Barack Obama's campaign has an interesting example of the online-offline integration I talked about a few weeks ago. Having signed up for their text messaging list, I texted in my addresses to get a free Obama bumper sticker. It came yesterday and looks like this:

Aside from feeling some mild disappointment in not receiving the standard Obama'08 sticker to add to my collection, I got to thinking, and this is an interesting viral strategy. If I had to guess, the last thing they want is for this to actually be placed on cars -- you can barely see the call to action. Rather, the point is for it to be stuck on the outside of dorm room doors, where it can spread virally offline among college students. The amount of thought that went into this campaign (I got an SMS telling me my bumper sticker was being packaged up in Chicago with some TLC) shows you the premium they are placing on text messaging versus other forms of online communication.

Also smart: the package I received included a direct mail reply device (click for full size):

This isn't creative. This is the typical blocking and tackling of a campaign. But it does highlight the opportunity to squeeze out every last ounce of return out of your interactions with supporters. Right now, I am signed up to most every Republican and Democratic email list, but only receive direct mail as a result of my online registrations to the Giuliani and Romney campaigns. That's also good blocking and tackling. Do Democrats not do this because their universe is only responsive online?

Though I believe mobile is the next big thing, I am skeptical of SMS as a channel, particularly with the advent of the iPhone and the new mobile Web (Scoble says it's far and away better than anything else out there, Dave Winer is not so sure). You can't donate over SMS yet, and you can't (really) volunteer over it, so email still remains the more versatile communications medium. Which is why I was almost more impressed by an email I got from Bobby Jindal's campaign for Governor of Louisiana, which allowed me to simply sign up and get up a bumper sticker, and also sign up three of my friends to get bumper stickers as well. That seems like a pretty effective promotion to drive email list growth, the tiniest bit of free swag in exchange for an email address (which can be worth $10 or more in fundraising alone).