Obama set out to build a tribe. The traditional vote bank was not enough for the new president. The young, progressives, internationalists, african-american formed the new tribe. A tribe that he ensured identified with him. The result, a historic turnout.
Look at the numbers – 95% black (no surprises here), 66% Hispanics, 56% Women, 66% under 30's and a whooping 71% first timers (thanks to the new-age campaign!) - voted blue!
A massive half a billion dollars were raised for the campaign. Spent thoughtfully across all media. Traditional and emerging. Web 2.0 (I love it even more now!) led the digital thought process.
Obama announced his candidature in early 2007. All those a part of the rally that followed soon after were asked to give their email addresses, zip code and phone numbers to the organizers. (Smart!) Needless to say, the valuable data bank was exploited to its max potential both online and offline.
This Ad Age Marketeer of the year set forward a fine example of integrated marketing and made his campaign so accessible by creating tools to let people get engaged so very easily.
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, My Space, LinkedIn, FaithBase, Eons, Glee, MiGente, MyBatanga, AsianAve, DNC, PartyBuilder. You name it. The online media mix was flawless. Race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexuality did not matter.
Look at the numbers – 95% black (no surprises here), 66% Hispanics, 56% Women, 66% under 30's and a whooping 71% first timers (thanks to the new-age campaign!) - voted blue!
A massive half a billion dollars were raised for the campaign. Spent thoughtfully across all media. Traditional and emerging. Web 2.0 (I love it even more now!) led the digital thought process.
Obama announced his candidature in early 2007. All those a part of the rally that followed soon after were asked to give their email addresses, zip code and phone numbers to the organizers. (Smart!) Needless to say, the valuable data bank was exploited to its max potential both online and offline.
This Ad Age Marketeer of the year set forward a fine example of integrated marketing and made his campaign so accessible by creating tools to let people get engaged so very easily.
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, My Space, LinkedIn, FaithBase, Eons, Glee, MiGente, MyBatanga, AsianAve, DNC, PartyBuilder. You name it. The online media mix was flawless. Race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexuality did not matter.
And with President Barack's direct orders, this online reach-out was merged with traditional door knocking. The online-offline flip was so successfully carried off by the campaign managers that the tribe Obama created connected with him personally and any attack made on him was an attack made on them.
In my opinion, the biggest mistake McCain's campaign did was attack Obama incoherently and consistently. When you are attacking the leading brand, you ensure your strengths shine. Instead of focusing on his strategies and values, all McCain did was talk about Obama. Obama instead used McCain's tactical mistakes to portray him as an erratic leader and trounced the republicans on his way to victory.
This was indeed a very bad time to be a republican. The one thing an ailing US economy did not want was another Bush administration and McCain or his campaign failed to prove “the red” otherwise.
Disclaimer : I don't fully agree with some of Obama's policies but yes 10/10 for the brilliant campaign!
In my opinion, the biggest mistake McCain's campaign did was attack Obama incoherently and consistently. When you are attacking the leading brand, you ensure your strengths shine. Instead of focusing on his strategies and values, all McCain did was talk about Obama. Obama instead used McCain's tactical mistakes to portray him as an erratic leader and trounced the republicans on his way to victory.
This was indeed a very bad time to be a republican. The one thing an ailing US economy did not want was another Bush administration and McCain or his campaign failed to prove “the red” otherwise.
Disclaimer : I don't fully agree with some of Obama's policies but yes 10/10 for the brilliant campaign!
Post Disclaimer : My favourite part of the campaign was the Sarkozy prank call to Sarah Palin. It had me rolling on the floor laughing. She did cost more than just a few RED votes!!
