Lessons from Obama Magic KL
Photo credits: McCain Photography
The Obama Magic KL conference yesterday featured Roger Fisk, now ex-National Director of Special Events who spoke at length about his experience mobilizing Team Obama for on-ground rallies during the presidential campaign. Here are some insights I gained from the experience:
1. People, people, people – More than a presidential candidate, a charismatic leader, a brand, or the nation’s first African-American President; Barack Obama is a movement, and movements are fueled by people. In his book Tribes, Seth Godin theorizes that the most effective leaders are in fact, leading tribes: a group of people connected to each other, to a leader and to an idea (“Change we can believe in”). While President Obama may arguably be the most powerful Tribe leader in the world today, the success of his tribe will depend on his ability to keep the administration and the movement in sync.
2. Be the campaign – Team Obama’s rallying cry was both a motto as well as a challenge to all supporters. Using a combination of on-ground mobilization as well as online tools like Facebook and Twitter, the Obama campaign was driven by user-generated buzz and support from friend networks. The purpose-built MyBarackObama.com website allowed people to self-organize fund-raising events and promote them via the site. Any visitor to the site could simply key in their zip code and be presented with a list of local events happening in their neighborhood. MyBO also united Americans citizens living abroad and functioned exactly as how it did for the locals.
3. Local, organic, ownership, traction – All Team Obama rally events were built around local context, and that meant organizing gatherings at popular, meaningful or historical locations that the locals could identify with. Fisk is an expert in this, and he thoroughly explained his thinking process to the participants. His ability was to envision and create high impact head-on/cut-shots for use by the local press. Events were also highly organic: 2-way interaction between Senator Obama and the audience allowed him to build good rapport with the crowd. As a result, a sense of ownership grew amongst everyone who was involved – from residents to local authorities, everyone had a part to play in “being the campaign”. Gaining traction was naturally much easier, as supporters who were mobilized for volunteer work were already highly charged and emotionally invested in the cause.
4. Low-dollar contributions add up – According to Fisk, the Obama war chest was built primarily on small $10-20 contributions. The low barrier of entry allowed people to chip in and become part of the movement almost instantly. This was a great display of ownership and traction at work, because every supporter quickly became involved in some way or another. Each event drew huge crowds and the funds added up quickly, bringing his tally to a whopping $600m by October 2008.
5. Put your ear to the ground – Team Obama realized early on that in order for them to be part of the conversation, it was important to learn how the audience communicated. They found that online tools were hugely popular with the crowd and were most effective at reaching people quickly, so they created a digital presence on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Similarly, brands that want to communicate effectively need to tune in to the pulse of the crowd. Although tough and sometimes messy, the return on investment is hugely rewarding. So, bend those knees, get down on all fours and put your head to the dirt!
6. Listen & learn as much as you talk – The Obama campaign was such a success because audience engagement always took centerstage. Fisk and his team always sought the opportunity to create an exchange with the audience at every event. In contrast, many politicians were conditioned to talking at the audience (about why you should pick them over the competition) that they often neglect listening and learning from them. Brands are guilty of this as well. According to Roy Tan (MD, Carat MY), a guest panelist at the event, every $100 million dollars brands spend on ads (1-way messaging) returns an average of 7 seconds of viewer attention. That’s extremely poor ROI for such hefty spending.
As marketers, we can all learn a thing or two from the Obama campaign and look at how we can integrate their recipes for success into our marketing strategies. Overall, a very good experience and hopefully a wake-up call for more brands to embrace digital!
About me
I’m the Interactive Marketing Manager at Integricity Corporation. You can connect with me via Twitter (@tjtee) and my personal blog: The Red Pill Manifesto.
