Change we can believe in: An unprecedented political campaign

Jillian Miers Professor Craig Wood J460: Advanced Integrated Media Communications 10/22/2012

Change was the word of the 2008 presidential election. The Obama for American campaign made it the buzz word for eleven months as then-Illinois Senator Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the United States presidency. The campaign slogan was Change you can believe in, and they certainly set a standard for change with their unprecedented media strategy to attract, convince and mobilize target audiences. In the most integrated political campaign in history, a relatively unknown senator with two years of federal experience became the President of the United States. The American public was disappointed and disenchanted with the political atmosphere and administration by the time the 2008 election came around. They were upset with the United States involvement in two wars, the burst of the housing market and the Bush tax cuts. Seven months before the 2008 election, a Gallup Poll showed a 29 percent approval rating for former President George W. Bush (Parikh, 2011). In general, there was a lack of trust in the government and a disappointment of establishment politicians. Also, there had been a huge rise in social networking sites and the amount of users capable of using them. Research showed that in 2009, one in three Internet users had a Facebook profile, during a time when 55 percent of Americans have a broadband Internet connection at home (Talbot, 2008). Barack Obama was relatively unknown on the national scene when he announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008. He was born in Hawaii but eventually came to the Northeast to attend Harvard Law School. He then taught constitutional law before being elected into the Illinois State Senate in 1996. Eight years later, he was elected to the United States Senate as a representative of Illinois (Abramson, 2008). He spent just two years in the national senate before announcing his intent for presidency. Naturally, in a presidential election, the campaign wants to engage all voters, especially those loyal to their political party or swing voters. In 2008, President Obamas campaign targeted its media strategy to three specific audiences. Among these; including women, minorities, and youth, the campaign focused the youth vote more than any in history. His audience was those conceived to have less political and financial power, like youth and the blue-collared worker. His audience wanted a new standard for government and they wanted that government to solve the problems they saw around them. His target audience was idealistic when they believed that rapid change could and would happen under an Obama administration, but that was his message.

Tactics President Obamas 2008 election campaign integrated traditional media with Internet tactics and campaign strategy. For this campaign, agencies GMMB and SS+K worked together to form the media plan for print and broadcast media. According to Opensecrets.org, the campaign spent $244,437,746 on commercials or short film spots on television and $20,462,672 on print. The commercials they created spread the message that Obama would change the political environment in Washington. They wanted to appeal to all voters who were dissatisfied by Bush and the bipartisanship. They also used commercials featuring celebrities to target minority groups and targeted youth with get out the vote messages. In addition to the advertising and heavy Internet usage, Obamas team sent out direct mailers. These mailers were to promote his ideas, campaign and how to get involved or to request a donation. According to Opensecrets.org, they spent $110,000 on campaign direct mail and $28,481,746 on direct mail and telemarketing for fundraising. On top of actual post cards and letters being mailed out, the team used phone calls and phonebanks to raise money and most importantly, email. The Obama campaign utilized their messages everyday with their daily emails. Each day a supporter would receive a new email from someone in the campaign telling them to be encouraged, to recruit more people, to help make phone-calls, or to give money to help the cause (The Obama Campaign, n.d.). Traditionally, political campaigns set up many events to fundraise or to rally supporters. The Obama for America campaign participated in fundraiser dinners and made appearances throughout the states. On the other hand, Obama made it a priority to visit college campuses. His speeches at these rallies reflected research about the schools traditions and the concern of college-age people in the US. A unique tactic the campaign implemented was the use of merchandise booths. At each event or college visit, they would have campaign swag (Tumulty, 2008) so all attendees could purchase it, making a contribution to the campaign and while using it, be spreading the word about Obama. The campaigns email list became fat not only on volunteer sign-ups but from store purchases (Tumulty, 2008). The campaign spent $162,930 on fundraising events and $32,012,975 on promotional events, according to Opensecrets.org. The Internet was Obamas Siren. His campaign harnessed it and utilized various platforms to attract, inform, connect and mobilize youth. There are three main components to the new media strategy built by

technology consultants Blue State Digital, with the help of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes (Stelter, 2008). First, they used the already established social networking sites; Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to reach out to youth. On Facebook, supporters could find informational videos and encouragement to reach their goals. Twitter announced important campaign information and links to other sources. But, the campaign is famous for their active use of YouTube. The team posted a video to the BarackObamadotcom YouTube channel every day, which transitioned when he won to a video address by the President every day. These videos included ads that ran on television, informational videos on how to use the campaigns tools or how to vote, and recorded experiences from events on the campaign trail. Many of their social media tactics were to create awareness or desire by convincing them of the inclusiveness of the campaign and the change that Obama can accomplish as president. BSD also built the BarackObama.com website which became the hub for all campaign activities (Obama, Blue State Digital, 2008). The website fit all needs of the voters needs. If an undecided voter wanted to understand Obamas plan, there was a tab for that and several video resources. If a supporter wanted to buy bummer stickers to pass out to his friends, there was a way to do that and it was a contribution to the campaign. If a supporter wanted to connect with other supporters in the area and host a house party, they could through the websites own social networking site. My.barackobama.com was the social networking site that Hughes built for the Obama campaign. The networking site resembled an early Facebook model (Stelter, 2008), and by July 2008 MyBO, as they called it in the campaign, logged more than a million user accounts and facilitated 75,000 local events (Talbot, 2008). Once logged in, users could find upload their email address books, send out personal fundraising letters, download and upload canvassing information for the campaign, organize events or login to phone-banking tools (Talbot, 2008).Through MyBO, three million phone calls were made, two million user profiles were created, 400,000 blog entries were posted, users created more than 45,000 volunteer groups and played host to 200,000 events (Obama, Blue State Digital, 2008). Through MyBO, supporters were able to build a grassroots organization in their state before the campaign made it to their state. In this way, the campaign built exponentially because the grassroots could recruit and gather information in Ohio while the campaign spent time in Florida, then be able to use the information gathered previously in Ohio to instantly kick-off events. After Clintons lead gave way to Obama, his supporters asked the campaign how they could include Clinton supporters into the campaign. This led to 4,000

house parties by June 28, 2008. The house parties were hosted by loyal Obama supporters with the theme Unite for Change, to draw in Clinton supporters to the cause (Talbot, 2008). Successful or Not? The 2008 presidential campaign for Obama is widely considered the first political campaign to successfully harness media strategy, and the award associations think so too. Ad Age named Obama Marketer of the Year at the Cannes Lion Award (Creamer, 2008). The YouTube commercial featuring Sarah Silverman about motivating Jewish youth to persuade their relatives in Florida won agency Droga5 a Titanium Lion (Sweney, 2009). In the Film Lion category, Ad Age recognized the short film, Wassup08, by Charles Stone III for its excellence although it was not eligible for an award (Creamer, 2008). In addition, the agencies working on the campaign were also recognized for their unprecedented media strategy and implementation. First, GMMBs media plan for Obama for America won Media Plan of the Year by Adweek (GMMB, 2009). Second, Blue State Digital won many awards for its website and custom social networking site. From the American Association of Political Consultants Pollie Awards, BSD won silver for Best Use of New Technology for my.barackobama.com, which they built with Hughes. From the Golden Dots Awards, they also won the Online Politician category, Best Website: Federal Candidate, Best Mobile/Text Campaign, Best Networked Campaign and Best Online GOTV (Awards). To top it all off, Obama won the presidential election over Republican opponent John McCain with 53 percent of the popular vote (Obama, SS+K). The campaigns effective use of social media also paid off with Obama winning 68 percent of the youth vote in an election with unprecedented voter turnout, especially for ages 18 to 30 (Parikh, 2011). It is hard to come up with suggestions for a campaign in which the media strategy was unprecedented. A few suggestions might be to recruit a variety of celebrities to expand past the minority audience. Another suggestion may be to host more unique events than just speaking occasions to show that he can connect with the everyday American or youth, which would connect with his Washington-outside message. Additionally, he had problems with staff members so another suggestion may be to suggest he research or interview the candidates more before hiring them to his staff. The Obama for America 2008 presidential election campaign integrated multiple media platforms to spread his message and mobilize for the biggest voter turnout in recent history. He won the election with 53 percent of the popular vote, and motivated 68 percent of the youth voters (Obama, SS+K), one of the largest

voting blocks in the 2008 election, to vote for him. Using traditional media, direct mail marketing, facilitating events and the campaigns incredible and effective use of the Internet, Americans showed they believed in the change Obama promised them. Overall, according to Opensecrets.org, the campaign spent $729 million, roughly $488 million on marketing tactics. On the other hand, his campaign raised $747 million, so the campaign did not go into debt and won the election. Overall, the campaign was successful in accomplishing its goals of winning the presidential election and motivating the American public to believe in change and believe that the government and the public can work together to make a difference.

Works Cited Abramson, Jill. "Barack Obama: The Road to the White House." The New York Times. The New York Times, 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/b/barack_obama_the_road_to_t he_white_house/index.html>. "Awards." Blue State Digital. 2012 Blue State Digital, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.bluestatedigital.com/about/awards/>. Creamer, Matthew, Jack Neff, and Natalie Zmuda. "Obama Wins!...Ad Age's Marketer of the Year at ANA Gathering." AdvertisingAge. Crain Communications, 17 Oct. 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://adage.com/article/moy-2008/obama-wins-ad-age-s-marketer-year/131810/>. "Expenditures Breakdown." Barack Obama. Center for Responsive Politics, 03 Feb. 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/expend.php?cid=N00009638>. "GMMB Wins Adweek's Media Plan of the Year for Obama for America Campaign." GMMB. GMMB Inc., 30 June 2009. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.gmmb.com/news/view/gmmb-winsadweeks-media-plan-of-the-year-for-obama-for-america-campaign/>. Iezzi, Teresa. "Charles Stone III Reprises Wassup for Obama." Creativity Online. Crain Communications, 27 Oct. 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://creativity-online.com/news/charlesstone-iii-reprises-wassup-for-obama/132047>. The Obama Campaign. United Kingdom: Digital Training Academy, n.d. PDF. "Obama for America." Blue State Digital. 2012 Blue State Digital, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.bluestatedigital.com/work/case-studies/barack-obama>. "Obama For America." SS+K. SS+K, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://ssk.com/obama/>.

Parikh, Komal H. "Political Fandom in the Age of Social Media." Diss. University of London, 2011. Media@LSE. London School of Economics and Political Science, 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www2.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/mediaWorkingPapers/MScDissertationSeries/2011/ 64.pdf>. Stelter, Brian. "The Facebooker Who Friended Obama." The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 July 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/technology/07hughes.html?pagewanted=all>. Sweney, Mark. "Barack Obama Campaign Claims Two Top Prizes at Cannes Lion Ad Awards." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 29 June 2009. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/29/barack-obama-cannes-lions>. Talbot, David. "How Obama Really Did It." Technology Review. Massachusetts Institute for Technology, Sept.-Oct. 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/410644/how-obama-really-did-it/>. Tumulty, Karen. "How Obama Did It." Time. Time, 05 June 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812049,00.html>. References "Barack Obama." Obama for America. Obama for America, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.barackobama.com/about/barack-obama>. Cillizza, Chris. "What Went Right for Obama." The Washington Post. The Washington Post, 5 June 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/eye-on-2008/what-wentright-for-obama.html>.

"Elections | Barack Obama." GMMB | Work. GMMB Inc., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.gmmb.com/work/view/president-barack-obama/>. Keeter, Scott. "Young Voters in the 2008 Election." Pew Research Center Publications. Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 12 Nov. 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1031/young-voters-in-the-2008-election>. Smith, Aaron. "From BarackObama.com to Change.gov." Pew Research Center. Pew Internet & American Life Project, 30 Dec. 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1068/post-election-voter-engagement>. Sullivan, Elisabeth A. Marketer in Chief. Chicago: Weber Shandwick, n.d. PDF. Young, Antony. "Hillary vs. Barack: Who Had the Smartest Media Strategy?" Ad Age. Crain Communications, 4 June 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://adage.com/article/campaigntrail/hillary-barack-smartest-media-strategy/127508/>.