Whoops! Obama's VP text-messaging idea didn't work out so well

The Obama campaign promised us we'd be the first to know. Nearly a week later, we're still waiting.

(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News)

It sounded like a great idea at the time: Barack Obama announced that he'd announce his veep selection through text messaging.

A campaign e-mail message on August 12 promised: "Let me be very clear. You are the ones who built this campaign, and Barack wants you to be the first to know who will join him in leading our movement for change."

There were just two problems with that plan. First, the Obama campaign chose the traditional route of handing the news first to a favored reporter: Joe Biden's selection was first reported by CNN. Second, many messages never arrived (one of my colleagues is still waiting).

Keynote Systems on Thursday called it a "technical bellyflop."

Nearly 3 million people received the August 23 text message--sent out around 3 a.m. EDT--Nielsen reported earlier. However, Keynote estimates that 40 percent to 50 percent of people who signed up to receive the text either received it late or not at all. Keynote Systems measures and monitors e-business performance.

The estimate is based on 600 tests Keynote conducted across two major carrier networks on the Obama Campaign short code from August 13 to 22.

The late and failed texts demonstrate "the inadequacy of the SMS technical infrastructure to support large-scale marketing campaigns," said Shlomi Gian, director of mobile business development for Keynote.

Failing to deliver the text before the press announced it probably didn't help Obama's marketing campaign, either.

[rmva]

Hopefully folks in big cities who sign up for Emergency Notification text messages understand that they will probably not get the word.

[georgiarat]

Since the text messaging was for hype and not for accuracy, like the rest of Obama's campaign, they would have considered it a success if only 10% had made it through as long as the press reported it. Luckily here was no real emergency that would have been effected by the stunt.

The text messaging stunt today is the same. all style and no substance.

[alexb_03]

I think georgiart missed it - SMS is a communication vehicle. Whether that be announcing America's next teen idol or America's next VP. But hopefully we can all tell which one is the stunt.

[shetaan819]

I actually work in the industry and have seen Keynote's tests and graphs and this doesn't mean that the entire SMS infrastructure is necessarily unreliable - they measure the speed at which a MT (message being sent to a handset) reaches a handset after a MO (message sent to a shortcode) is sent from a handset.

About 50% of those who signed up for text alerts did not receive the actual text message telling them about the VP nomination but did receive the introductory messages letting them know that they were signed up for the service....thus the only tests that should count are in the Aug22nd time frame after the announcement was made...

Their tests only prove that there was a problem. There are several factors that could account for a message not reaching a user's handset. The tests don't show where the problem lies in the SMS infrastructure - it doesn't account for late delivery of a MO message by a carrier/aggregator (middle man between content providers and the carrier) or late retrieval of a MO message by a content provider , or late delivery of a MT message by the content provider/aggregator/carrier.

If its the content provider's fault, it means the Obama camp should have simply used a different content provider not that the entire SMS industry is unreliable.....

[assman]

I signed up to get the notification via SMS and never received a text message. still waiting for it..

[anythingbutmicrosoft]

I'm willing to "bet the farm" that a Microsoft product was to blame. A significant part of my income is migrating businesses from MS based messaging, a.k.a. Virus Exchange, to alternative systems that meet the failed expectations of the MS products.

[Drew_Smith]

I doubt Obama's goal was ever to hit a 100% success rate in reaching the intended recipients. While 50% may not seem like a great success rate, it was a savvy publicity stunt and showed the country again that Obama knows how to market himself, as well as embracing the latest technology channels.

[lacykemp]

At least someone came up with the idea to do it via SMS. It's a good sign that they are keeping up with the times.

[hlwdjsd]

Sure, it didn't work as planned (I never got the message), but how many things actually work perfectly first time out? The important thing is for them to find out where the failure was and fix it for next time.

[rtfellows]

This isn?t a real-time day of measurement of the VP text campaign. Just mediocre after-the-fact guessing from a company trying to sell their products and get a little PR. All of my friends received their text. Go Obama!