January 2009 Archives

In the early hours of this morning Shanghai time - I watched as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States of America. I have followed his progress with keen interest over the last 18 months. Taking his dream of being the first African American President of the US, and making it a reality is nothing short of incredible. And the way he went about it is even more impressive.

He was named "Best Marketer of the Year 2008" by Advertising Age magazine. And this is what I would like to focus on today. Obama is an example for all of us in the advertising industry. You can just imagine the Brief: "Get an African American elected to the White House." So just how did he go about it?

Firstly - his message to the people was simple and consistent - Obama is Change. This conviction was at the essence of the campaign. The campaign's creativity lies in how he mobilized the digital world to his advantage, in a way that no one has ever done before. In line with Marshall McLuhan, who is seen as the first prophet of the electronic age: "the medium is the message". Obama's campaign was all about change: change in approaching the 'consumer' (voter) and the 'trade' (campaign contributions). Change in distribution: micro vs wholesale.

No campaign has been more aggressive in tapping into social networks - Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, you name it, Barack was there. Most importantly the campaign was flexible and constantly adapted to a world where communication channels are always in flux. This is "the Swarm theory" in action showing us how marketing can harness the power of modern human communities and the power of influence. It is people grouping together and moving together without being told what to do.

He got the people behind him from the bottom up. These "brand" advocates were an integral part in building his success. He leveraged the financial power of thousands of small donors via the internet; people could give just a few dollars, or a few thousand. He realized that donating online is cheap and quick, and far less intimidating than writing a cheque. Though the majority of contributions were made online and were for US$100 or less, adding it all up was the big difference. And most important, via this he gave people a voice and involvement, with a one-2-one feeling. Kind of important when you want to be the one representing 'the voice of the people'.

Mainstream media followed the innovative path like CNN teaming up with Facebook to watch the inauguration live with your community, your friends. Brand involvement in 3 levels: Obama, CNN and Facebook. Talk about a win/win situation and category leadership.

Watching him yesterday was the embodiment of a successful campaign. Innovation and fantastic ROI are something that we try to practice everyday in our work, as well as always asking ourselves: "Why Not"?