Game Psychology and Election Fundraising
Ron Paul recently stunned the Republican primaries world by taking in $5 million in quarterly fundraising, putting him close to some of the highest profile candidates. What is interesting is how he did it. Most of it was done through the web, and his web-site utilizes some nice game psychology.
Here is a picture of the fundraising portion of his main page, which is front and centre on his web-site.
You can see the Statue of Liberty on the right-hand side. The total is a real-time (or close, I presume) number, which gives donators (game concepts in italics) immediate feedback on their progress in a nice, visual way. Their progress is towards the goal, in this case October fundraising of $4 million. The goal is broken down into sub-goals on the Statue. Next, the goal is part of a larger goal, $12 million by December 31st. Finally, this is tied into the ultimate goal, as noted in the top-left corner, ‘Raising to Win’. So the ‘player’ (that is, donator) knows what the goal is, how to advance towards the goal (by clicking the ‘Donate today!’ button), and gets immediate feedback on progress. There is a countdown metre (’20 days 21 hrs to go’), which adds tension to the game. To top it off there is glory involved, as the latest round of donators get their names printed on the web-site.
This is basic game psychology stuff, and my guess is it adds a non-insignificant amount to Paul’s web-based fundraising efforts.
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