Days after Barack Obama announced his running mate, it started leaking in how slow the much-touted text message announcement actually got to Obama supporters. "Be the first to know!" they crowed. "Sign up for the text message announcing Obama's running mate!"
But CNET reports that the ingenuity of the Obama camp's marketing with the texts was lost: Not only did it take 15 minutes to disseminate the SMS across carriers, but CNN totally stole their thunder by announcing it three hours before Obama's campaign officially did.
So much for being the first to know through the magic of SMS! I didn't even get the text at all (harumph!). But now that we all know and the Democratic National Convention is in full swing, Joe Biden withstanding, I want to know how widespread this modern tech gimmick was: Did you sign up to receive Obama's text message announcement of his running mate?
Robert Clergerie
Proenza Schouler
Ernest Jones
I signed up and got the text just after 3am but I was asleep. I read the email in the morning before I read the text.
1I got the text at 3:25AM... it woke me up, but I didn't mind! I rolled over and told my husband the news, but I don't think he comprehended, ha!
2Yeah I got the text, my sister signed me up for it. She's pretty hard core about this election, but this is the first election she has been able to vote, she turned 19 in April.
3Yeah, I got the text sometime around 1 that morning. But by that point, the announcement really wasn't that much of a surprise since all of the major news sites had posted stories suggesting that Biden would almost certainly be the VP pick.
4i didn't sign up for the text. I figured with internet and cable coverage I would probably know before it was sent.
5I didn't sign up for it. There were rumors of who the VP would be and they were right. But I think it's cool Obama is so into texting.
6I definitely thought it was weird that the media stole his thunder!! I guess news is all about who reports it first but it seems like the sort of thing you want the candidate himself to announce. Anyway I haven't signed up for any of his texts or anything, I keep up on the news with the internet, like some others mentioned.
7I signed up for, and received, the email.
8I got the text around 3AM, but it didn't matter. CNN sent a tweet before 12AM with the news. What a bummer.
9I signed up and never got the text but I got the email. And then 3 emails a day...and then 3 more the next day...Which lead me to unsubscribe from the mailing list. Seriously I don't need that much convincing to vote for Obama.
10i got the text at like 1am pacific time but i already knew thanks to cnn. totally not the shabang they were hoping for. but seeing how un-tech biden is, i can't say i'm surprised. his intro email was wack!!!! what's up with the title line? i certainly hope his dopes aren't given control of email marketing!!!!! i might have to block them from my inbox if that happens.
11I didn't see the appeal of being the "first to know" about the VP - what advantage was that going to give me? Plus, I have a prepaid phone, so a) I figured the text would be the fancy kind that my phone can't handle; and b) I wasn't going to hand out my cell number and end up getting campaign calls at 10 cents a minute. Campaign e-mail is fine; I can read it at my leisure or delete it; but phone calls add up.
And yes, I'm 31, and probably not the demographic they were hoping to reach with the text gimmick. I'm definitely not a millennial!
12I heard the crap hour of the text was because of the press, too. They had planned on making the announcement later that day, but they found out CNN had the news, so they hauled the mail (heh) to get the message out as quickly as they could. Whoops!
I'm voting McCain, so I slept just fine that night.
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