A significant innovation is coming to peer-to-peer (P2P) texting. P2P texting emerged as a prominent and critical digital tool used by political parties in 2018, and Hustle quickly became known as the leading peer-to-peer platform. This month, Hustle acquired Tape, a mobile video stories platform (used by Andrew Yang's presidential campaign). Hustle is now expected to fully integrate Tape's tools to create and send video stories within its platform in the coming months.
This represents a significant shift in how campaigns will communicate with voters, as personalized mobile video represents the next frontier in campaign technology. Industry research shows that 90% of all texts are read within 3 minutes of receipt, and that vertical videos have a 90% higher completion rate than horizontal videos. Hustle will be the first platform to combine the two powerful messaging tools, further solidifying its position as the gold-standard in the industry. Given the high engagement vertical videos (stories) have been proven to have, this innovation presents an opportunity for campaigns to explore a new and promising messaging technique to improve calls-to-action, fundraising, and validator video distribution. Vertical videos were previously limited to those who own smartphones as it primarily is distributed through social media or mobile devices. With the fusion of peer-to-peer and vertical video, there is a new opportunity for campaigns to share this content with a new population of voters, such as rural voters who are less likely to own smartphones. Peer-to-peer texting initially gained prominence as a campaign tool because, unlike "robotexts" or calls, the messages are personal and thus are a valuable tool in engaging in voter persuasion. The integration of vertical videos allows campaigns to capitalize on the intimate connection even further.