10 things we can learn from Obama

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How marketing helped to elect a skinny kid with
a funny name to the most powerful office in the
world.
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The 20th January 2009 will witness the
inauguration of the 44th President of the United
States of America.   This years will be arguably
the most momentous inauguration since Abraham
Lincoln in 1861 as Barack Obama, the first black
man to hold the office, is sworn in.   Obamas
rise from a community organiser to president has
been well charted.  Less well analysed has been
the role of marketing in this story of
extraordinary success. This brief document
collates some of the observations weve made at
BMB on the lessons from Obama.
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What can marketeers learn from Barack
Obama? Obama combined an incredibly forceful
brand with superb organisation, and some age-old
direct marketing principles. He and his campaign
maintained tight control over a huge number of
people and harnessed their time, energy and
passion.    This document will explain why from
now on you can expect to hear Obama alongside
Apple, Innocent and Nike in all your
agencies presentations.
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1. Have a strong theme youre trying to
communicate and stick to it. If theres one
thing that people believe that Barack Obama
stands for its change. The message was
everywhere in ads, on t-shirts, in speeches and
even on the lips of the competition. The
optimistic tone energised people beyond the base
as voters felt that they were part of a movement,
part of history.
Obama Fact His campaign raised over 750m, the
highest figure in election history.
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2. Create a strong narrative and back story.
For four years prior to running for the
presidency Barack Obama has had a TV crew
following him around as hes visited his fathers
birthplace in Kenya and met with Vietnam vets. By
creating a strong narrative around Obamas life
story, David Axelrod (Obamas chief political and
media advisor) has managed to create the brand
DNA and authenticity that is at the heart of the
campaign.
Obama Fact 240,000 people attended his speech in
Berlin
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3. Provoke Action. Part of Obamas huge success
was the way he inspired people to actually do
something. Thanks to the clear organisation and
calls to action the campaign changed voters into
supporters, supporters into canvassers and
canvassers into super campaigners.
Obama Fact Half of all donations to his campaign
were worth less than 200
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4. Dont fight the last campaign, fight the next
one. Rather than taking on the Republicans at
their own game, Obama focused on finding a new
way to win. He didnt spend millions on
persuading existing voters, Obama went out and
registered new voters an untapped market. He
effectively changed the rules of the game in his
favour.
Obama Fact 66 of voters under 30 voted for him
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5. Embrace your perceived flaws. Obamas short
time in politics was criticised as inexperience.
The campaign turned this shortcoming into a
benefit as it came to stand for transparency and
being unsullied by the machinations of
Washington. In addition, rather than letting race
become an issue, Obama talked about being a
post- racial candidate someone from a time in
the future where race was irrelevant imbuing the
campaign with a sense of optimism and a sense of
its place in history.
Obama Fact 66 of Hispanic voters chose Obama
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6. Encouraging co-creativity and letting
go. Obamas brand doesnt belong to his
strategist, chief of staff or even his wife. Once
hed decided to run for president the Obama brand
belonged to the American people. They were free
to create their own ads, t-shirts, placards and
films. User generated and brand generated
communications played off each other in powerful
new ways.
Obama Fact 15.3million people have watched the
will.i.am Yes We Can video on YouTube
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7. The devil is in the detail. The driving
force behind Obamas success at grassroots level
was David Plouffe. He mapped out every single
blade of grass that the campaign would have to
win and worked out how they could, whether it was
registering new voters or phoning undecideds. He
did the maths for what needed to be achieved and
then stuck religiously to the targets.
Obama Fact The campaign had 4,500 field offices
and countless points of contact through digital
media
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8. Co-ordination 2.0. The first Web 2.0
presidential candidate, Obamas campaign provided
reams of information to grass roots supporters
through text messaging, Twitter, iPhone apps and
Facebook. My.barackobama.com provided a central
hub for blogs, groups and fundraising. Obama
encouraged you to make that call or knock on
that door knowing that youd be the first person
from the campaign to do so. This put supporters
at the heart of the campaign, empowering them to
make decisions in the field.
Obama Fact my.barackobama.com had 2 million
profiles and 5 million supporters in other
networks
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9. Using the right tool for the job. Obama
didnt see the web as a panacea for
communications, he used it for the things that
its good at sharing information, maintaining a
dialogue, organising disparate groups. But when
he wanted to speak to the masses he wasnt afraid
to spend huge sums of money on telly.
Obama Fact His 30 minute infomercial was watched
by 30.1million people
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10. Embrace data. The Obama campaign collected
a huge amount of personal data in exchange for
tickets to see him speak, information about the
vice presidential nominee and opting in on
Facebook. As a result the campaign could keep
supporters in the loop, ask for donations,
co-ordinate campaigning and can continue to do so
now that Obamas been elected
Obama Fact The campaign captured 13 million
email addresses and sent over 7000 email
variations a week
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• Conclusions.
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• For marketeers and advertisers the big lessons of
  this big moment are legion
• Hold ourselves to a higher marketing standard.
  Do it all in every medium and at the same time
• Participation is power. If we can inspire people
  to involve themselves with our brands they will
  love us for it
• Anything is possible. If a skinny black kid with
  a funny name can get elected in a country where
  less than 20 of the population have passports,
  then the challenges facing us suddenly look very
  much achievable

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