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 — finding each other and organising online so that they can get together as a group or ‘meet up’ offline. The authors classify this type of group as an e2f (electronic-to-face) community. In a study of 820 people who attended meetups (ie Meetup events) for presidential candidates between 22 January and 10 March 2004, meetup attendance was found to be positively related to important marketing measures of campaign effectiveness, such as donations, volunteering and candidate support and advocacy.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
1earned his PhD at MIT and is associate professor of marketing and e-commerce at Bentley College.
2earned her PhD at Indiana University and is professor of government at Bentley College.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weinberg, B., Williams, C. The 2004 US Presidential campaign: Impact of hybrid offline and online ‘meetup’ communities. J Direct Data Digit Mark Pract 8, 46–57 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.dddmp.4340552
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.dddmp.4340552