For example, when a bill to regulate engine noise was introduced in Tennessee, SEMA asked its consumer activists to write to lawmakers and urge them to adopt the association’s model legislation, which has been passed in California and other states. Roughly 550 advocates responded, sending almost 8,000 communications to Tennessee lawmakers.
“We were able to get the bill amended to use our model language purely through running a grassroots campaign on Phone2Action,” Robinson said. “It was purely done because they were hearing from people en masse to change the bill.”
That kind of capability is why SEMA moved to Phone2Action in the first place. Robinson said that the organization wanted to increase its ability to segment advocates and track their activity; easily create action centers; enhance its presentation on mobile devices; and make better use of text messaging.
“We’ve been thrilled with Phone2Action,” he said.
Supporting Multiple Advocacy Brands
While SEMA advocates under its own flag, it also owns Performance Racing Industry (PRI), a membership organization that supports those involved in racing of all kinds, from stock cars to tractor pulling. Here, too, the organization uses consumers in its advocacy work, but it is a different type of consumer.
“It really has a different identity,” Robinson said. “The person getting the messages cares less about on-road stuff and more about keeping their local track open or converting their street car into a race car.”
Robinson said operating advocacy programs for both organizations was once a challenge. The two organizations have very different brands, each with its own look. Template changes to accommodate one organization or the other used to require a customer support ticket and could take days. The move to Phone2Action changed that.
“It’s a lot more customizable for our needs,” he said. “Now we can run multiple templates and make those changes on the fly.”
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An example of one of SEMA’s Phone2Action pages.
Next Step: Widespread Text Messaging
SEMA anticipates a great deal of work ahead, with the boom in electric vehicles creating a raft of new policy issues. To meet the challenge, they are looking to increase the use of text messaging to activate their consumer audience.
Text allows for faster response and, when used with keywords and shortcodes (e.g., “Text ABC to 12345”), it can help expand beyond the organization’s list. For example, SEMA can advertise on billboards at racetracks and get people to engage. It can do the same at its massive annual trade show in Las Vegas. “Our rate of people taking action has gone up significantly,” Robinson said.
In Virginia, for example, it used text to activate the network on an auto emissions bill and saw roughly 760 advocates send more than 14,500 communiques to lawmakers. The association did not get the policy outcome it wanted, but it is confident that the message was delivered.
“One of the things that we pride ourselves on is when there is a hearing and somebody mentions how many emails they received,” Robinson said. “We had a lawmaker send us a picture of their inbox.”
Overall, Robinson says that Phone2Action is helping SEMA’s advocacy program adopt a more sophisticated—and more effective—approach that capitalizes on the association’s unique relationship with hundreds of thousands of consumers. “We’re looking to become more of a public affairs shop, to complement our government affairs,” he said. “So having the tools to get people engaged quickly and get messaging out continuously is important to us.”
As Robinson put it, “we’re happy customers.”
