Blog: 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.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

These days it seems like celebrities are just drawn to advocacy issues. They act as UN ambassadors like Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman, they co-write books on genocide like Don Cheadle, and they start movements like Bono. So why aren't they taking advantage of one of the most viral forms of advocacy out there - ringtones?

Last night during the finale of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano's cell phone went off and my neighbor Ryan gasped, "I have to get that ringtone." A few minutes later Pauly Walnut's cell phone rang and my friend David commented on how awesome the ringtone was. It almost felt like Pauly let it ring just to play a few extra chords. These weren't gimmicky ringtones pulled from the show's theme song or anything. They were just great sounding ringtones that sounded good and, if overheard in public, might have some hidden meaning to die hard Sopranos fans. And they happened to get some of the best airtime of the year with placement on The Sopranos finale.

With all the star power behind so many advocacy organizations, why aren't more of them going for ringtone placement like this? Why am I curious about this? Guess what I did today. I went looking to buy Tony's ringtone. It wasn't on Cingular's website, or on Sprint's. Even HBO, which has a great mobile site with several ringtones, didn't have it. They only had Joe McBride's "I woke up this morning and got myself a gun" and The Sopranos' theme song as ringtones, which in my opinion are a bit cliche. It was good to see that Phil Gallo with Variety TV gave Pauly Walnut's ringtone a shout out when he praised the music from last night's episode.

The ringtone I wanted - and that my friends wanted - wasn't out there. And why not? I'm sure we weren't the only ones to covet the ringtone. Ringtones have been hot for years, and the idea of integrated product placement is nothing new. CBS did it right last year. During an episode of CSI, Danny Messer's phone went off to the tune of Coldplay's Talk. And then at the commercial break, CBS offered it up for sale. I'm not sure what CBS' response was to this, but it seems like an awesome gimmick to me - one that goes a bit farther than your standard product placement with potentially excellent results.

Imagine what would happen with some star power behind a compelling advocacy issue. Well, American Idol's two-day Idol Gives Back series received more than 70 million calls or text messages. That's insane. Just think of the money that could be raised and the messages that could be spread if Bono released a ringtone during a popular television show for the song Instant Karma which happens to be on a CD Amnesty International is releasing tomorrow to raise awareness and mobilize people to save Darfur. It would surely have a great viral effect and further spread the word about the album and the cause. Heck, if that had been placed during The Sopranos finale, it would have been a huge score even without a product placement in the episode.

So does anyone know how much it would cost to place ringtone in an show?

By the way, if you want to get Tony's ringtone from last night's episode, here is the best link i found.

Development Seed is making the news again, and surprisingly it’s for the political ringtones that Eric cooked up back in October. Reporter Mariecar Mendoza from Knight Ridder Newspapers wrote a story on the business of selling personalized ringtones that talked about how the music industry – mostly hip hop but also religious – has really taken advantage of them. She goes on to mention how ringtones have been used politically:

Political ringtones are back in the news, this time in the UK. This
article
discusses the origins of the political ringtone, pinpointing it back to
the "Hello Garci?" ringtone from the Phillipines, which was featured on
TXTPower.org. Then comes the MobileActive
conference, followed by a big shout out to Eric of Development Seed for his
ringtones on Bush's reaction to Katrina and on DeLay's
legal troubles.

Going door to door and handing out leaflets are still powerful organizing strategies for unions, but often they’re not the cheapest or best way to reach workers. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has found that reaching out to workers through text messages is effective, cheap, and quick. Through the service Chikka.com, organizers send free text messages to “scores of workers” all at once. And through more traditional organizing tactics, they are getting workers cell phone numbers easily. Union officer  Anna Lee M. Fos said:

Every time we conduct Focused Group Discussions or local-level orientation sessions, we ask workers to fill up a registration form including their cell phone number. We can text them reminders such as "come to the certification election” even if they are not union members
yet.

The AP reported yesterday that Arlo Guthrie is touring to benefit Katrina victims. Will he be selling any ringtones to help raise money? I don't think that "Brownie you're doing a heck of a job" would be the best choice, but clips of "City of New Orleans" play well on cell phones might help get funds from a younger generation.