Starting today, X Box Live users will be able to register to vote for the upcoming US Presidential elections in November. This recent partnership between Microsoft's X Box 360 and Rock The Vote will give 12 million X Box Live users access to registration materials, in hopes of exciting the young voters to turn out on election day.
Pros: X Box Live hosts a large community of young Americans that could change from undecided or apathetic youth into excited and involved voters. It is good to see politically connected groups positively reaching out to youth (especially males) who have been previously viewed as desensitized trouble-makers responsible for the downfall of society because of playing Halo and Doom.
Cons: The X Box Live community is also made up of a lot of gamers who are not old enough to vote, who would also think it was funny to try to fool the system into thinking they could vote or worse yet, try to crash the system. If not launched with proper security measures, you can bet that some in the X Box Live community will not become active in the ways that Rock The Vote would want. There is already a growing cloud of doubt looming over the online messageboards as to whether the system will accurately give all the registered information on election day.
While Rock The Vote may have a huge opportunity to capitalize on connecting with a popular social network, they also have a great deal of risk in front of them. The biggest challenge in reaching the X Box Live network users may not be one that Rock the Vote can even do anything about - a large portion of the youth are just not that excited about the candidates. Many have been ranting online about their disappointment in the candidate options and how they believe this new partnership really won't help the election at all. Depending on your views of the candidates, this may raise a huge question for politicians and marketers alike: If you don't have substance, can you make people buy something?