The 2004 US Presidential campaign: Impact of hybrid offline and online ‘meetup’ communities

Abstract

In his run for the 2004 Democratic Party presidential nomination, Howard Dean demonstrated the potential of a new type of hybrid online-offline community building phenomenon, Meetup.com. It facilitates the process of consumers/citizens with similar interests – on almost any topic, not just marketing or politics – in finding each other and organizing online, so that they can get together as a group or “meet up” offline. We classify this type of group as an e2f (electronic to face) community. In a study of 820 people who attended meetups (i.e., Meetup events) for presidential candidates' between January 22 and March 10, 2004, we found that meetup attendance was positively related to important marketing measures of campaign effectiveness, such as donations, volunteering and candidate support and advocacy