• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Charlie Rogers

  • About Charlie Rogers
  • Posts
  • Contact
  • Twitter

IT Dept Deathmatch: Obama’s Project Narwhal vs. Romney’s Orca

Since the election, my former co-worker Sean Gallagher has been doing a great series on the presidential election’s digital campaigns for Ars Technica. After reviewing the campaigns’ financials, his overall conclusion is that by hiring great people and focusing on open-source and off-the-shelf tools, the Obama campaign created a competitive advantage while saving huge amounts of money.

…the Romney campaign spent $23.6 million on outside technology services—most of it on outside “digital media” consulting and data management. It outsourced most of its basic IT operations, while the Obama campaign did the opposite—buying hardware and software licenses, and hiring its own IT department.

How Obama’s campaign spent $11.3 million on technology and digital strategies

How Romney’s campaign spent $23.6 million on digital consultants and outsourcing

 

PBS NEWHOUR “Romney Campaign Enlists Help of Orca Project to Get Vote Out”

 

Obama Campaign’s “Dashboard: The Tools You Need to Help Re-Elect President Obama”

 

Filed Under: Digital Management

Charlie Rogers Charlie Rogers

Chief content officer, editor-in-chief, managing editor, launch manager, and product strategist on dozens of digital ventures, for companies including NBC, Conde Nast, Time Warner, Martha Stewart and Random House.
Here's my bio...

Get in Touch!

Footer

Twitter: @jrnlsm

  • Just now
  • http://twitter.com/jrnlsm

Popular Sections

  • SEO For Editors
  • Digital Journalism
  • Digital Management
  • Audience Development

Recent Posts

  • Free or Cheap Tools for Learning Web Analytics
  • Why Are Your Web Pages So Fat and Slow?
  • Jon Morrow’s 52 Headline Hacks
  • The Immutable Error of Parenthood
  • Calvin Coolidge was super-judgmental

Quick Subscribe

Receive an email every time new content goes live.

Thanks!

Copyright © 2023 Charlie Rogers