[VBB] Building an Online Campaign
At a lunchtime session, we’re trying to come up with a plan for using the Internet to advance a campaign to keep afternoon schools open until 5, with additional tutoring available. It’s a case study and an exercise, but grounded in reality.
It makes clear to me once again the difference between (1) using the Internet to organize a marketing campaign and (2) trying to light a fire on the Net. In this case, the polls show people support the idea, and the group knows who they need to talk with, so they only need to organize, not light a fire. Thus, the discussion turns to marketing and taglines.
Here’s the rub. The two approaches are at odds. If you want to light a fire, say something interesting, but marketing is reassuring and thus tends to be boring.
(BTW interesting != controversial)
Categories: Uncategorized dw
Yeah, I really, really want to pay extra property taxes so that volunteers from the school can go work for various and sundry candidates – many of whom will stand for things I don’t like. Here’s a hot tip for you – your kids are far, far more relevant than a political campaign. Spend time with them instead and all of us will better off.
James, the idea — which was merely a case study — is to keep schools open so that kids have a place to go and can get extra tutoring. It has nothing to do with working for candidates. I’m confused about where you got that idea from.
Actually, I saw the word “campaign” and overreacted without reading carefully; my mistake. I’m still not sure it’s the right answer though. I have a child in middle school, and my wife and I make sure that someone is home when she gets off the bus at 3:15 in the afternoon. In 3 years, that will be 2:15 (high school). That’s easier for me, as I work at home (unless I’m travelling somewhere). Still, IMHO parents need to put their kids first and figure out a way to supervise them in the afternoon.
I don’t disagree, but I also know that for some parents that’s simply impossible. I’m willing to put kids generally (not just my own) first, so go ahead and raise my taxes for this.
Now, to get back on topic, is marketing really inherent reassuring? Negative marketing, in which one bashes another’s product, isn’t. Neither are the scare ads I see for security systems.
Even the fearmongering ones are reassuring because they never raise a doubt that they can’t resolve.
Are you sure about that?
A scare ad for security systems (or an insecurity system, such as Saxby Chambliss) may leave the viewer believing that, while the security system can protect him, he still lives in a violent jungle.