viral campaigns

I've posted a ton of stuff about Trick or Vote and their viral street efforts during the DNC in Denver, but they were not the only youth organization with a clever marketing scheme to spread the word about their activities at the convention. Rock the Vote also had an innovative viral campaign on the streets of downtown Denver this week and I think they deserve a shoutout.

On Monday, the first day of the convention, I probably met at least two or three people on the street wearing black T-shirts with the number 81.6% written across the front in white, handing out identical black and white post cards. It definitely piqued my curiosity, even if I didn't stop (I'm super bad about stopping for canvassers). On Tuesday, I encountered them again with the number 13.3 emblazoned on their black T-shirts. The shirts and handouts were eye-catching, and on both days people were definitely stopping to talk to the volunteers about these mysterious numbers.

I think it was later that day that Bondelli explained to me the dynamics of the campaign. Each number represented a statistic about young voters. The campaign had a new number each day, culminating on Thursday, when the number was election day:

• Monday - 81.6%: the percentage of registered young voters who turned out in 2004.
• Tuesday - 13.3: the millions of young Americans without health insurance.
• Wednesday - 1,049,398: the number of 17-29 year olds who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan.
• Thursday - 11.04.08: the day that young voters will decide their future

This is very reminiscent of the "November 2nd" campaign in 2004 in which (supposedly millions) of black T-shirts with the day of the 2004 election printed on them were created to increase visibility around the election, especially among young people.

This whole campaign seemed to attract a lot of attention in Denver. I don't know if Rock the Vote plans on rolling out a similar nation-wide campaign in the fall, but I could see it being an effective way to message about the election and youth participation during the final three or four weeks before the election. Maybe 1 T-shirt/message per week used by all the volunteers for the non-partisan (or even partisan, if they wanted) campaigns?