Blog: Political Ringtones

Obama Tests Out Political Ringtones

One of the pieces of tech advice I’ve heard over and over again in the past few months is that if political candidates want to engage younger voters they need to do it on their turf and in their language. This is good advice, and in many ways it seems to be sinking in. But unfortunately it hasn’t translated to all new mediums.

On the face of it, Barack Obama’s new ringtones are fantastic and a smart new medium to experiment with. Last year ringtones became a $500 million industry in the United States. Statistically, last year almost half of all ringtone downloaders were under 25, according to a study by the NPD Group. Of downloaders, 22% of downloaders were between 18 and 24 years old and 26% were between the ages of 13 and 17. The latter group may not help your get out the vote efforts but can be great for building momentum.