It wasn’t just the fact that Republican Scott Brown once posed for Cosmo that vaulted him to the office of U.S. senator from Massachusetts. Mobile communications also played a big part in the win. Awareness of Brown’s candidacy was spread via text messaging to more than 7,000 cell phones. But what has gained the most attention from political strategists is a new application for smartphones that was used during the race.
Walking Edge, an application that works only in smartphones with GPS capabilities, allowed Brown’s on-the-ground canvassers to view the addresses of undecided voters, home in on them via GPS and target them with a specific message at the door—all via their smartphone screen. The app also allowed volunteers to quickly update the database of voters to avoid unnecessary repetition.
“Walking Edge enabled us to get our volunteers out on the streets and knocking on targeted doors instantly,” says Robert Willington of Swiftcurrent Strategies and Web and political strategist for the Brown campaign. “It also enabled us to ensure our volunteers had a script, and a way to input the data. Creating walking books on paper is too costly and time consuming, and it bogs our staff down. Walking Edge is the future as it’s efficient and powerful.” Read more on Mobile PR.