And such a compelling story it makes too. The little known Senator from Illinois up against one of the most well-known women in recent American history, with a solid campaigning machinery behind her (which means she had the big bucks to back her up), he came in from behind and captured the imagination of young Americans (more like their attention) by simply changing the way to communicate to them.
In the process, he garnered massive grassroots support (not to mention, the big bucks also, in donations).
First off, I’ve got to say that I haven’t really read any of those books that I mentioned in the beginning. No doubt these books will wax lyrical about how the campaign used Facebook et al and how successful it was.
While this campaign will go down in advertising and political history as one of the most successful, I’d like to take a step back and look at this from an advertising and marketing perspective.
Personally, I believe that part of Obama’s success (apart from a kick-ass campaign line and the fact that the previous administration was a crashing failure) was because of:-
- First Mover Advantage – The campaign was very smart about using the Social Media correctly.
- Compelling ‘Product’ – It helps that he’s seen as genuine and really ‘looked’ and ‘talked’ like a someone who can get things done. (The inverted commas are intentional. In my world, perception is everything. What he actually does during his term is a different post and blog site altogether)
What is going to happen in the next election? By that time, the candidates will be savvy enough to deploy the entire arsenal of Web 2.0 weaponry. And sadly, that is to be expected.
Of the many learnings that one can get from the Obama campaign, unfortunately, this is the one that many will pick up because it’s the easiest. Use the latest ‘in-thing’ to get in with the crowd.
What many will still not get is that if you ain’t got a compelling ‘product’, it don’t matter what you use to talk about it.
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