Using Social Networking to create a movement

Denisse Leon
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

In 2008, Advertising Age named Barack Obama Marketer of the Year. From being a one-term senator to becoming the 44th president of the United States of America, the Obama campaign captured the hearts of the public with his consistent message of “hope and change” .

But consistent message alone was not enough to mobilize voters, the Obama campaign managed to reach a wide range of audiences by leveraging personalization and context by meeting “the unique interests of voters and campaign supporters by addressing specific, individual needs”.

Email, direct marketing, and other traditional methods were only one part of the communications strategy. The Obama campaign leveraged social networking to create a movement. The team was led by “chief strategist David Axelrod and campaign manager David Plouffe, both from agency AKP&D Message and Media. Team Obama also enlisted a stable of agencies…” The campaign team realized that to be able to win the elections it “had to deliver information to people online as a primary tool, not an afterthought”.

But these were just tools that helped to drive the message to connect, inspire and empower people which in turn became brand ambassadors of the Obama brand. An example of this is musician will.i.am from Black-Eyed-Peas that inspired by Mr. Obama’s speech in New Hampshire gathered “some 30 Obama-supporting celebrities to come into the studio, including Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Tatyana Ali, Nick Cannon, Common, Kelly Hu, Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Nicole Scherzinger and Kate Walsh” to create the “Yes We Can” video and in only a matter of days had received nearly 700,000 hits.

The results of the Obama campaign ended up in involving more people than ever by empowering them to do so and in turn mobilizing more voters than ever before, the internet, video and social media and grassroots organizations played a big role. At the end of the day, the consistent message of ‘hope and change’ was about connecting with the heart and soul of the people and meet them where they were.

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