Van collegebank naar campagne #2: Ted Cruz and his gamified campaign strategy

In the summer of 2015, Republican candidate Ted Cruz’s digital team (headed by this young advisor Josh Perry, now aged 27) wanted to win the battle over digital engagement in the Republican race. They seemed to be off to a pretty good start.

Campaigning in 2016 is not complete without having a digital strategy. I thought it would be fun to check out some of Cruz’s online efforts.

There are a couple of hurdles you have to overcome when you start any campaign. In short, you can break‘em down in three things:

• Barrier to entry: things like membership fees
• Coordination costs: the $$$ that are needed to coordinate any kind of campaign
• Biographical availability: your people need to have time, enough knowledge of the subject, be in the right place, and geographical location to participate

The digital age has significantly reduced barrier entry challenges and coordination costs. Yet, not everyone is online yet (that’s a whole issue of its own). And then there’s another important finding research shows us: today, more and more people find each other online but still build real connections offline. Digital campaigners increasingly rely on online tools. At the same time they say over-reliance on those tools is a bad thing: it risks a limitation in ‘real’ relationshipbuilding.

The core principals of organizing haven’t changed, the platforms have.

So let’s get back to Cruz’s digital team and their quest to be the kings of the republican digital kingdom. (By now, compared to last year, there’s this thing that got in their way: Donald Trump. But that’s also another issue.)

Following the digital campaign theory they need to convert his online following into offline action. Here’s one of the things they developed that’s worth noting.

The campaign launched an app some months ago, that “gamifies” collective action. (Ben Carson and Rand Paul also launched apps, btw.) I downloaded it this morning. (Late adapter.) With the app, you can earn points and that way become the number #1 in the “CruzCrew” leaderboard. You earn points by sharing Cruz’s campaign messages on Twitter, Facebook, by canvassing, by talking to your friends, and by completing your information profile. This way, the app has multiple functions: it spreads the message, first online and in the digital world, but as soon as you’re lured into the game, you can get even more points by going offline.

But there’s more.

In an interview with NPR last November Cruz’s director of research and analytics Chris Wilson explains Cruz’s campaign scored the national voter file, and cross references your phone contacts with those files. If, (wow very unlikely in my case), let’s say 3 friends would match that potential, you will get a message on your phone asking you to get in touch with those three friends to get out the vote.

Last I found is that at least 25,000 people have downloaded the app. In audience engagement, it’s not only about the sheer ‘eyeballs’ that show their support clicktivism-ing away. It is, maybe more importantly, about their level of commitment. That is what builds movements and ultimately brings change.

So today Cruz no longer has the biggest Twitter or Facebook account among the 2016 presidential candidates. (Trump’s Facebook page has a following of 5.5 million, for instance.) But who knows — maybe quantity is no guarantee, after all.

Today, the candidates will face their voters for the first time this year, in the Iowa caucus. We’ll see what happens with Cruz. Let the voting begin!