What Would Obama Do?

Posted by Darren on Feb 9, 2009 • (Comments)

I was at the Washington Post Digital conference this past week down in the Caribbean.  Had great conversations with many of my agency peers and met some fantastic people who are innovating in the heart of Madison Avenue.

What would Obama do?  This seems to be the underlying tone of the best digital media campaigns.   The digital media benchmark of today is the Obama digital campaign for presidency.   Almost everyone at the conference agreed that Obama’s use of CRM, digital display, social media, search, and video was the most integrated and successful use of digital media, period.  Clients (brands) at the summit said that they were reviewing the entire Obama campaign to dissect and use as a benchmark for their internal teams and agencies.

Agree?

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  • I think one of the most interesting campaign tactics of Obama's campaign was their ability to target the youth generation in ways that brands are just starting to experiment with. For example, location aware targeting in the videogame Burnout Paradise. These ads appeared on billboards in this racing game in swing states, reaching out to a strong youth demographic to sway the votes towards Obama.

    In-game advertising is a strong and growing industry and to see our future President dip his toes in the water put a smile on my face.
  • There was an interesting session on Obama's search strategy at SMX this week (covered here: http://bit.ly/P1TvO). Basically saying the same thing, funny part is nothing they did was revolutionary - they just actually did it.
  • I think there are various factors that contributed to the success with the campaign. There where hundreds of independent companies campaigning for Obama. Couple this with taking advantage ad networks and viral videos on youtube and you have yourself a new president.
  • It is certainly relevant for brands/agencies to dissect the Obama campaign for lessons, but it would be a mistake to pursue a carbon copy model. Having spent four years in the online political organizing world and now in the brand advertising business, the most significant difference I see is in wildly different levels of affinity and what that means for frequency and breadth of communication to a consumer. Unsubscribe rates on the email lists of political advocacy organizations and charities are incredibly low (almost regardless of frequency). This seems to be the result of the deep personal affinity that people have with these causes (incidental good read is Paul Graham's recent post on identity and politics: http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html). Brands (even the most loved) will have a far lower tolerance level in terms of the frequency and depth of communication. The smartest ones out there will push this envelope and will develop ways to build greater affinity and earn greater tolerance, but it will need to start slowly.
  • Greg, I like your view. While I don't want to stress to take a "carbon copy" of the campaign, I do want marketers to look at how Obama worked the entire digital media channel and all of it's strengths.
  • Obama's use of mobile was tremendously strong as well. I have seen more mobile marketing case studies featuring Obama than any other brand.
  • Yes- and I even signed up for his alerts and I am one of the most non-political people out there.
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