Online and Social Tools - Have The Dems Forgotten How They Got To The White House?

Just over one year ago, Advertising Age named Barack Obama Marketer of the year. Everyone knows the story by now of how his team used online marketing and social media tools to literally blow away his competition. Nobody before him had ever done that and it turned the marketing of party and politicians upside down. You would think that would be memorable, especially to Democrats. Apparently, it's not.

As a new Advertising Age article points out, Massachussets Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley either forgot about or "Ignored Obama's Digital-Media Playbook." The facts that she's losing big-time and her opponent actually apparently owns a copy of Obama's playbook makes that an awfully big mistake.

The article does a great job of covering Ms. Coakley's "old-school" tactics versus Republican State Senator Scott Brown's aggressive Facebook, Twitter and YouTube efforts. And it really is truly is amazing that she didn't utilize any of the tools until the eleventh hour.

However, there is no mention of something I wrote about at the time Obama won the Marketer of the year award, the subject of his brand and how it shaped his victory. Without it, he may not have won: 

Obama and his team built a clearly-differentiated, consistent brand around their candidate and then utilized all the traditional and digital branding tools available to achieve their goals and humble the Republican party. In Fast Company, Keith Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide was quoted as saying, "Barack Obama is three things you want in a brand, new, different, and attractive. That's as good as it gets."

Obama's "breakaway" brand characteristics.

Along with those three key attributes for Barack, Brand Obama had the following characteristics that every great brand has built into it's DNA:

1. A compelling creation story.
2. A charismatic, visionary leader.
3. A clearly defined, simple position that clarified their mission and purpose simply and easily for everyone... "Change." They never wavered, even in the face of adversity.
4. An iconic logo that clearly communicated their position and served as the foundation of their identity system across all channels.
5. Formidable enemies (non-believers - think Coke vs. Pepsi) to overcome, and reams of intelligence at their disposal to help hone strategy, determine weakness and take the fight to Hilary Clinton first and then John McCain and the entire Republican party.
6. A Belief System =  vision, values, trust, relevance, leadership. All great brands create a culture
   of belief.
7. Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.

At the end of the day, it is definitely not all about the tools you use market your message.

Martha Coakley's biggest mistake may be that she doesn't have a clearly defined, compelling brand strategy and message to elevate and differentiate her from Senator Brown's brand... the competition. If you don't have that, all the messaging and engagement tools in the world, traditional or digital, can't help you win.

Comments

[Gene Brady]

Good post, Russ. And the weaker, muddled brand lost tonight - a Democrat, in Boston, following Teddy Kennedy, lost.

Her ongoing gaffes (accusing Boston Red Sox legend Curt Schilling of being a Yankees fan? What?) combined with her lack of connecting with customers (aka voters) did her in.

[Greg]

The only thing that great advertising or great social media can do for a bad brand is to put it out of business faster.