stituents in the riding, asking them to take part in a one- hour, town hall meeting to discuss the issues that affected them the most, and how Julian could help them address these issues in Ottawa. Of the people that were called, over 15,000 people participated in the TeleForum, moderated by Senator Mike Duffy, with Julian as the host. There was no media release about the meeting, and the advertising for it was done a day or two before it took place. Even with the short notice, 37.5 per cent of the people that were contacted, tuned in to listen to what Julian had to say. A story in the Vaughan Citizen, published shortly after the TeleForum, quotes Julian Fantino as saying “‘… Obviously I was able to speak and network with a greater audience than I would be able to do under normal circumstances,’ Mr. Fantino said. ‘As you know, it’s a virtual world now, very sophisticated. What a great way to reach out to thou- sands of people, It’s something that one needs to do these days to communicate.’” At the time, the media predicted Julian Fantino would win the by-election by a landslide, but when the final numbers came in, Julian had only won by just 964 votes. TeleForum, a strong campaign team, solid voter ID, and a large GOTV effort allowed Julian to become the next MPP for the riding of Vaughan, in what turned out to be a very tight race. Between the months of January and February of 2011,
Picea Partners conducted numerous TeleForums for BC Liberal leadership candidate, Kevin Falcon. Kevin’s ap- proach was to hold TeleForums in every region of the province during the election, so that outside of his tour across the province, he would still be able to address the questions and issues of party members who did not have a chance to see or meet him in person. Kevin spoke with thousands of members across the en-
tire province, and as the campaign progressed, so did the response. By the end of the campaign, Kevin was not able to address all of the questions in the queue during his TeleForums because the participation level was so high. Yet, every single member who wanted to be heard had their chance, with Kevin asking each member who still had a question to stay on the line after the TeleForum was completed and to leave a voice mail message. This gave him, or someone from his campaign team, the opportu- nity to respond to participants individually. Unfortunately, Kevin lost the election on the third ballot to front-runner, and now BC Premier, Christy Clark. But Kevin was able to close what was a ten-point gap going into the first bal- lot to just a four-point gap on the third, and as Kevin said during his TeleForums, “It’s technology like this that is going to allow us to reach out as a party and as a gov- ernment”.
Since Picea Partners brought TeleForum to Canada, the
system, as expected, has grown far beyond the political world. Different groups from all over the country are now seeing the benefits of this technology, and its use as an ef-
April 2011 | Campaigns & Elections 43
fective way of communicating with their members. From not-for-profit organizations, who see it as a fundraising tool, to associations and advocacy campaigns, who see it as a way of motivating their base and organizing their teams on a true grassroots level, to corporations who see it as cost effective way of communicating with their regional branches or shareholders, TeleForum has the ability to bring people together, and build stronger motivation and participation.
While TeleForum does not act as a replacement for the traditional methods of voter identification, and Get Out The Vote efforts, it does act as a strong tool in any campaign communications arsenal to deliver a message
While TeleForum does not act as a replacement for the traditional methods of voter identification, and Get Out The Vote efforts, it does act as a strong tool in any cam- paign communications arsenal to deliver a message to a broader audience, in a personalized manner. Picea Part- ners is the first, and leading, Canadian company to offer TeleForum, and this technology is our primary focus. We are constantly working with the development team to im- prove the system so that the client receives the maximum results on each TeleForum. Our recent integration into social media allows the client to have participants sign up directly through their Facebook page. Statistics show that participants who signed up online to take part in a Tele- Forum stay online more than twice as long as someone who did not sign up online. The average person stays on a TeleForum for about 18 minutes. The average Facebook participant stays on the TeleForum for about 44 minutes. Of participants who signed up through Facebook, 41 per cent will ask a question during the TeleForum, whereas only 8 per cent of people who did not sign up on Face- book will ask a question. TeleForum is continually being upgraded to stay on top
of current and new technologies that will allow for higher participation numbers when a TeleForum is taking place. Now more than ever are political parties looking for new and effective ways of using new trends and technology to communicate their message to the voting public. TeleFo- rum is the tool that will accomplish that.
Andrew Harris is a principal with Picea Partners Inc. (
www.piceapartners.ca) and can be reached at
andrew@piceapartners.ca
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