The Way I See Things

With the announcement of the newest incarnation of the 'Hardball' College Tour, I thought it might be instructive to explore something Congressman Paul did so well with his campaign:
Mobilizing younger voters.

I was struck by how coordinated his supporters were, and how quickly they responded to things like text messaging polls. (And I feel safe guaranteeing, it's something marketers are studying, and will be exploring for other contexts, for years to come!) I'm still not certain what the mechanism was but I imagine it was some sort of technology 'bucket brigade' (perhaps leveraging a computing cocktail of Twitter, instant messenging and text messenging), but it was undeniably effective. And I urge the Obama Campaign to do some research and replicate it!

And since college students also love 'free' stuff...
My thought was this:
As Senator Obama traverses the commonwealth, he's going to encounter quite a few campuses.
He might consider coordinating some quick, not-publicly-announced campus visits.

Back when I was in college, there was still a uniform schedule of class times. The campaign would obtain that schedule, position themselves at some central point on campus for the change of classes, then send out text messages to supporters that have registered for those updates. Then for those that show up, they get to meet Senator Obama, and get some free stuff for their effort! Ideally this should be something unique to the date and campus. They show up, display their voter registration card, and receive ome sort of announcement card or button. If time exists to create some stuff, maybe the campaign could provide, say, a 'play only' mp3 player with an intro specific to that campus and its students; and featuring the anti-iraq war speech; the democratic convention speech and the race speech.

If I was a college student...
I'd line up for it.