Introducing a Google Mobile Surge

So, we launched a new great political advertising tactic called a Google Mobile Surge and surprisingly when compared to its older brother a Google Surge, the Mobile Surge over delivered on my expectations.  Now unlike my original post on a Google Surge, its a little too early to give away how to tips, but I thought it would great to give you a little background on how we came up with this political tactic....

1. A few months ago, my co-worker Ryan and I had a call with Apple to learn about their iAd platform and even though we have several clients that have enough budget to extend their advertising to mobile, Apple told us that unless we agreed to spend high 6 to 7 figures in a month they wouldn't give us even a presentation on the capabilities. (yes - Apple refused to hit the damn <send> button on an email.  Dear Apple, I love your devices but your sales force is seriously short sighted)
2. Apple  instead suggested their low end platform Quattro which they have decided to close; Ryan and I didn't bite on this offer.
3. In the meantime, I kept researching Google's capabilities in the mobile space and I worked on several projects for other clients; what I learned was that Google has $150K+ per day in App advertising and I've noticed that you can expect 10% of your search volume to be available on mobile phones.
4. Now, if you hadn't noticed, Google automatically opts your campaigns into All Devices; now this seems harmless enough because unless you make a WAP ad your ads will only show on high end devices which is a decent way to extend your reach (I monitor the results and if not meeting client goals I will opt out of mobile).
5. Next up came the Michele Bachmann Campaign which as a consultant I love working on.  They came to us with a strategy of promoting their new Jim The Election Guy video which hammered her opponent for taxing beer and reminded people at the glorious Minnesota State Fair.
   

6. Coming up with a desktop surge was easy.  Promoting the commercial to Minnesota fair ground people while they are waiting in line for the State Fair food was genius.  As I said in the article, imagine standing in line for your beer and you pull out your iPhone to have this ad delivered into the palm of your hand.  Pure evil genius...  
7. And we way over delivered on YouTube views for the ad and without giving away metrics, the CTRs were FANTASTIC and the CPCs were outrageously competitive for something that was worth far more than the CPM bids.
8. Yes I wrote CPMs bids - contrary to popular belief you can sometimes get cheap CPCs and great reach for a CPM bid.  
9. Finally, in politics, I think the volume right now is in the Apps and not in the mobile search; that's not to say you should ignore mobile search, just expect better reach on the App side for now

The campaign is happy.  We are thrilled and we are generating some buzz.  Remember, like its older brother, the Mobile Surge is not for the small budgeted advertiser..Oh and those iAds?  I'll wait for Apple's sales call when they figure out that they missed out on advertising dollars from all the small/medium advertisers - especially political ad dollars this season.

P.S. Full press release is on the more reading link below...

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Campaign Solutions / Connell Donatelli Pioneer
the Mobile Ad "Surge" for Online Campaigns
Groundbreaking Consulting Team Pioneers New Online Advertising Tactic
Alexandria, VA -- It's called the "Mobile Surge" and it looks like something straight out of the movie Minority Report. On behalf of the Michele Bachmann for Congress campaign, Campaign Solutions and Connell Donatelli unleashed the latest weapon in their online arsenal. Think of it as a Google "Surge" - this time, it's for mobile devices only. And the experiment was highly successful. The Bachmann campaign had produced a television ad highlighting opponent Tarryl Clark's record of taxing State Fair food. The challenge was to leverage this spot for persuasion on mobile devices.

Eric Frenchman, the team's Chief Strategist, explains the twist on the new Mobile Surge: "Imagine you are standing on line at the Minnesota State Fair waiting to purchase a corn dog. You pull out your iPhone or Android and the only advertisement you see is this onehighlighting Tarryl Clark's votes for tax increases on State Fair food. That's exactly what happened: in less than an hour, we served 12,500 geotargeted ad impressions to people within a 10 kilometer radius around the Fair." So how did it perform? "Out of all new video views in the first day, 61% of the new YouTube views came in from iPhones and Android phones within the targeted radius at the State Fair." Frenchman stressed, "when it comes to mobile advertising, it's all about the apps, not the websites or search results." This new strategy interacts with public opinion formation in real-time, as users experience an event. It's groundbreaking stuff.

In 2007, Campaign Solutions and Connell Donatelli pioneered the web-based Google "Surge" (sometimes referred to as a "network blast") for Bobby Jindal's gubernatorial campaign. The original breakthrough occurred when Frenchmen realized that he could saturate roughly 95% of Google's AdSense inventory for a given period of time. The tactic came to prominence in 2008 when Campaign Solutions/Connell Donatelli and the Yes on Prop. 8 campaign surged California for the critical 48 hours before the vote. One day later, California voters approved the measure 52.3% - 47.7%. It is now a commonly recognized tactic for all digital strategies.

Campaign Solutions President, Becki Donatelli, notes: "a Surge is most effective when concentrated around a seminal event, such as a phone your legislator day, a GOTV push, an election, or when a bill is introduced. Done properly, it creates immediate buzz, earned media, and a jolt in participation. Focusing it strictly to mobile devices, we took its effectiveness to the next level. We will look to use this for more of our Republican candidates and public affairs clients - now both on traditional and mobile devices." 

Campaign Solutions and Connell Donatelli are no strangers to innovation. Much of what are now standard online political tools and tactics were first designed and executed by members of their team including the first online political donation, the first online donor event, the first video donation appeal, the first online phone bank, the first "walk the vote," the first Google Surge, and the list goes on and on.

For more information on Campaign Solutions and Connell Donatelli, please visit:www.CampaignSolutions.com or call (703) 684-3435.