Does the world seem different to you?
Barack Obama and his team have shown us all how to execute a communications plan. Simple message, simple vision, stick to it, repeat it, use simple language, target your audiences (or tribes), use channels to reach and engage your audience. Also to stay calm, to stay upbeat and positive and ‘fresh’. The positive aspect of the campaign was captured in the tag-line which became a chant “Yes we can”.
And wow, does it help if you have someone charismatic to deliver the message.
And the message is one word: “change”. And the Obama camp seem to have trade marked the word. The new website for the transition government is change.gov. The home page talks about what the American people can do when they come together around a ‘common purpose’. The website supports the apparent transparency of the campaign and also seeks to continue the involvement of the electorate – even signposting job opportunities. It also asks people to ’share your stories’ and to ’share your vision’.
It is surprising in some ways that the campaign was able to move at all, with all the ‘hangers on’ watching and learning from the experience! PR Week talked about a 20-strong delegation from Insight Public Affairs being ‘embedded’ in the campaign in Florida. According to the CIPR, 77% of UK PROs supported Obama (without going to America, I assume)!
Some of the headline figures quoted in PR Week are pretty mind-boggling: $600million donations (50% approx from individual small donations through the website); $190million media spend up to the end of October, almost twice as many (700) Democratic election offices compared to 370 for the Republican Party.
So…standy for copycat campaigns from Labour and Conservative parties. I had a quick look at the internet TV set up by Labour supporters: CampaignTV and got turned off by the ‘tinny’ music and rapidly changing images. A quick ‘Google’ for political party internet almost got me onto BNPTV – but I managed to avoid the link! The LibDems even had a fringe event for bloggers at their Party Conference.
In the UK, our parties seem to be grappling with the difficulty of ‘controlling’ the new media rather than embracing its almost anarchic nature. In addition to the ‘official’ party sites (dull), there are also supporters and bloggers sites (hmm, still dull)! So the challenge is going to be harnessing the fast-moving, engaging/participatory opportunities to reach the new digital electorate.
Could be fun!
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