Did you get robo-calls during the election? Press 1 for yes . . .
I have asked quite a few political consultant types over the years why they do phone calls, particularly robo-calls, when they seemed to hack voters off in a big way. The answer typically comes back, “Well, you have to remember, phone calls are cheap.”
Yeah, but are they effective? Someone must think so. From a recent Pew Center report:
Nearly two-thirds of registered voters (64%) received recorded telephone messages in the final stages of the 2006 mid-term election. These so-called “robo-calls” were the second most popular way for campaigns and political activists to reach voters, trailing only direct mail as a key tool of political communication.
Click here to read the whole thing. (PDF)
More from the release:
Some 49% of American adults got direct mail contacts from candidates in 2004, compared with 61% this year. And 10% of American adults were visited in their homes by political activists in 2004, compared with 16% this year. In contrast, the number of Americans getting email political solicitations dropped slightly from 15% in 2004 to 12% in 2006.
So e-mail use dipped a bit while direct mail went up. That seems odd, especially with “You” as the person of the year and all, but I have a dime-store explanation:
Some of the biggest and most savvy users of e-mail in 2004 were presidential candidates. No presidential race this year meant some of the big players in e-mail use were off the board. My bet is you will see a spike in e-mail use in 2008.
Also, a lot of the best campaign e-mail wouldn’t register as coming from a campaign. The type of stuff you get from your mom or sister or neighbor or buddy at work that says what a great guy Candidate X is might have been prompted by the campaign itself saying “write your friends.” But those on the receiving end wouldn’t see it as campaign spam, but as an e-mail from an acquaintance.
As for the direct mail bump, I would bet that has to do with a lack of a presidential contest. More money was available to contests lower down on the ticket, which meant more candidates could do more mailings.