Obama and his team did everything right.

Their website, their marketing, their connection with people, their inspiring messages (whether you agreed with them or not) is an amazing model to study.

From a social marketing standpoint, I saw YouTube videos by people of many different races encouraging people to support Obama. One of my favorites was a Latino one = “even my Republican mama / is going to cast her vote for Obama”. This video support was almost like a contest to see who could be the most creative (which I’ve seen Rich and other Internet Marketers and business people do).

From a “Maven Marketing” standpoint, Obama appeared to be the Industry Expert, remaining cool, calm, and collected while John McCain got flustered and contradicted himself.
Obama positioned himself to win.

This campaign will be one to study for years to come.
Dr. Andrew Colyer

Rich,
I think you have nailed the marketing aspects of President-Elect Obama’s victory… Marketing, excellent marketing. To use Dan Kennedy’s teachings, it was a brilliant and a perfect Message to Market Match of the “top of intended audience minds’ concerns, using multiple simultaneous media delivery. His campaign managers should be complimented in earnest by all marketers regardless of political leanings.
I sincerely desire that you will not be “flamed” for your post, as well as that all Americans, including those that did not support our President-Elect in the campaign, now rally behind our new President and willingly give him our support. He has willingly taken on a daunting assignment and has earned our collective support.
Thanks for the insight into the lesson of real life marketing that has changed the landscape historically for us all.

Rich,
Obama was behind until a few months ago, despite his superior social marketing.
Its an indelable trend in political marketing that ruling parties mostly lose elections during recessions. Obama’s recent rise follows closely the timetable of the financial crisis coming to a terrible head. New Zealand’s government fell last weekend - it’s been in recession most of the year too. Others around the world have fallen, and more will do so.
If it comes down to a test, you can take a nation’s ruling party and teach them social marketing. I’ll be happy to help the wannabes who have a recession on their side. You might get up, but I’ll bet you’ll have to work a whole lot harder and smarter than me to achioeve it.
Both McCain and Obama are quality leaders - let’s hope Obama uses his lack of experience in government as well as Lincoln did.
Best
Geoff Kelly

I agree that the networks and social marketing aspects were huge; however, an even bigger reason why folks were motivated to take action and use these networks is this:

Barack Obama had a HUNGRIER MARKET for what he had to offer than John McCain did.

His campaign knew that most Americans didn’t like the current President or the way things were going in our country.

So they tapped into the theme of “CHANGE,” and his campaign didn’t really need to give more reasons than that to vote for Barack Obama.

Besides having a mediocre candidate, McCain’s strategists put out terrible messages that were cute, clever, or just didn’t give a good reason why they should vote for him.

Phrases like “Country First,” “Maverick,” “Joe Sixpack” and of course, “Joe the Plumber” weren’t that effective, and I thought were pretty stupid. Not to mention all the direct mail pieces that had to do with rogue foreign leaders, and terrorism.

Think about it: When most Americans have seen their portfolios whacked by 1/3 in a matter of months - not to mention their retirement dreams crushed (or at least postponed) - almost nobody really gives a rip about the 1-in-a-million threat of a terorrist attack!

Anyone with any marketing ability in their pinkie finger should work with a political candidate in 2010 to help them craft decent messages.

While Obama may have done social marketing right, there is little evidence it had a real effect. What is most remarkable about the difference in the campaigns, and the factor most reliably that wins elections - is money. Obama and supporters spent about $650 million compared to McCain’s less than $150 million. As a result of the money difference - Obama flooded the media with ads.

The only surprise is that it was not more of a blow-out than it was.

Barack Obama created a PERFECT STORM with his social media campaign.

Sadly, there’s a huge and bitter debate raging on http://www.Twitter.com regarding the Return On Investment (ROI) of Social Marketing.

The nay-sayers say it does not work.

I agree that it won’t work if used like old media. But used the RIGHT way it can be the making of a president - as we have seen.

No question.

Jonathan

That is a great example of why any business should be embracing social media.

I had no idea that twitter was being used by these guys going to go check it out.

Rich

I find it amazing how well Obama’s campaign went. I find it more amazing however how radically effective Ron Paul’s campaign was and yet he didn’t even place.

Yep, it must be social marketing. I’m sure it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that McCain was endorsed by both Bush and Cheney, during whose tenure the national debt was increased by over 5 trillion dollars and we experienced the worst monetary crisis since the Great Depression. Plus.. they made a pre-emptive strike on a country that was already bankrupted and brought to it’s knees by embargos, and which had no WMD’s (this was known before the attack). And lest we forget, our Constitution was stripped from us via the Patriot Act and a police state instituted. Not to mention the fact that Bush and Cheney were behind 9/11.. or at the very least knew it was coming down the pike.. and 85% of America knows, or at least believes it was an inside job. No.. I’m sure it was Social marketing. Had to be.. right?
John Michael Christian

Hi Rich,
Excellent post. Thank you for the fair review of both candidates social media strategies.

Here is a site by a David Bullock you may not have seen. It’s a look at how President-Elect Obama’s Social Media Strategies could help other businesses.
http://barack20.com/

One reason McCain lost is that he thought he knew what the customer wanted. He didn’t listen to what was happening.
For example, he refused to make the Obama’s relationship with the racist minister Jeremiah Wright an issue who was on record shouting “G## D### America!” He would not allow any ads on the topic.

Big mistake. That issue resonated big time among his supporters. It turns out that 20% of the Republican base stayed home. They would have shown up if that message had been driven home in a big way.

It’s important to provide what the customer wants.

And McCain let Obama repeatedly say the Bush and McCain were the same, even though McCain was a thorn in Bush’s side for eight years.

McCain failed to provide a USP, differentiating himself from the Bush connection.

Lastly…and this ties into the first reason…buyers are more likely to respond from fear of loss. McCain failed to paint a scary picture about what could happen if Obama got elected.

The best to you.

Kelley Eidem, author, The Doctor Who Cures Cancer
Together we can cure cancer - one person at a time!

I don’t think anyone could have written a more articulated post. When I saw your email with the headline, “The real reason Obama won”, I thought to myself sarcasticly, “this ought to be good”. To my amazement it was in deed good and I agree with you whole heartedly. Thanks for the awesome message.

Rich,
Thanks for creating this thought-provoking post by providing us with a real-life lesson on the effectiveness of social marketing. I tend to agree with Brian Ochsner that Obama won because he gave the “hunger market” what they wanted to buy. I wonder who actually came up with the strategy that made the Obama campaign so successful?

I agree with you to a point… The Obama campaign did a better job with social marketing than the McCain campaign for sure.

However, if it was just a question of who had the best social marketing, Ron Paul should have won by a landslide in the primaries and then swept the floor with the Obama campaign during the general election. I realize there were other factors at play here, but if you go back and look at the Google search terms as well as the blogosphere during the primaries, you will find that Ron Paul out “social marketed” all the other candidates combined. (He also raised massive amounts of money.)

Anyway, I’m curious to see if you have a comment on this but I’m certainly not arguing the point in the general election.

- HKH

Hey Rich. Wow not an easy tackle you just addressed. Tip toe through the tulips…Dang! and Bang! You are spot on! Social Marketing was huge in Obama’s campaign. It is clearly here to stay and should be used but man it certainly can be abused!

Using the best practices “always” is the only way to go! One slip and you’re a gonner.

Great stuff.

Keith
P.S. Looking forward to your next great calls

I’m impressed by the team that Obama used to lead his internet marketing campaigns. Their marketing execution was flawless and its no wonder he was able to raise so much money.

Down here in my country Kenya, some of us are still celebrating his win. The mood is still ecstatic and in his father’s birthplace in Kogelo village a bull was slaughtered to celebrate his win.

One day prior to the American Elections, Kenyans held their own “election” and “voters” cast their vote and its no suprise who won. Here is the story i posted
http://www.africapoint.net/kenya/kenyans-vote-for-obama-in-mock-polls/

Rich -
I think that you stated your case quite well. I started watching the candidates long before the race got down to two individuals. I found every D & R candidate I could during the primaries and connected with them through their social networking as well as email campaigns.

I originally did this because I’m an independent and I wanted to gather information from various sources. I quickly realized that I was going to learn about more than the political candidates’ positions.

It was a lot to watch, but I really got an education about what to do and what not to do. Many of the campaigns had accounts and did nothing with them. Nothing is worse than apathy. It would have been better to not have an account or e-zine.

I observed great consistency in the marketing that the Obama campaign conducted. The language was also different. Many of the other candidates used “I” statements (something in marketing we are told to never do!), while the Obama campaign consistently used “we” or “us” statements. They made the person reading subconsciously a part of the process. The other difference I observed in technique was the use of different “authors.” I received emails from Biden, Michelle, campaign leads, and Obama himself. The tone was welcoming and warm. I did not observe the same consistencies in other campaign communication.

One commenter here discussed the amount of money Obama raised, but isn’t that another point to prove that his marketing worked? It was the average person donating anywhere from $5-20 that raised those millions. Yes, the advertising helped, all communication marketing will help a campaign, but he had to raise the money before he could pay for the ads.

Now, I wondered if the requests for $5-20 in his marketing were possible outside of the political arena, so I tested it. I was recently on the strategy team for an ABC “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build in Central Illinois. On day 1 of the build we had $400 in the account to pay for everything. We decided to employ the “Obama strategy.” All of our marketing for that 7 days of the build used strategies that we had observed in Obama’s campaign - blogging, email, rss, social networking - as well as more traditional marketing. Hands down, our videos on MySpace and Facebook as well as our RSS of media releases and such were what put us over the top. People got connected and when they are connected they open their pocketbook. By the end of the build, just 6 short days later, our balance was at $120,000. When we looked at the account we saw that most of the donations were between $5 and $100. That was evidence enough for me that the strategy worked.

Now to apply it to my business!
To your success!
Stephanie

Productive & Organized - We’ll help you find your way! tm

Was it more a question of McCain losing rather than Barack winning?

The fact that Obama outspent John McCain is ANOTHER direct example of the power of social marketing. He raised $650 Million from average people. That NEVER would have happened in the old style political campaigns. Whether you are for either political party, there was a lot to be learned from this campaign on both sides. We need to objectively look at ANY example of how to grow our businesses and that is amazing to me how the Obama campaign raised so much money via the internet.

The real reason Obama won was none of these things. Sure, they all contributed some.

But the real reason was this: Obama *looked presidential*. McCain didn’t.

Voters tick people - not policies, history, promises or markets. And every inch of the way Obama was a president-in-waiting… acting like one, looking like one, behaving like one. Even on David Letterman’s show, he let his presidential guard down only enough to expose his humanness. McCain - on the same show a few months later - acted like a try-hard comedian. And failed.

I have never seen such a contrast in winners and losers. It’s extreme enough for me to rewrite the old adage to read: “90% of success is looking the part.”

So where do you get these “plans” exactly?

Click Here To Claim Your First FREE Month Of Cashmaps

These links are going to the 404 page.

cf

Very clever post. At the right time. Another brilliant marketing idea that educates and informs us as well. I thank you for the painstaking analysis and revelation. Good marketing works. And I think there is more to it.

Thanks Rich - your observations are certainly challenging.

As a South African, I read your blog with fascination. We are going through a political pre-election crisis in our own country right now. Most people in South Africa were electrically galvanised by the Obama campaign in the USA and now the majority are overjoyed that he is the next USA President.

In terms of his use of the Internet as a marketing tool we could learn a lot over here. However, this tool remains premature and may even be still born due to poor bandwidth and the relatively small percentage of our population who have 24hr access to the internet.

Cell phone technology in SA and Africa in general, on the other hand, is powerful. I would like to hear more about how this device can be used as a marketing tool for our businesses. the politicians here have not even caught onto this device for promoting their campaigns. Old fashion tools such as the press, radio and public meetings still hold sway. Africa is still, sadly, operating in the dark ages of jungle marketing.

Great post, spot on and all that…but you need to fix your links. Each link is http://www.strategicprofits.com/www.strategicprofits.com/cashmaps
How much traffic are you losing because some people don’t realize they can cut out the second http://www.strategicprofits.com part?

I got here from your email, btw and it looks to be a fantastic product. It’s awesome that you’ve put together a visual guide. And, just a suggestion, but why not release chunks of it as well, say a map for search marketers only, membership sites only, ebook writers, etc.? (If you haven’t already.)

I love your work. Thanks for being a great resource.

Yes I Agree he had an awesome marketing team….Barack even made mention of this in one of his speeches.

Kim
http://presidentbarakobama-kimberly.blogspot.com/

Theres a million $ in it for the person who can analyse the whole campaign start to finish- not just social networks- it was a collective push ot the many aspects that got him elected.

When somebody puts it together , send me a copy
regards GC

Rich,
I agree with your post - but, someone beat you to the punch. David Bullock and and Brent Leary pointed this out a number of weeks ago on their website.

What President-elect Obama and his team did was nothing short of remarkable and clearly showed both the incredible potential and startling power of this new medium.

Great post as always,
Jim

Enjoyable and insightful posting. Those of us from north of the 49th watched your country’s campaign with great interest, even though we were in the middle of our own federal election.

If indeed social marketing is seen to be a significant factor in this outcome, my guess is that next time both parties will be on top of that game and it will come down to some other factor.

Regardless of why Obama won, I hope things go well for you all down there (because it sure affects us up here!)