Corrected: I really must stop believing some news sources. Contrary to what Revolution magazine reported from its own conference, Blue State isn’t retained by London 2012 either “in any capacity”, the Games’ new media head Alex Balfour tells us in our comments…
Earlier: Thomas Gensemer, the founder of the Blue State Digital social marketing agency that developed My.BarackObama.com, told Wednesday’s Activate ’09 summit that, contrary to the belief of many, his firm is not currently retained by the Labour party for a similar campaign push – he appears to be on the Olympics’ books, however…
Gensemer received press attention whilst in the UK in February on what now looks like it was a pitch marathon. Blue State ended up getting work on individual campaigns for Ken Livingstone and John Cruddas, and has been helping anti-fascist org Searchlight combat the BNP online. But Gensemer told Activate: “We’re not currently under contract (to Labour), contrary to some press.”
Another client kindred spirit Gensemer does apparently have – the London 2012 Olympic Games organising committee. The committee’s new media head Alex Balfour told Thursday’s Revolution Forum that Obama’s web strategists are involved in his social media planning held some early meetings with Obama’s web strategists. Balfour last week outlined to us the 2012 online campaign, which will include a “My 2012” online scrapbook to which people can post material from around the web, which may even be featured as murals on real-world Olympic venues.