What marketers can learn from Obama: Part 3 (Victory Edition!)
And…exhale. Now that Election 2008 has finally come to a close, we can all take a deep breath — and start the analysis!
This race will go down in history for many reasons, not least of which was how advertising and use of the web impacted the outcome. So let's put our marketer hats back on and take one last look at what we can learn from now President-Elect Barack Obama.
Marketing we can believe in. Simply put, Obama went from junior senator to 44th President of the United States by running a better political and marketing campaign than John McCain. Advertising Age agrees, naming him Marketer of the Year. But how did he do it?
According to Ad Age, Obama revolutionized how campaigns are run. His team took full advantage of web and mobile communications to spread his message. He tapped into the power of social networking. He built an intuitive, attractive and customizable website that made it easy for users to donate, find events and volunteer. He ramped up his "cool guy" rep by creating an impressive iPhone application so supporters could connect to the campaign from anywhere.
All of this was done to reach Obama's primary target — and it worked. The youth vote came out in huge numbers, with a more than 2-to-1 advantage for Obama. The innovation of this campaign also served to reinforce one of its brand tenets: New ideas can move this country forward.
It's all about the Benjamins. Of course, old ideas like TV commercials work too. According to an article in the New York Times, over $400 million was spent on broadcasting political ads since April.
Obama alone topped $200 million. He spent about 15% of that in the Philly and DC markets, helping him secure key battleground states Pennsylvania and Virginia and, ultimately, the White House. Of course, most broadcast budgets can't even afford to stand in the shadow of $200M, but it's still a good lesson in using your traditional media dollars wisely by targeting your vital customers.
Stay on the offense. When big brands become market leaders, they too often play it safe. (Conservative, if you will.) Yet with Obama leading in most polls, he took a bold step: a 30-minute "infomercial" that ran on several networks just six days before the election. It was a potentially risky move, but not as risky as sitting on one’s laurels. At the very least, it kept the focus on Obama over the competition. Coca-Cola, take note.
Talk to your audience directly. Obama relied heavily on energetic volunteers to bring this grass-roots campaign straight to the people with door-to-door canvassing and phone calling. While irritating to some, these tactics are more effective than the robocalling McCain’s camp relied on. They’re more personal too, which again reinforces the Obama brand: He cares about you.
How did Obama rally these volunteers? By tapping into a massive contact list. Personally, I've received countless emails and text messages from the campaign. I can't imagine if I lived in a swing state. For an exclamation point to this strategy, look no further than the hugely successful get-out-the-vote drive during the race’s final days. 64 million converted customers can’t be wrong.
And then there's everyone else. We can also learn from how other companies tapped into this zeitgeist. Facebook's Election Day Event pulled in millions of guests.
Twitter went crazy with election tweets. 7-Eleven polled customers through red or blue 7-Election coffee cups. Even Starbucks got in the game with a viral video promotion that had a certain Obama feel to it (not to mention an Obama-esque font choice).
Voting to fulfill my civic duty and coffee addiction? That's what democracy is all about. Tying a brand to the most talked about November Tuesday in a long time and leveraging built-in interest? That's what smart marketing is all about.
So what's your vote? Post a comment and let your voice be heard. And please check out Part1 and Part2 of this series if you haven't already.
Comments
Totally agree - he & his team did a brilliant job by leveraging a well-crafted, integrated media campaign. It will be interesting to see how his Change.gov site progresses once he's in office.
Posted by: Stephanie Rogers | November 11, 2008 02:08 PM
Thanks for the comment Steph. Obama connected with his supporters and now he actually wants to engage with all Americans. Talk about change! CNN has a good write-up: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/10/obama.wired/index.html
Posted by: Matt Fishbein | November 11, 2008 02:52 PM
Great post.
What I was most impressed with was Obama's use of social media and how genuine it was. I do not believe that Obama himself sent tweets throughout the campaign, but his team kept up with updates. This created quite a huge pro-Obama groundswell on Twitter. My point is if companies and brands begin to embrace social media in their marketing mix, make sure you stick with it. Don't set up an account and then do nothing with it.
Posted by: Gregory Ng | November 12, 2008 10:03 AM
Nice piece. And don't forget the iconography that kicked it all off: http://dantobindantobin.com/blog/?p=4280
Posted by: Dan | November 12, 2008 04:13 PM