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| Obama reserves thanks for 'best ever' team that put data at its beating heart | Obama reserves thanks for 'best ever' team that put data at its beating heart |
| (5 months later) | |
| When Barack Obama gave the requisite vote of thanks to his loyal supporters in his victory speech on election night in Chicago, he did so in very unusual terms. He raised his hat to "the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics. The best. The best ever." | When Barack Obama gave the requisite vote of thanks to his loyal supporters in his victory speech on election night in Chicago, he did so in very unusual terms. He raised his hat to "the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics. The best. The best ever." |
| That was more than the gushing of a man who had just won a second term in the White House on the backs of thousands of volunteers. It was a statement of fact about a historic ground operation that will provide the model for political campaigns in America and around the world for years to come. | That was more than the gushing of a man who had just won a second term in the White House on the backs of thousands of volunteers. It was a statement of fact about a historic ground operation that will provide the model for political campaigns in America and around the world for years to come. |
| The 2012 Obama For America (OFA) re-election campaign was the culmination of the president's belief in the power of local neighbourhood action that he acquired as a community organiser in poor areas of Chicago back in the 1980s. That faith in bottom-up organising was combined this year with a massive digital database to produce a campaign that was simultaneously hyper-localised and rigorously centralised. | The 2012 Obama For America (OFA) re-election campaign was the culmination of the president's belief in the power of local neighbourhood action that he acquired as a community organiser in poor areas of Chicago back in the 1980s. That faith in bottom-up organising was combined this year with a massive digital database to produce a campaign that was simultaneously hyper-localised and rigorously centralised. |
| At the beating heart of the operation was a gargantuan database of information on millions of voters including their past voting records, their occupation and income, housing status, family connections and interests. That was linked digitally by a customised tool kit called Dashboard, developed for this election cycle, that allowed volunteers to interract with the database as they were knocking on voters' doors. | At the beating heart of the operation was a gargantuan database of information on millions of voters including their past voting records, their occupation and income, housing status, family connections and interests. That was linked digitally by a customised tool kit called Dashboard, developed for this election cycle, that allowed volunteers to interract with the database as they were knocking on voters' doors. |
| Obama had one huge advantage over Mitt Romney – time – and he used it very well. While Romney had to wait until after he had secured his party's nomination in May to be able to build a ground operation, Obama to large extent had never stopped campaigning locally ever since 2008. | Obama had one huge advantage over Mitt Romney – time – and he used it very well. While Romney had to wait until after he had secured his party's nomination in May to be able to build a ground operation, Obama to large extent had never stopped campaigning locally ever since 2008. |
| He created a vast matrix of local field offices that were concentrated in the key swing states where his strategists knew the election would be won or lost. In Ohio, the state that delivered victory to the president shortly after 11pm on Tuesday night, Obama For America opened no fewer than 130 offices with paid staff equipped with the new Dashboard technology. | He created a vast matrix of local field offices that were concentrated in the key swing states where his strategists knew the election would be won or lost. In Ohio, the state that delivered victory to the president shortly after 11pm on Tuesday night, Obama For America opened no fewer than 130 offices with paid staff equipped with the new Dashboard technology. |
| Romney, by contrast, had 40 offices open in Ohio by election day, and his volunteers had to make do with digital tools bought off the shelf from private contractors. | Romney, by contrast, had 40 offices open in Ohio by election day, and his volunteers had to make do with digital tools bought off the shelf from private contractors. |
| Mitch Stewart, OFA director in the battleground states and Jeremy Bird its national field director, explained in a memo this week what the combination of offices and digital database allowed the campaign to do. It allowed them to sign up almost 700,000 volunteer shifts to get out the vote in the final four days in the battleground states – an electoral blitzkreig that clearly had an impact on voter turnout. | Mitch Stewart, OFA director in the battleground states and Jeremy Bird its national field director, explained in a memo this week what the combination of offices and digital database allowed the campaign to do. It allowed them to sign up almost 700,000 volunteer shifts to get out the vote in the final four days in the battleground states – an electoral blitzkreig that clearly had an impact on voter turnout. |
| It helped them register 1.8 million voters in swing states – almost double the number, the organisers claimed, than the Obama campaign achieved in 2008. Above all, it facilitated direct contact between Obama staff and volunteers and undecided voters. | It helped them register 1.8 million voters in swing states – almost double the number, the organisers claimed, than the Obama campaign achieved in 2008. Above all, it facilitated direct contact between Obama staff and volunteers and undecided voters. |
| The emphasis there was on the "direct". The Obama camp believes with the fervour of the missionary that friendship, contact and the personal touch is the key to winning elections. | The emphasis there was on the "direct". The Obama camp believes with the fervour of the missionary that friendship, contact and the personal touch is the key to winning elections. |
| As Stewart and Bird put it in the memo, the core relationship was between Obama volunteers and the individual voters who they "have been talking to for months, and know personally. This is the difference between the Obama campaign and any other campaign we have ever witnessed. Ours is a people-centered, data-driven campaign that has built small, manageable neighborhood teams run by talented volunteers and supported by amazing field organizers who know the exact number of votes they need to win in their precincts." | As Stewart and Bird put it in the memo, the core relationship was between Obama volunteers and the individual voters who they "have been talking to for months, and know personally. This is the difference between the Obama campaign and any other campaign we have ever witnessed. Ours is a people-centered, data-driven campaign that has built small, manageable neighborhood teams run by talented volunteers and supported by amazing field organizers who know the exact number of votes they need to win in their precincts." |
| The other central emphasis, that will also revolutionise the way political campaigns are organised in future, was on digital targetting. This is by now a familiar theme in politics, but OFA dramatically increased its reach, investing in technology that harnessed Facebook and other social media to spread the message. | The other central emphasis, that will also revolutionise the way political campaigns are organised in future, was on digital targetting. This is by now a familiar theme in politics, but OFA dramatically increased its reach, investing in technology that harnessed Facebook and other social media to spread the message. |
| OFA used cookies to service targeted digital adverts to voters' computers, honing the message according to the individual's age, gender, occupation, interests and voting history. | OFA used cookies to service targeted digital adverts to voters' computers, honing the message according to the individual's age, gender, occupation, interests and voting history. |
| They also made a foray into smart television targeting – a pioneer technology that allows political campaigns to focus TV adverts on cable television down to the area of a few blocks, allowing them to concentrate on the most vital areas even within the most vital swing states. | They also made a foray into smart television targeting – a pioneer technology that allows political campaigns to focus TV adverts on cable television down to the area of a few blocks, allowing them to concentrate on the most vital areas even within the most vital swing states. |
| So when Obama stood in front of the Chicago crowd on Tuesday night and praised "the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics" he was making a point. Behind those words lay an organisation that is certain to change the way elections are fought long into the future. And he knew it. | So when Obama stood in front of the Chicago crowd on Tuesday night and praised "the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics" he was making a point. Behind those words lay an organisation that is certain to change the way elections are fought long into the future. And he knew it. |
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