Memorandum

To: John Smith, Green Party Candidate

From: Jeremy Stacey, Film Composer
Date: April 19th. 2015
Re: Analysis Of 2012 Election & Why Obama Was So Successful
This memo will analyze the 2012 Presidential Election. It will look at the advertising of both the
Obama and Romney campaigns. Additionally, this memo will delve into the technology that
helped Obama win and the technology that hurt Romneys campaign. Furthermore, this memo
will pay particular focus to the swing states of Ohio & Virginia, regarding how their
demographic data in conjunction with the campaign advertisements affected how they ended up
voting.
Analysis of Barak Obamas Campaign Videos
The Obama campaign videos were really focused on personal connection with the voters. To a
certain extent all campaign videos are always trying to make a personal connection, however I
believe that Obama videos did a very good job of that. On July 13th, 2012 Obama made a speech
about small business where he mentioned that the owners did not build those businesses by
themselves.1 After this speech, the republicans heavily criticized him for suggesting that that only
way they built their businesses was with help from the government. Being that the
entrepreneurial spirit is something truly American and the fact that 99.7 percent of U.S. employer
firms are small businesss2, Obama had to do something. He could have written a press release
or made a speech addressing this, however his tactic was to address this in a commercial where
he spoke directly to the people to clarify what he meant. This approach worked well on two
fronts, first it showed that he took the time out to film this and really speak to the people. Many
times in campaign commercials we do not always see the candidate speaking directly. This really
increased the personal connection. Two, by picking to address this issue by shooting a
commercial, he guaranteed that his message would be replayed constantly.
Success is a team effort, and one way Obama achieved success was by enlisting the help of his
team mate, former president Bill Clinton. Using allies like Bill Clinton who had a seventy
threepercentapprovalratingatthehighpointofhissecondterm3,wasverysmartbecausehaving
theapprovalfromoneofourmosthighestratedpresidentsprovidespositivenostalgiatothe
voters,whilereinforcingcorecampaignissues.

1Obama:IfYou'veGotABusiness,YouDidn'tBuildThat.DirectedbyCSpan.PerformedbyBarackObama.

YouTube.July16,2012.AccessedApril19,2015.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKjPI6no5ng.
2"SmallBuisnessesCompriseWhatShareoftheU.S.Economy."FrequentlyAskedQuestionsAboutSmall
Buisness,September2012,14.https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/FAQ_Sept_2012.pdf.
3"Poll:Clinton'sApprovalRatingupinWakeofImpeachment."CNN.December20,1998.AccessedApril09,
2015.http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/12/20/impeachment.poll/.

AnalysisofMittRomneysCampaignVideos
TheMittRomneycampaigntookasimilarbutslightlydifferentapproachtogainvoters.Where
astheObamaadsmayhavebeenmoresubtleornonexistentintheircriticismofRomney,the
Romneyaddswereveryforthrightontheirviewoftheopposition.Aspreviouslymentioned
whenObamamadeastatementaboutsmallbusinessownersin2012,therepublicansheavily
criticizedhimforwhathehadsaid.WhattheRomneycampaigndidwastocreateacommercial
inoppositionofwhatObamahadsaid.Whatwassmartaboutthisadisthatitwentrightforthe
entrepreneurialspiritofAmericans.AttheendofthecommercialRomneynotedhow..Theidea
tosaythatSteveJobsdidntbuildapple,HenryForddidntbuildFordMotors.4,becausehe
wantedtoshowhowwhatObamasaid,wasinsultingtoAmerica.Whatsevenmoreimportantis
thatthemainprotagonistinthiscommercial,asmallbusinessowner,isinthestateofOhio,one
ofthe9swingstatesintheUnitedStates.Mostlikelythiscommercialwasputshownalotin
Ohio.EventhoughRomneydidntwinOhio,itwasstillsmarttotargethiscampaigning
specificallytothembecauseoftheimportanceoftheirswingstatestatus.
Analysis of Ohio Voter Statistics
A swing state is a state where political affiliations are not distinctly cemented they can swing
from one candidate to another. 5 These states are always very important in every election and for
this memo we will be addressing two of those states, the first being Ohio.
In 2010 only forty three percent of those with incomes under $50,000 said they had [voted.]6
in the midterm elections. This is important because the median household income for Ohio is
only $48,308.7 This means that there is a high chance that many of Ohios voters dont even vote,
meaning the politicians have to work extra hard to get their vote. However Obama had an
advantage over Romney in that at the time Ohios own economic recovery was running ahead
of the national recovery.8 This was due to Obamas bailout of the auto industry during the
begging of his first term. This shows that events of a president may play a bigger role than
statistics.

4TheseHandsCommercial.TheLivingRoomCandidate.February1,2012.AccessedApril09,2015.

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2012.
5Cuniff,Meghan."PortraitofaSwingState."DailyEmerald.October4,2004.AccessedApril19,2015.
http://www.dailyemerald.com/2004/10/04/portraitofaswingstate/.
6Greenberg,EdwardS.,andBenjaminI.Page.TheStruggleforDemocracy.Boston:Pearson,2014.
7American FactFinder - Community Facts Accessed April 13, 2015
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml.
8Zeleny,Jeff,andDaliaSussman."OhioWorkingClassMayOfferKeytoObamasReelection."TheNewYork
Times.October30,2012.AccessedApril19,2015.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/us/politics/ohioworking
classmaybekeytoobamareelection.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.

Analysis of Virginia Voter Statistics

Virginia also played a large role in the election of 2012. The vote was so close in Virginia that
Obama had 50.8 percent of the popular vote, while Romney had 47.8 percent.9 One of the many
factors that may have led to success of Obama is age. Typically younger people dont vote as
often as older people do. In the 2010 midterm election, less than twenty percent of those
under 25 voted compared to 51 percent for those spanning the 45-64 age group.10 In Virginia
20.9 percent of the population is between the ages of 20 and 34.11 Being that almost a quarter of
the population of Virginia is in an age bracket that typically doesnt vote, it would make sense as
to why this would lead to them being a swing state and therefore harder to gain voters.
How Obamas Media Campaign Helped Him Win
One of the most critical differences between the Obama and Romney campaigns is that The
Obama campaign spent forty seven million dollars on digital spending and the Romney
campaign spent four point seven million dollars.12 Furthermore, the Romney campaign put its
money into a computer based modeling system known as ORCA, which ended up failing. The
Internet is not just for young people and many people who are in the typical voting age bracket
saw all the online activity of the Obama campaign, which helped him tremendously.
Final Recommendations for Campaign Success
My final recommendations would be that when you make commercials for your campaign, you
make an effort to actually be in them, and that you enlist other successful members of your party
to give you endorsements both in commercials and for speeches. Additionally, spend a lot of time
on your campaign tour in the 9 swing states. Also pay attention to speeches of your opponents
and look for ways to exploit what they say in a way that benefits your campaign. Spend time
looking at the economic, racial, income and education level of your states and tailor adds just for
certain groups. Finally, spend a fair amount of money in your online presence; this world is
increasingly becoming more connecting online. Without a strong online following, getting voters
will be much harder. If you follow this advise you will have a much better campaign.

9"2012VirginiaPresidentialResults."POLITICO.N.p.,19Nov.2012.Web.19Apr.2015.
10Seenote6above.
11Seenote7above.
12Obama Spent 10 Times as Much on Social Media as Romney. Performed by Howard Kurtz and Lauren Ashburn.
PBS Video. November 16, 2012. Accessed April 08, 2015. http://video.pbs.org/video/2305745720/.