Brands are alive and well. In fact they will get you in the White House.
This week Barack Obama was elected 44th President of the United States. As much as JFK's election was a defining moment in American culture during the 60's, the election of President-Elect Obama is ground breaking. The issues at stake for this election are vast, and many go beyond the borders of the US. The economic state of the nation, the military situation and the Bush legacy are just some of the major issues that made this a defining moment. While this event unfolded as millions watched worldwide, the Obama campaign became the golden child of marketing. Crowned
Marketer of the Year by Ad Age magazine, the strategy and execution behind Mr. Obama is just as groundbreaking.
In the last week, countless articles detailed the winning strategy that included the use of the Internet and social networks. The campaign also focused 70% of it's $3 Million online budget on Search Marketing, which is quite the statement for brand building using search. A mere 10% of that budget was deployed for CPM based banner advertising.
Unless you have been living in a cave on the moon with no power and no wi-fi, you must have heard about the web 2.0 by now. The interactive media landscape has shifted significantly in the last years with a massive shift of users towards participation in user maintained environments. Enter the participation era of the web and platforms that allow users to connect and share in the dialogue with brands. Facebook MySpace, Youtube, etc... The Obama campaign leveraged incredible amount of grassroots support through social networks like Facebook that allowed efficient communication and bottom up dialogue for all Obama fans. Plateforms such as Twitter and the popular iPhone application brought political engagement at the fingertips of most mobile and social platforms. Bravo.
But I think the online innovation aspect of the campaign got enough coverage and that's not what I want to focus on right now. The Internet played a great role, without a doubt, in this very effective strategy. But fundamentally the Obama brand strategy was far superior and even more groundbreaking that the execution of social media.
The purchase decision, in this case which of the two candidates was best suited to be the next president of the USA seems far more complex than the choice for a cereal or a car. But in fact, the same processes are at work. Often the most effective campaigns are the simplest with the greatest emotional impact. The Obama campaign managed to distill it's meaning into one word: CHANGE. It became the DNA for all executions and messages. Beyond the actual word, this concept of change acknowledges the current White House embarrassment with a proactive action-oriented approach. This zeitgeist, or spirit of the time, for these elections is in fact CHANGE. After outlasting an 8 year old lease on the last president, CHANGE was in fact the obvious intuitive choice. Very smart move by Obama strategists.
But the power of the Obama brand goes far deeper that CHANGE and probably further than I understand American culture. Yet one thing was starring at me all along and it became apparent to me that despite it's transparency, this was one of the winning cards in the final hand.
In the
Rebel Sell, the authors suggest that counter culture and rebellion, far from being anti-establishment, provide the next generation of cool appeal. Quite usefull in a highly commoditized market, lets say as jeans, or t-shirts or personal computers, differentiation through unique cool factors are essential to maintaining a hip brand.
Skateboard culture saved the ski industry with snowboarding and now with freeskiing, when mom and dad started snowboarding. Hip hop with sports. Violence and gangs with music. Heck, even drugs with rock and roll. Think different by Mac.
Adding a touch of counterculture appeal to a brand will give instant cool points. Counter culture probably sold more shoes, electronics, cars and lifestyle apparel than all the babes, babies and animals campaigns united.
The
Obey Giant campaign was started in 1989 by artist and designer Shepard Farey. This street art campaign was in fact illegal and made up of spray paint stencils, stickers, posters and such. The campaign that started as a personal project in NYC quickly took off as other artists adapted the method and soul of the projet, and is now still active by the hands of thousands worldwide. It is now a massive brand that sells a lifestyle in premium stores worldwide. Clearly grafiti and street art is as urban subversive as it gets, and its always been associated with the counter culture behind the skateboard industry.
Not a likely bed fellow for a presidential campaign. Is it?Shepard Fairey actually designed the very popular Obama poster for CHANGE. And in doing so, added the entire mythology that permeates urban culture to the Obama campaign. The poster became an icon both fashionable and loaded. A political poster that became actually cool as it jumped out of the counterculture niche loaded with street credibility.
The Obama campaign managed to turn the act of voting and the elements of CHANGE into a subversive and therefore cool behaviour. The
viral online videos from Moveon.org and the
Will.I.AM video on youtube giving street credibility to the brand to further reinforce the message.
Join our club and help overthrow the current establishment. Very powerful message indeed.
Energizing the youth segment of the population into voting 101: transform the patriotic duty of voting into an organized coup d’état, a non-violent tongue in cheek eviction notice. This is something conservative could never do. How could they possible sell the image of McCain and Palin as change agents. As much as McCain’s brand resonated to millenials as a mashup between Mr. Burns and Abraham Simpson and Sarah Palin’s as Stiffler’s mom and Maude Flanders, they failed to connect and were the actual antithesis of CHANGE.
The strategy of integrating social media in the mix is clearly a shoe-in by the very nature of the message. Organizing a coup is a grassroots bottom-up initiative. Even the 30 min TV takeover on several networks was bold and daring. Outside of the 30/15 second spot this was a clear statement that the media strategists behind Obama were not in the same ball park or even the same sport as the McCain-Tina Fey team. The boldness of this approach reminded me of a scene from V for Vendetta, where the anti-government hero address the nation while taking over all TV channels to announce it’s plan against the totalitarian state and asks the cooperation of all citizens.
The Obama team managed to create a mythology around CHANGE that spoke to the urban culture with icons and symbols and media platforms. A truly groundbreaking feat.
In Québec, we are getting ready for the provincial elections. In a matter of hours from the Obama victory, the blogosphere was up and running about what local parties could learn from the US experiment. Web 2.0 snake juice salesmen dusted off the powerpoints that seemed stale 2 years ago and are hammering on the social networking nail as a free ticket to political victory. As much as these have become essential in the dialogue between brands and users, their value is nil without a true message. Real value in the product itself. Furthermore, the very fabric that made up the CHANGE message so powerful is that people can turn things around.
YES WE CAN. For that reason, the fit with social networks was an intuitive and efficient one. For parties in Québec to leverage even a fraction of the same passion online, their brand must be strong and their message clear, but ost important, they must make a difference. Without the power of the brand, the social network “series of tubes” becomes hollow and irrelevant. True passion inspires and connects people. President Elect Obama inspired a nation to vote and say CHANGE HAS COME TO AMERICA. Despite the new media strategies and the edgy counter culture symbols used for the Obama campaign, the message could be explained in one word, because the context and the issues mattered. I am keeping an eye open on what political parties will do up in Québec, but the fundamental apathy and lack of real issues certainly don't make up a relevant or promising landscape for a strong brand to emerge.
