Technology, a superb tool – Plouffe

The campaign manager of President Barack Obama in the 2008 American president election, Mr. David Plouffe, has described Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools as a wonderful innovation, especially for political crusade.

Speaking at a one-day MTN Life Enrichment seminar which held in Lagos, last week, Mr. Plouffe said that any country that want to get attraction of people, mostly the youth at heart must embrace technology, noting that they are always in search of new ways of doing things.

“I think it (technologies) is a wonderful, wonderful thing,” he declared.

Dwelling on ‘Delivering Greater Value Through Innovation’ he also said that in order to make a difference in public campaigns, ICT tools cannot be over-emphasised, stressing that it’s a good thing to dream and dream big.

Technology adaptation, he said, has been on the rise and the only way of equal such demand in people or political oriented movement is to embrace technologies, which he added would drive a lot of things in the future.

Additionally, Mr. Plouffe said, nowadays, a lot of people can actually raise various funds online.

“I can today raise the money I need and campaign online,” he said, noting that anything that affects America, traverses the world, hence it is crucial to engage the supporters before any decision is taken.

This, he pointed out has been made more feasible by technologies.

According to him, the success of President Obama’s election was anchored on technologies.

“Technology was at the bottom of Obama’s president,” he asserted, stressing that the world is changing rapidly and only technology could drive the entire process of future evolution.

He cited an instance with Japan, where he said that almost all the population now conduct their businesses and life through the mobile phone technologies.

Plouffe, who was President Barrack Obama’s chief campaign manager during the 2008 presidential elections in the United States of America, explained that
Plouffe who also spoke at A-Class Park and Event Centre, Abuja, noted that the campaign required a well thought-out strategy because it sought to reach out mainly to untapped publics.

Technology, for him, was key to the success of the Obama campaign and that in today’s dynamic world, little could be done without exploring the huge platforms that the internet and the mobile phone provide in connecting to target publics.

“Our strategy during the 2008 campaign changed the complexion of the people that vote normally in America. Twenty million people voted for the very first time, 20 per cent of them below the age of 30,” he said.

The secret, Plouffe said, was that they ran a campaign that fitted the way people lived their lives, noting that the mobile phone and the internet are major assets that must be explored to achieve high consumer connection in today’s world.

Welcoming guest earlier at the event, the General Manager, Consumer Marketing, Mr. Kolawale Oyeyemi, who stood in for the chief marketing officer, Mr. Bola Akingbola, said that at MTN, they believe so much in giving customers innovative tools to win in their business and that was the reason behind the invitation extended to Mr. Plouffe.

He described Mr. Plouffe as a pioneering force in the field of technology and grassroots leadership, who had innovatively rewritten the American history.

One of the highlights was the exhibition of recently launched MTN bundle packages.

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