Featur e
with the goal of having them perform analog (a.k.a. real-world) tasks. The iPhone application offered a
Green Party Of Canada iPhone Application
ter MacKay, in Central Nova. While pitting her against a well known minister did provide her with national earned media, she would had to have galvanized the entire riding’s progressive movement to beat him, which turned out to be an impossible task with strong NDP support in the region splitting the vote. In contrast, the progressives in Saanich-Gulf Islands in 2008
had fallen largely behind an environmentally friendly Liberal candidate, who had come within 2600 votes of Lunn. Pre- election polling placed May neck and neck with Lunn, which was better than her chances ever would have been in Central Nova, where MacKay again pummeled the progressives.
May and her ground team
were able to attract people to her rallies, at one point even filling an airplane hanger with potential supporters. Her
charm was then able convert them to be Green Party
ambassadors and volunteers, providing the feet on the
ground needed to execute on the campaign.
Social Media: Digital Ground Game The Greens deployed a full array of digital broadcast and engagement mechanisms on the campaign trail, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and an iPhone application to broadcast information to their volunteers, donors and voters
26 Campaigns & Elections | Canadian Edition
number of innovations never deployed before in an election. The first was a candidate directory based on a voter’s postal code, allowing volunteers and the public to connect with the Green can- didate in their riding. The second was a postcard feature that allowed volunteers to share a postcard from the Green party with their friends on Facebook or Twit- pic. The third was an innovative ground- game application that asked members to perform tasks on behalf of the party, such as sign-up a friend for the Green mailing list. Members performing the
tasks were rewarded with points, creating the first intra-party competition for which members could perform the most tasks in support of the party. The application showcased how tech- nologically inclined the Green support base was, and scored download ratios of 30% against May’s Facebook fan base, well above the ambient 10% of Canadians who have Apple app- capable devices. Leveraging new media, the Young Greens developed the
“Draw Out the Vote” YouTube video that encouraged vol- unteers to grab green chalk and draw lines to the advanced and election polling stations. This digital-to-analog cross- over activity grabbed press attention as green lines where televised being drawn outside media headquarters in the direction of polling stations across the country.
Volunteers: Analog Ground Game With an innovative digital strategy in play in the riding and across the country, it was also recognized that an active ground game had to be run in Saanich-Gulf Islands for May to be successful. May’s natural charisma was the first ingredient. May and
her ground team were able to attract people to her rallies, at one point even filling an airplane hanger with potential supporters. Her charm was then able convert them to be Green Party ambassadors and volunteers, providing the feet on the ground needed to execute on the campaign. “Elizabeth’s ability to attract volunteers was a direct re- flection of the energy she put into campaigning,” explained Kieran Green, the Communications Director for the Green Party of Canada. “She was able to become the galvanizing voice of the progressives which made it a two horse race from the get-go.” The main stronghold of Gary Lunn’s support was Sidney. The Gulf Islands were filled with progressives and had pro- vided the majority of the support for the previous Liberal contender in 2008. Cracking Sidney was going to be the true test of the campaign’s ability to execute. It was near the end of the campaign during an all-leaders
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