Our assignment was to help Barack Obama win the Presidency of the United States. Our target audience was any large group of voters in a key battleground state. We knew that Florida was one such key battleground state, and that in 2008, Florida was up for grabs. An important voting group in Florida is its 400,000 elderly Jewish residents. But Obama was unpopular with elderly Jews, who were reluctant to elect an African American, and also mistakenly believed he was Muslim.

So, to get elderly Jews to vote for Obama, and to bring attention to the issue, we targeted the one group they’d listen to: their beloved grandchildren, and encouraged them to visit their grandparents in Florida to educate them about Obama. We launched our campaign, called the Great Schlep, with a website featuring videos, talking points, and an online “Schlepper” community. We also made a viral video.

Within weeks, the viral video was viewed 4 million times, the Great Schlep was reported on by every major new organization and newspaper in the US (342 million media impressions; source Optimedia), and our talking points were downloaded 1.2 million times. 25,000 people signed on to become Schleppers. In the end, Obama received the highest percentage of Florida’s Jewish vote in 30 years (78%, 351,000 votes) and won Florida by 170,000 votes.

Our goal was to help Barack Obama win the Presidency of the United States, and in a tight race, that meant winning a key battleground state. We decided to focus on Florida because of its recent history in the previous two presidential elections.

Florida was trending Republican, McCain was leading slightly, so Florida was a critical state for Obama to win. We targeted the elderly Florida Jewish vote because it can win or lose an election there, and despite usually voting Democratic, was polling against Obama now. To reach these elderly Jews, we targeted their grandchildren. We did this because elderly Jews would be more likely to listen to them, than to us.

A month and a half before the election, The Great Schlep viral video was seeded on a few video-sharing websites, such as YouTube and Funny Or Die, as well as on the Great Schlep homepage. Over the next week or so, the media took over and coverage of the Great Schlep exploded to every major TV station and newspaper. This increased awareness amongst both young and elderly Jews, not to mention the rest of the United States as well.

Within a few weeks, The Great Schlep Facebook group had 25,000 members, and the Great Schlep talking points had been downloaded 1.2 million times. The Great Schlep was featured in every major American newspaper and on all major television stations. Networks such as CNN and ABC followed “Schleppers” to Florida from all over the country. The Great Schlep video featuring Sarah Silverman was hosted on thousands of blogs gaining more than 4 million views. The Great Schlep campaign received 342 million media impressions. On Election Day, Obama received the highest percentage of Florida’s Jewish voters in 30 years, and won Florida by 3 points. (Source: Optimedia)

We launched the campaign with a website aimed at inspiring, educating and connecting young Jewish people about the Great Schlep. The website consisted of Obama information/videos, a Great Schlep Facebook community component, talking points for engaging Jewish grandparents about Obama, and an online store. In order to drive traffic to the website, we also created a viral video about the Great Schlep featuring Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman.

Months before the election, Obama and McCain were virtually tied in the national polls, and Obama was behind in Florida. A large reason for Obama’s deficit was his being unpopular with elderly Jewish voters in South Florida. They believed (falsely) that we was anti-Israel, and had doubts about electing a black president. However, their grandchildren were largely pro-Obama. So having these grandchildren visit Florida seemed like a way to change minds; and what grandparent doesn’t like a visit from their grandchild? In addition, the mere fact this intergenerational event was taking place would bring light to the issue of Obama and the Floridian Jewish vote.