I was at a Houston voter's house on Tuesday evening and what do I see on the kitchen counter but Peter's blueprint - mailed to her - all eight pages, each page 8 1/2 x 11.
First impressions were that, wow, OK, he really does have a plan and here it is. I wonder how such a big piece with so much information got treated by other folks that received it. Did they throw it away after a glance (which is what happens to so much political mail) or did it look significant enough that folks at least set it aside for reading later?
I'm not patient enough to read so much text on a candidate mailer. I flipped through it, caught a few messages here and there, and set it aside. I got the overall impression that there's a plan with real details and that Brown is not just about soundbites.
I also thought, "Holy moly, how much did this cost per mailer, how much was the postage per piece and how many people did they send it to?$?$"
Did you receive this mailer? What are your thoughts after getting it at home or seeing it here online?
I've said this before and it's worth repeating:
Considering he's the only one with mail (two pieces), TV (are we up to three ads now?) and radio, I would imagine that at this point, fewer and fewer people would be surprised by that.Peter Brown's goal is to beat expectations and find everyone but him surprised when he is in the December runoff.
4 comments:
Wow. That is a LOT of information that will not be read. This is politics 101. Your mailers have to get someones attention in the first 10 seconds, or it gets recycled.
Who designed this?
"... and to borrow a phrase from him, he gushes."
Oh, that was just cold, Martha ;-)
Anon, just to present the other side of the argument for "quickly digestable" political mail ...
I've heard many arguments for the "only X seconds to read" point of view with different numbers thrown in. Usually it's 8 seconds. But regardless of the formula, I've seen the approach kill campaigns. By pretending that *everyone* must digest your mail piece in 8-10 seconds, you ignore the part of the bell curve that will set the mailer aside to read in more detail. It's those voters that get overlooked by some dinky mailer targetted at an 8-second crowd.
For the sake of this particular mail piece, even the 8-second part of the bell curve will get some usefulness out of it. It may be that "Well, at least he's got a plan ... now I don't need to read it." But they'll digest it in their own terms. What would the two-minute part of the bell curve get, let's say, from a half-page postcard with a family photo and slogan? Not much. There's no point in communicating with only half of your audience when you've got the entire audience in the room.
It's also worth highlighting that this is still the second mailer for Peter. Typically, the first few pieces are information-heavy. You can do quick postcards to remind people of your name later in the campaign. But late October isn't the time to send out detail. Now is.
Hey, Greg! I wondered how long it would take you to comment on the gushing thing . . . :)
I think you have a good explanation of why even at 8-pages, it worked probably as the campaign expected it to work at a base level for me personally:
"Well, at least he's got a plan ... now I don't need to read it."
And, I was also part of the group that put it aside for a later read.
Peter Brown is trying to make it very clear he has a plan for an even better Houston. What better way than to mail you eight pages of details about the plan so you know he's not full of b.s.?
I think it's also worth pointing out that you don't move from 3rd place to being in a runoff with quick & easy mail pieces. You have to do a bit more than the other guys. To their credit, it definitely looks as if Peter's people understand that.
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