Political Campaigns

What could we learn from Obama -the brand?

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

John McCain was the original, durable brand as far as the media was concerned. What was on the wrapper was nothing compared to what was inside.

If we deconstruct his campaign we would see how, as I had mentioned even before the results, his team badly managed the brand, the positioning, the distribution, the user experience.

But Brand Obama is something else entirely. It was all about connections. Well managed, for sure. Strategic as good as it gets. Someone commenting on the Fast Company cover story in March this year said “the Obama brand is a short lived one, I would not want to put on any product I was marketing”.

Another response from one Tim Leberecht was very telling:

“The Obama brand is all software and only a little hardware, and it comes with an open SDK (software developer kit) — a dynamic, modular platform that both individual campaigners and institutional networks can plug into.”

A brand that individual networks can plug into. Now that’s what all brands must aspire to be.

It’s almost like describing the iPhone. Not just for being a shiny object but for being something people could connect to, customize, create their own apps (T-shirts, signs, even graffiti!).

Compare the image on the left to this response from a French Minister, Rama Yade:

“This is the fall of the Berlin Wall times ten … On this morning, we all want to be American, so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes.”

The brand undoubtably infected them.

Quotes for the week ending 8 November, 2008

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“Thank you for painting your barns, canvassing by horseback, and volunteering alongside your Llama for Obama.”

Message of thanks on the BarackObama.com blog

“We should be careful of these zero-sum games where the new media drives out the old.”

Andrew Hayward, former president of CBS News, in The New York Times, commenting on political campaigns in the web 2.0 world.

“If I actually had a set of tear ducts, I’d probably cry.”

Angela Navtividad, at AdRants.com, reporting on the jubilation among Manhattanites on Barack Obama’s victory on Tuesday.

“The long nightmare is OVER!”

Comments by an avatar (!) going by the name Jordanna Beaumont, in Obama’s unofficial Second Life Headquarters.

“It’s marketing, not news … a bad idea executed with pompous pancake-faced flourishes and meaningless ta-da’s.”

Jim Veihdeffer, commenting at ValleyPRBlog on a post about the way a local TV news station did a story on LinkedIn.

“The public relations practitioner in me has to wonder why clients – even celebs – smugly throw their communications team under the bus when they aren’t happy with a decision made by management?”

Blog post at Phoenix PR agency, HMAPR, on ABC firing Brooke Smith in Grey’s Anatomy, and co-star Patrick Dempsey’s comments about the decision.

“He deserved better from his supporters. I was embarrassed when I heard the booing.”

Dan Wool, co-blogger at ValleyPRBlog, commenting on the response John McCain got during his concession speech, from an invitation-only audience of his “base” in Phoenix.

“I’m really glad it’s over.”

Raja Petra, a 58-year old blogger and editor of a site in Malaysia who was released after two months.

“insisting on a 20th century world behind the walls of the State Department while the watching a 21st century world develop outside the walls is not a sustainable posture…”

Sean McCormack, Assistant Secretary of State, on launching Briefing 2.0 on YouTube.

Hot, Flat and … intolerant (and why it’s going to change)

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Yesterday we had a book discussion on Thomas Friedman‘s Hot, Flat and Crowded.  There was a good cross section of people, and I truly enjoyed the student perspective on the key things Friedman diagnoses as the problems in the US (isolationism, infrastructure and nation building) we need to fix.

What timing! This was first of 4 sessions here at the Decision Theater, a place where we look at alternative  scenarios and sustainable futures.

The dominant metaphor in the book is the US consulate in Istanbul that was built so secure, it’s a place where “birds don’t fly.”

Having covered the technology space for awhile, this isolationist metaphor seems at odds with what’s going on in the US with regard to collaboration and connectivity. We build open source platforms for business, gaming, virtual worlds and education. We invented wikis and blogs and send the opposite message outside our borders. Obviously we are not singing from the same song sheet, –as this T-shirt at a rally reflects. (Guess who’s rally that might be?)

As we saw last night, hot, flat and intolerant is a losing proposition.

Meghan the Blogger

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Blogs and politics are a strange decoction. They have become the campaign tool du jour. But done right, and from the right angle (pun not intended!) they do give us slices of candidate that the media (liberal, bellicose or otherwise) don’t don’t have time to cover. But apart form pundit blogs, journalist blogs and campaign blogs a daughter blog can strike a different note. At Meghan McCain’s blog, you get to see what the dad looks like doing voice-overs.

You also get to see people carrying the portable podium, looking jet lagged,  the tete-a-tete with Joe the Plumber, this election’s everyman, and even this other Joe.

Eventually, blogs work because they give an inside view, not whetted by legal and PR. Not fed through the talking points machine.

McCain’s campaign, a lesson in why consistency matters

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I get that the ‘maverick’ label allows you to stand on any side you please.

Except that when you craft a campaign, standing for different things at different times has the makings of a communications disaster. Especially now, when it’s possible to juxtapose them.

Take these two positions. These are statements to the press, not something the press distorts.

It’s like a brand manager placing ads for product X in different newspapers positioning it as a luxury item in one market and a discount product in another, hoping that no one sees both.

Unfortunately we do.

McCain-Palin campaign needs more mavericks on the bus

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Now that the attack ads, Governor Palin’s SNL appearance, and the unconvincing “socialist” line using surrogate Joe-the-Plumber have not moved the needle, the campaign is calling for McCain Marshalls and McCain Mavericks to be deployed. The “campaign deployment program” is a last minute attempt to stop the downward slide in the polls.

From a messaging point of view, the Palin-McCain campaign (oops!) is completely off kilter, and I bet there’s a huge tussle between the campaign staff as to whether to be consistent or scatter shot. I bet Rick Davis wants to unleash the real McCain, but having let Palin walk in and change the tone of the campaign (+ the search results if you check YouTube etc), John McCain is less and less what his brand stood for.

There is a considerable amount if chatter about “letting McCain be McCain” but either Davis’ media monitoring widget isn’t working, or they they have too many cooks in the kitchen.  As one disgruntled Republican put it, “The “Straight Talk Express” was derailed in September.” Meaning the maverick was muzzled.

No wonder they’re scouting for some new voices.

Call to Citizen Journalists: video your vote for PBS

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

One more great use of social media. A citizen Journalism effort by PBS and YouTube to keep things transparent.

It’s called VideoYourVote. There are some ground rules to follow. With most cameras making it dead easy to capture video, it could be the most recorded election in history. The age of the Digital Election Monitor is here. It’s not going to completely remove fraud, but more lenses, more eyes and more exposure could be a new way –minus the Big Brother feeling– to make it a cleaner process. Also a more representative event not percolated through the big filter of the traditional news networks.

Here’s David Broncacio explain why you should Video Your Vote.

Quotes for the week ending 11 October, 2008

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“We have not had this much FUD – fear, uncertainty and doubt – since 9/11.”

Dean Freeman, analyst at Gartner, on why technology stocks are being hit so hard.

“Humour and juxtaposition.”

Vancouver agency, Offsetters, commenting on the two tactics they use to get people to rethink the concept of global warming. They hung two inflatable lifeboats from a skyscraper, and placed a ‘lifeguard’ on the streets as part of the campaign.

“I don’t write for FOX viewers.”

Heather Mallick, on being criticized for likening Sarah Palin to a porn actress, in her column for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

“Every time so-called citizen journalism muffs one, I get such calls, as if to say, look what your bratty kid is up to now. Funny, I don’t get them – as a journalist – every time a reporter messes up.”

Jeff Jarvis, on being called upon by journalists, on the rumor that spread about Steve Jobs having a heart attack.

“I was just trying to keep Tina Fey in business.”

Sarah Palin, responding with a great sense of humor to the Saturday Night Live parody of her gaffe-ridden media interviews.

“Our intention here is not to repeat the metaphors about the glass being half full or half empty. It can’t be…”

Ad copy for Groupo Artplan, a Brazilian communication company, in a full page ‘open letter to Wall Street ad’ in the New York Times, saying “our democracy is consolidated, our economy is strong.” Sao Paulo suspended trading in its stock market twice that same day.

“Multitasking causes a kind of brownout in the brain. … all the lights go dim because there just isn’t enough power to go around.”

David Meyer, at the University of Michigan, quoted in a story on NPR, about how multitasking is ultimately unproductive.

“It links everybody together in this unholy chain.”

Interviewee on This American Life, a radio show by Ira Glass, explaining why the ‘credit default swap‘, a dubious financial instrument, made the financial crisis global and scary.