Obama Digital Marketing Best Practices

BEST PRACTICES FOR DIGITAL POLITICAL CAMPAIGNSRahul Nambiar, 14 February 2009

Table of Contents Overview Obama Campaign- A Perfect digital

Communication Mix Hub and Spoke approach Website – The Hub for all activities Customer Acquisition Customer Engagement Customer Analytics

Overview

To conduct a best practice research of the Obama presidential campaign

To provide with the structure for the ideal digital campaign for polls

Obama Campaign: The perfect digital communication mix

Online Search & Display Ads

Social Media

New media & Widgets

Hub

Twitter, Blackberry/mobile compatible site

Linkedin, Facebook, Ning, You Tube, Slideshare

Email Marketing

Campaign Website is the hub:Multi channel point of view

CampaignWebsite.com

Customer Acquisition

Customer Engagement Customer Analytics

Exceptional Customer Experience

Website is the Hub for all activities Neat and uncluttered User Interface Positioning of “Call to Action” at the right

places Tightly connected up with all social media

websites Exceptional customer experience without use

of jazzy flash videos Search Engine Optimized, Analytics enabled

to track behavior Messaging on the website to bring the

aspiration value in the candidate

BarackObama.com – Some Screenshots

Lead Capture

Call to ActionUncluttered UI

Straight and Clean Messaging to create Aspiration value – Knowing your target audienceIs the key Tightly connected up

with Social Media

Customer Acquisition - Strategy Online Display Ads

Planning where to put your Banners Segmentation based on Age, Sex and

Geography is the key of a great online media/display plan

Intelligent Ad Serving campaigns- Be there where the world is

An Example of intelligent Ad Serving- Obama – 92 Million Impressions a month, McCain – 7 Million Impressions a month

Best practice for online Ad serving- Keep tracking. Measuring and optimizing

Search Location Based targeting and messaging Conversion analysis Using SEO to minimize PPC spends Straight messaging in the PPC Ads

Online Viral Videos Youtube channel for publishing all videos Creation of standalone Music Videos to

spread virally

Customer Acquisition - Strategy

Customer Acquisition Strategy Online Viral Videos

Customer Acquisition Strategy Digital Out of Home

Adcentricity to push Digital Signage Ads Publishing Text Messages in the Digital

Signage Ads In-Game Advertising

Targeted at the youth Xbox- Obama Spent a Whopping $44.5k Appearances in Second Life

Screenshots

In Game Ad’s In Xbox

In Game Ad’s - Obama in Second LifeIn Game Ads

- Obama in Xbox 360

OOH Ad in Times Square

Customer Engagement Email Marketing

Best way to reach out to the marketers Highly segmented campaigns can be run Highlights from Obama Campaign

13 Million People contacted through Emails More than 1 Billion Emails sent 7000 Variations of the mails McCain and Obama sent an average of 2 mails

per day towards the last week of voting

Email Marketing- Obama Campaign Screenshots

Campaigns to Raise Donations and Cross Sell Merchandise

Email Persona, Putting aPersonal touch to the emails

Feedback Mailers

Email Marketing- Adding the personal touch

Customer Engagement SMS/Text/Mobile

Powerful way to reach the Younger Voters Obama Campaign used a text message to

announce Vice-Presidential Candidate Campaign Specific application on iPhone Obama Campaign saw 5- 20 targeted

messages each month

SMS/Text/Mobile - Screenshots

Take the run-up to the elections. Here’s what short code 62262 had to say in a text message at 2:53 p.m. EDT on Oct. 30“Less than a week until Election Day on Nov. 4th! Barack needs your help. REPLY to this msg with your 5 digit ZIP CODE for local Obama news and voting info.”

Four days later, this writer received another text message at 3:15 p.m. EST on Nov. 3 from short code 46708:“Put your country first and vote on Tuesday! To find your polling location visit Gop.com/ElectionDay. Forward to your friends.”

That message didn’t even mention the Republican presidential candidate John McCain by name. Where was the emotional appeal? Why wasn’t there a stronger call-to-action?

Exactly 24 hours later, another text message pops into the box, this time from short code 62262 on Nov. 4 at 3:28 p.m. EST:“People who love their country can change it! Make sure everyone you know votes for Barack today. For voting info call 877-874-6226 or VoteForChange.com.”Obama Mobile

Customer Engagement Blogs/Micro Blogging

Creation of Obama widget to drive traffic to the website

Tracking Blogs Following Conversation on Twitter

Social Media Profiles in leading Social Media Websites

LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace

Blogs/Social Media - Screenshots

Obama on Facebook

Obama on LinkedinObama LinkedIn Group-Support Campaign through the Badge

Twitter- Screenshots

Obama Profile

Following conversationsOn Twitter.

Obama Blogroll Washington Post's Barack Ob

ama Page Visit my MySpace Site Vermonters for Obama The Great Zaganza The Dog The Baracktivator -- Netroots

Tool for Obama Supporters The Barack Obama Report Students for Barack Obama Reflecting Obama Red Hog Diary Peruse my new book at amaz

on.com! Official Barack Obama Presid

ential Campaign Website Obama's Leadership PAC

Barack Oblogger Barack Obama's Official Senate Website Barack Obama's MySpace Page Barack Obama's Flickr Page Barack Obama Wiki Barack Obama on YouTube Barack Obama on Wikipedia Barack Obama on the Issues Barack Obama on LinkedIn Barack Obama on Facebook Barack Obama News --

MSNBC.com Barack Obama Events Barack Obama - NY Times blog African Americans for Obama Adele Nicols' Blog: Barack

Obama More..

Customer Analytics Tracking Success of each and every

campaign is the key Usage of Analytic reports Constant segmentation and targeting of the

message based on Age, Sex , Geography Previous behavior

Personalization of messages based on Behavior

Online Monitoring