engaging us in
supporting his policies, by doing things such as:
- Devise
a true 1-to-1 dialogue with the people, which can help dilute the power of
lobbyists and provide some tangible steps that help people know what action to
take.
- Send
a viral TXT message which loyalists can pass on to friends and relatives
containing a link to a video which they can watch to hear Obama's side of the
debate. This could make it into the hands of tens of millions of people
if the viral effect came into full
force.
- Send
a blast-out SMS with a link to a really useful and informative wap site,
sharing Obama's recommendation on the health debate. The wap site could
have a calculator allowing people to see how they or their family members would
be affected by the proposed changes.
- Provide
an iPhone app calculator which does the same and calculates the health care
costs under the different plans being considered.
The goal is to create the crucial conversations not just between Obama and voters, but between loyalists and their friends, colleagues and families, where some real value and information is exchanged in both directions. After all one-to-one is the promised power of mobile right?
Comments