With our attention turning to the inauguration next week, we thought the topic of this post was especially fitting.
Let’s go for a ride in the way-back machine. In the 60′s, John F. Kennedy was president and, during his election, there was a medium of communication never used before in a presidential campaign; television. This medium would forever change politics and the way politicians run and centralize their campaign.
Fast forward to present day. Again, technological breakthroughs define election communication. For Kennedy, it was television. For Obama, it is the Internet. Obama’s campaign’s use of the Internet efficiently and effectively changed the way politicians organize supporters, advertise to voters and communicate with constituents. With the touch-of-a-button technology, defending one’s campaign against political attacks and left-field accusations becomes easy. As fast as the campaign writers can type, an answer is available. Prior to the Internet, dispersing information and a defending a candidate’s position required an army of volunteers and paid organizers out on the battlefield.
Barack Obama succeeded, in part, because his campaign found a means to connect to people in a way they could understand, segmenting voters and using the right method of communication for each targeted group. With younger voters, the Obama-Biden campaign used text messaging. For older voters (including this demographic), they sent short, concise emails from a variety of characters – the campaign managers, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden and his wife, and, of course, from Barack Obama himself. The emails allowed voters to connect directly with the people on the campaign frontline – to see them as real people facing real issues. The Obama – Biden campaign also took advantage of YouTube for free advertising, which proved to be more effective than television ads because viewers could chose when and where to watch them and the messages could easily be sent or received from friend. There were also weekly podcasts for those wishing to get more in-depth information on the issues.
The Obama-Biden campaign delved deep into social media and networking and came out fighting with clear vision and a well-thought battle plan. The use of this new medium doesn’t perfectly reflect that of JFK’s situation with television. The Internet demands authenticity, whereas television can be staged. Authenticity is something we haven’t seen in recent elections. The Internet became the conduit to a more genuine campaign. And that’s a change we can all get behind!
