Pataki Donohue 1998
Governor Pataki's situation was similar to Governor Whitman's in that he was up for reelection in a large and highly visible state. In addition, he was beginning to receive attention on the national stage and needed to have a Web presence that reflected that level of stature. This race gave us an opportunity to bring down to the local level even more of the concepts tested nationally - in this case, customization.
Overview
The main goals for this site were very similar to Whitman's: communicate what had been accomplished by Governor Pataki over the course of his four years in office. In the Pataki Record section (Click here) and in the Issues section (Click here) we used things like animated charts and graphs to tell the state's fiscal turnaround story, the drop in crime, and growing job base.
Customization
Like Dole's 1996 General Election site, we used customization to help deliver to voters messages targeted directly to their specific interests. In particular, we were looking for a way to communicate how much the Governor's "Star" tax cut plan had saved the average voter. The Star tax cut had cut school property taxes by 27% for homeowners, and 45% for senior citizens. The challenge was that there was a larger tax cut in some localities and a smaller one in others, depending on real estate assessments, etc. Through customization we were able to define this for the individual voter. On the customization page (Click here) we asked voters for their contact information as well as their county, issues, and whether they wanted to join the campaign mailing list or volunteer. As in the Dole campaign, we asked them these questions once and then each time they returned, the site would be tailored to their interests. (Click here) On the county pages (not currently available) there was a detailed break out of how much senior citizens and non-senior citizens from their county had saved on their property taxes as a result of the plan. The spreadsheet table these pages were generated from was extremely complex; the average voter would have had an impossible time trying to decipher if they had saved any money at all. We were able to sort large volumes of data into usable information relevant to voters. This was the first time on a state-wide level that Web site customization had been used in a political campaign.
About George Pataki
Since the Governor was starting to get national attention, particular emphasis was placed on this section and we had a full complement of offerings here. (Click here for main About menu) In the Pataki Story, we traced his family life from his childhood into adulthood. We showed how and why he first got his start in politics and how it brought him to where he was today. (Click here) We built an extensive photo scrapbook showing the Governor's life. (Click here) We also used audio and video (not available) to enable the Governor to tell his story in his own words.
Campaign Interactive
This was similar to the Interactive features of the Dole site. We offered campaign email postcards to encourage supporters to let their friends know why they supported George Pataki (Click here). We offered a trivia quiz, with the answers to the questions coming from different sections of the site to encourage people to delve deeper into the site. We also offered fun things, like downloadable computer wallpaper and a "make your own buttons" section. Again, the concept here was to give users something to take away from the site to act as a reminder to bring them back and encourage their friends to visit.
Results
Again, we brought to state-wide campaigning the lessons learned on a national level. With customization, we were able to communicate a highly complex issue in an easy to understand and relevant way. In the Pataki story, we were able to convey the Governor's personal background and political past in a way that connected it to the current election. In our Issues Section, we were able to tell the story of the New York state turnaround under the Governor's leadership. Using Interactive tools like email postcards, we were able to turn online supporters into online activists and engage their friends and neighbors in the campaign. In the end we found that users stayed on the site for an average of over 10 minutes at a time - a testament to the presentation and availability of information on the site, and you can bet that they came away with a more thorough knowledge of the Governor than they could get from a 30 second television spot.
(Robert K. Arena, Jr. - Consultant - 1998)
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