Presentation from NetSquared Vancouver's #Tech4Good Trends event for nonprofits in 2018. https://www.meetup.com/net2van/events/245927359/

1. Leah Bae
@leahebae
Text messaging for
campaigning

2. Why SMS?
2

3. Confidential 3
Mobile 2.0
More Canadian households have mobile
phones than landlines -- 85.6% vs. 75.5%
CRTC Communications Monitoring Report, 2016
3 out of 5 Canadians own a smartphone
Catalyst Canada annual smartphone adoption survey, 2016
Globally, 5B people (out of 7.5B population)
have a mobile phone
Benedict Evans of a16z, 2017
75% of millennials would rather text than talk
OpenMarket survey of US millennials, 2017

4. People check their phones 150x per day on
average
KPCB Internet Trends Report, 2017
Every phone has a SMS service
Most people have nearly unlimited texting
plans
98% of text messages are opened
SMS doesn’t use data, accommodating regions
with weaker broadband connectivity
SMS is still an unsaturated medium, helping cut
through noise and resulting in increase
engagement
SMS
4

5. Confidential 5

6. 6
Jagmeet Singh was
about to make
history
Winning the NDP leadership would
make him the first person of colour
to lead a major Canadian party.
A politician from Ontario, he owed a lot of his
success to his ability to connect on-to-one with
everyone he met. To win the leadership,
though, he would need to scale this to reach
the whole country.

7. Confidential 7
Meet Nader
As the Digital Director for the Jagmeet Singh
campaign, Nader was responsible creating the
kind of scale to turn a passionate base in
Ontario into a national movement.
To complicate things, only NDP members could
vote in the leadership campaign. So, Nader had
the double task of drumming support and
activating voters.

8. 8
Nader knew he needed a
tool that would help him
reach thousands, without
them feeling like just
another name on a list.

9. Confidential 9
Nader and his team
used Hustle to recruit
volunteers, turn
supporters out to
events, sell
memberships, and
get out the vote.
Hi Amy, this is Anita from the Jagmeet Singh
campaign. We’re doing a bike ride with Jagmeet
from Queen’s Park to the Waterfront on Thursday
to launch his transportation platform. Can you make
it? ❤ &
Amazing! Totally. What time should I be there?
1pm at Queen’s Park. Here is the link to RSVP with
all the details: http://www.jagmeetsingh.ca/rsvp
Cool. done. See you there!

10. 10
It’s so fast. We’re having real conversations across Canada.
I can’t believe how easy this is.”
— Nuvi Sidhu, Field Director, Jagmeet Singh for NDP Leader

11. 11
With more new
members than any other
candidate, in a crowded
field, surrounded by his
supporters and family,
Jagmeet won the the
leadership with over 50%
of the vote.

12. 12
BC SPCA
An annual flagship fundraising
event was quickly coming up.
They were in search of a personalized and
scalable way to re-engage their Paws for a
Cause participants to sign up for this year’s
walk. As a charity, they wanted to make sure
every dollar gift from their donors would be
put to the best use possible.

13. 13
BC SPCA used Hustle to
text supporters their ask.
As BC SPCA is a registered charity, they were
able to send these commercial electronic
messages without legislative restriction.

14. Confidential 14
A B

15. Confidential 15
Ask A: “... let me know and I’ll send you a code
for free registration…”
- 33% responded, of which 81% said yes.
Ask B: “here’s a promo code for free
registration: OTTER use it here:
bit.ly/pawsgr2…”
- 7% responded, of which 86% said yes
- Ask B had 2x link click-throughs but Ask
A had more conversions (3.6% vs 2.4%)
Getting people to
further engage
before sharing the
code increased
conversions.