Ever since Howard Dean’s ill-fated run for president, the world has become increasingly aware of the use of the internet in political campaigns. Check out this article in Wired on how the internet “made Howard Dean”. This, of course, has evolved over the few years and we are starting to see more and more sophisticated use of internet marketing and fund raising by todays candidates for various offices.
I came across one particularly awesome case today on Boing Boing about an unknown candidate for Kansas State Representative. Sean Tevis has decided he’s had enough of his anti-gay, pro-life, pro-censorship, pro-wire-tapping rep, and is going to “retire him” as he puts it. Sean seems to think his best bet is with a little niche marketing, by producing a web comic in the fashion of XKCD to speak directly to a politically active, if somewhat geeky, segment of internet users.
Frankly, I think it’s brilliant.
Tevis has put together a pretty amusing comic that explains his political positions as well as the progress of his campaign thus far. He realizes that winning an election has a lot to do with how much a candidate can spend on their campaign. Even better, he has taken a record-setting fund raising goal, and broken it up into small, easily accomplished bites. Best of all, he’s found a segment of internet users most likely to agree with his views, donate a small amount to his campaign, and spread the word through various social media channels. He’s received over 100 of the 3000 donations he’s seeking in a single hour, his page has appeared on Boing Boing and it’s climbing the ranks on Digg.
Go check out Sean Tevis’ site, as it makes a terrific case study, regardless of your political views. I expect we’ll be seeing similar tactics in larger elections in the not-too-distant future.
