Move over Obama - SA is alive with e-campaigning possibilities

There are certainly factors why this campaign worked. Firstly America is home to over 300 million individuals, a substantial amount constantly online. The numbers show that over 248 million Americans are connected to the internet, a massive 82% of the population. Quite simply you have a captive market just waiting to not only hear a message but also looking to converse on a topic and interact with like-minded users while at the same time debating with opposition supporters.

SA's comparative campaign landscape

The landscape of the South Africa internet couldn't be any more different. With only around 5 million people having access to the internet at the moment, we are looking at connectivity levels of at most, 11% of the population. And while internet usage is growing quickly with internet experts predicting that 2009 will see the biggest shake-up in South African internet access since the dawn of the web as we know it in 1994, the question remains - could South African political parties run a presidential campaign in the same vein as the Obama marketing machine?

Is there even a point in devoting money to an online campaign? The reality of the situation is that internet development is severely stunted in South Africa. Marketers still haven't quite wrapped their heads around what makes a good online campaign and most users still think that clicking on an animated banner could help them win this week's European lottery of one hundred bazillion pounds.

Infancy of the industry aside, 11% of a population, specifically a literate, employed, affluent and opinionated percentage seems like a good place to start for any political party. Could an online political campaign work in South Africa? Obamaism aside, yes it can!

If we are looking at the bottom line an online marketing campaign costs a mere fraction of traditional media. Any savvy political party will realize the financial benefit of online advertising. Why bother spending hundreds of thousands pushing a message to people through the medium of TV when you can spend a tenth of that pulling users towards your message.

Online politicking

Politics is all about giving the people what they want and what better medium than the internet to find out what it is that people desire the most. This ability to interact on an individual is both powerful and critical for political parties. Online reputation management alone would go a long way to increase interaction with voters (users). And by engaging with these debates and publishing their own point politicians would go a long way to swaying users to their agenda.

At the moment, the Democratic Alliance has launched a placeholder website but seems to be the most progressive in terms of their online activities. DA leader, Helen Zille is a blogger and the party seems to have had some interaction with bloggers who either praise or complain about the party. The new DA logo is very much like that of the Obama campaign and the party seems to be embracing Web 2.0 marketing in the most ambitious manner possible. In all honesty, the traditionally affluent, white voter of the DA constituency is relatively well connected to the internet positioning the DA as the best party to tap into an online campaign.

Other parties such as the ANC have a website that looks as though it was created around the time of the first democratic elections. Their other online interaction is limited to an email newsletter and a handful of fake Julius Malema accounts on Facebook.

And what of fledgling parties like The Congress of the People? It could be argued that since the party is only a few months old they hardly enough time to pull together a website let alone get an online presence going.

Do it like Obama

But the point is that they - and perhaps other relatively unknown parties - could use the web to do exactly what Obama did: go from a relatively unknown, and the proverbial "David" up against "Goliath" in the form of a political giant like Clinton, to the word on everyone's lips. And given the short time that a party like COPE has to garner support, using social media tools might not only be cost effective but the quickest method to get voters on your side and then further evangelise other voters.

What's more, they (and everyone else) could and should be thinking beyond the mainstream internet to mobile communication given is pervasiveness and penetration in the South African market. It is after all the most prominent digital platform in our context. So not only "How do you use the internet in the political race?" but "How can you, as a party, get a presence on the handset of the voter?"

Answer that and you have the potential to swing a vote based on an online campaign and the means to change politics around the world forever.

The thing with digital is that it's really a "soapbox" for everyone. It is a space where ideas spread like wildfire and people for some reason believe everything they read. The reality is that costs are lower and the manpower required is minimal in comparison to offline campaigns. It is with that logic that it seems highly short sighted for any political party to ignore the internet or mobile and digital as a platform. 11% might not be enough to dedicate the bulk of party's resources to a digital campaign but it certainly is enough to help swing next year's critical vote.