Summary of Obama’s marketing material

In 2008, the year belonged to Obama. Every country was touched by something Obama was doing online. He was everywhere, using a variety of online tactics – everything from smear campaigns to ongoing email campaigns that encouraged donation to rallying support on a number of social networks. His campaign was exhaustive.

Examples of his marketing efforts are captured in this presentation.

KEY LEARNINGS

1. Leverage communities & networks - majority of Obama’s campaign was focused on friend get friend (FGF) and encouraging others to show their support whether through donation or rallying others.
2. Consistent presence – the ongoing one-to-one communications didn’t let up. There was (and still is) a constant flow of emails from everyone in the Obama camp. Emails came from Michelle Obama to Joe Biden to Al Gore.
3. Lack of Obama involvement - there weren’t many times when Obama was involved. It was obvious that a ghost writer was controlling the campaign. It would have been nice to recieve more from Obama. The only thing he was involved in was producing the videos.
4. Candidate usage - no marketing collateral was produced that didn’t have direct reference to Joe or Obama. Candidates images were constantly used to ensure people had a connection.

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3. US Political Campaigns – Social Networks
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Who is Ben Self? Obama’s social marketing guy

Last week I attended a Google lunch and listened to Ben Self talk about his involvement with the Obama online campaign. Ben Self is one of the guys who set up Blue Star Digital and constructed the Obama online and social marketing campaign from January 2007 – January 2009 (can you imagine working on a campaign for two years? Awesome from a test and learn perspective).

I was extremely keen to understand more about the success and stats of the Obama campaign. Over lunch he gave an overview of the key online elements used throughout the campaign and some of the top level stats. See below for the details:

CAMPAIGN LEARNINGS

• Video: There were 1,800 videos created since January 2009. They were viewed 15,000,000 times for 14,000,000 hours.
• Search: For every $1 spent on search, $9 was received in donations. That’s a 900% return on investment.
• Email: After someone register, email was the main method of communications to stay in touch and ensure the supporters rallied around Obama. It was used constantly throughout the campaign with every emails call to action (CTA) being ‘DONATE NOW’.
• Website: The campaign website was developed in 10 days. It evolved over time, but was the focal point/platform for the campaign.
• Technology: Throughout the campaign, technology was used to amplify excitement with the main purpose to try and encourage a moment (or behaviour change).
• Testing: The databases were used to test consumer feedback of campaign content/videos. A control group of 1,000 was used and learnings applied to the content/video prior to mass sends.
• Database: As soon as supporters signed up to the website or campaign, they were segmented based on the several fields captured about them. They were then divided up amongst the campaigners (video trained supporters) based on their profile and communicated with via phone or door knock.
• Smear: The US elections are won and lost on the truth factor (or smear component). Obama’s campaigners ensured that search was a huge part of the fight against smear. Whenever a new rumour surfaced, a search campaign was created to direct people back to the ‘Fight the Smear’ website.
• Community: MyBarack membership site had a focus on being local and developing a community of supporters. It was supporters connection to local and community (offline) Obama events.
• Training: Supporters were able to be educated on Obama’s policies via an online video. The video was used to educate supporters so they could take to the streets and rally more supporters around them.

MyBarack website stats:

• 13,000,000 visitors
• 20,000 voluteer groups
• 200,000 offline events
• 100,000 of the community

Obama Campaign website - before the US Election

Obama Campaign email - before the US election

Obama Twitter account - before US election

SUMMARY

Online gave Obama’s campaigners the opportunity to talk to the voters directly and get them interested in the campaign.  Ben Self mentioned three key take outs for the campaign.

1. Focal point: the website was the campaign hub. All online activity was connected to the website – all social marketing, campaign based sites and search activity was driven back there.
2. Build relationships: the key to the campaign was relationships and building them directly with the voters. Obama touched 25% of all voters in the last few days of the campaign. That is a huge number and can sway a vote.
3. Involvement: ask for voter involvement. The more they are asked, the more they gave. In most emails, there was a request for a donation of $5 – a small sum. Even voters experiencing economic troubles can commit to $5. Once they have donated, they then have a vested interest in the success of the campaign. They rally others around them.

APPLICATION FOR CORPORATES

So how can any of these campaign learnings apply for corporates? Easily. Each of the three key take outs mentioned above is something every corporate should be engaging consumers with. For every campaign, ask the following questions:

1. What is the hub? Where will all traffic be driven to?
2. How are we engaging in an ongoing relationship? Is this an awareness campaign or do we want to start a relationship?
3. How are you getting consumers involved? Is there anything that you want them to do or commit to?

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1. Australian Politicians – where are you online?
2. What can Australian Politicians learn from the US?

How retailers are getting in on the Obama bandwagon? IKEA

For Obama’s inauguration IKEA created a website where you could use their furniture to embrace change in the Oval Office. It’s a very simple site, but extremly topical and a nice way to be relevant.

The journey through the site starts with a blank Oval Office where you have the option to drag and drop furniture, Obama and the dog into the office. From there you can look at the office from an opposite view and send your thoughts about the office layout to The White House (see screens below).

iKEA Obama Inauguration - home page

IKEA Obama Inauguration - furniture in the oval office

IKEA Obama Inauguration - Opposite view

IKEA Obama Inauguration - Send to Whitehouse

IKEA Obama Inauguration - Thank you

LEARNINGS

1. Topical - find a way you can connect with consumers around topical events or activities that are happening. This idea is more around branding and awareness, but because the consumer is able to select furniture and read a little more about the furniture no doubt it will result in increased sales.
2. Simple - there aren’t many pages to this site and without reading any instructions, I knew exactly what to do. The sites that are simple are the best.
3. Interactive - by getting the user to interact with the website, it makes it a better experience. They get to see the products, decide what works and look at combinations. Perfect cross-sell/up-sell opportunity.

US Political Campaign – Social networks

Throughout the 2008 US Presidential election campaign, a lot of focus has been put on Obama and his marketing campaign. There has been a particular focus on how he has used online channels to communicate his message. Very little attention has been paid to what Joe Biden is doing online.

I was doing a search and found that Joe Biden has his own YouTube Channel (see screen grab below) and his own supporter network – captured via website and retained via email (see screen grabs below).

Joe Biden YouTube Channel

Joe Biden Website

Joe Biden Contribute Data Capture

RELEVANCE

Why is this relevant to Australian Politicians? It shows that the US Politicians are nurturing their campaigns. They aren’t setting and forgetting about them – they are constantly updating content and engaging with the audience.

LEARNINGS

Key learnings from Joe Biden’s online activity:

1. Involvement – Even the deputy is actively involved in promoting their views online
2. Consistency – ongoing updates and coverage
3. Innovation – trying new things.

What can Australian politicians learn from the US?

To try and understand more about the US political system and how ingrained marketing is with their campaigning, I decided to subscribe to Obama’s site and opt-in for communications and updates on progress. Just by subscribing, I have received emails from Barack and Michelle Obama and a few of the campaign managers. They haven’t let up in sending emails since 16th September. Nearly everyday I have received an email.

Barack Obama - email overview as at 29 September

What do the emails say? Apart from Donate money, the latest are starting to rally people to start making phone calls for Barack. They have even prepared a script with what you need to say. It’s very John Howard-esk in the 2004 election with his mass phone messages.

Obama email - The next 48hrs sent 29 September

Obama website - Neighbour to neighbour

We would definitely not get away with anything like this in Australia, but we do have very different political systems.

OTHER CHANNELS

Obama is everywhere, on every social network you can think of. His site lists the below with links to all of his profiles – 16 in total.

Obama - social networks

Obama (or a ghost writter) has posted 209 updates, as at 29 September, with over 87,879 followers and is following 91,350 people. Every update with a link back to his website.

Obama's Twitter profile as at 28 September

Not only does Obama have his own Twitter page, but the election has it’s own profile. Everyone is involved.

US Election 2008 - Twitter profile

LEARNINGS

There are a few learnings that the Australians politicians

1. Presence – be involved and present online. Have an umbrella strategy
2. Consistency – ensure there is a constant presence and it is consistent amongst all within the party
3. Involvement – be involved with every presence. Communicate and update users on where you are at (location and policy wise).
4. Community – get people involved and to participate. Even if it is to understand people’s perception of policies or their opinions on certain topics.

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Australian Politician’s – where are you online?