TrendsGamifying the campaign: Hillary’s mobile app

Giulia Baroni8 years ago7 min

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What a year… For the entire world 2016 hasn’t been the best year at all… and in November, US will show us if in 2016 there can be hope or not. Republicans vs. Democrats, Trump vs Clinton, who will win? Who knows, what we DO know is that in 4 months, voters will have to choose and Hillary is cracking it, tech speaking. Her tech team leader and ex google engineer, Stephanie Hannon, said it clear “Today, a solid tech foundation is an expectation for any presidential aspirant”.

Comparing the tech and social strategies of the two candidates is not something I want to do here, besides, I like how Wired summarized it in a title: Clinton Has a Team of Silicon Valley Stars. Trump Has Twitter. So if the tycoon uses influencers and misuses Twitter as his personal journal, lady Hillary has hired a whole bunch of tech geeks and engineers to support her, and they just have released a mobile app, Hillary2016, drew to encourage supporters’ involvement.

hillary app

Turn your smartphone into a digital HQ, keep it clean, face daily challenges and quizzes, support the candidate etc. The whole campaign is now digitalized, or better, gamified.

The idea is not original, since it has a lot in common with the Sanders’ app, Field the Bern, but both give value to volunteers (essential for any presidential race). They can be comfortably at home and they are able to spread the candidate’s message just with a click.

Historical volunteers will keep doing their job, knocking on every single door to make people vote for their candidate, but young people? Well, too soon to say something about it, but if they went all crazy for Pokémon Go, they will presumably enjoy something like this.

These days, being on the App Store makes you more powerful than being on the cover of Time magazine, if you manage to do both, well… probably you are doing it right.

After the social campaign “Trump Yourself”, a tool that turns your FB avatar into an insult said by Trump, Mrs. Clinton is surfing the wave, possibly trying to catch the vote of millennials, of the outcasts, of the bullied ones.

trump yourself collage

Hillary, as she said at the beginning of this voyage, wants EVOLUTION, not the usual revolution that in the end, brings nothing. We’ll have to see the results in November, but if I can say something, I think she is taking evolution towards the right direction.

Giulia Baroni

Vivo in una nube, non solo come scelta digitale ma anche come scelta di vita. A volte torno sulla terra e adoro realizzare che viviamo in un mondo globalizzato, ecco perché sono sempre curiosa e pronta ad imparare da culture differenti. Vivi per imparare ed impara per vivere.

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