10 lessons
for marketers
from Barack
Obama
Overview of Digital Strategy,
Tactics, Tools & Results
Vijay Sankaran, Digital Strategy Director, URJA

This presentation was made at
a Digital Marketing Conference
held in Mumbai, India on Nov 26, 2008.
A detailed guest article on the same theme
also appeared here (http://twurl.nl/ng1fth)
in Afaqs.com* on Nov 7, 2008 as well as Brand Reporter
India’s leading Advertising & Marketing magazine.
*Afaqs.com is the world’s most visited Advertising & Marketing website
Architecting Customer Value

Obama beat two established political brands, Clinton & McCain.
He also beat global brands like Nike and Apple to be chosen
Ad Age Marketer of the Year.
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The results: A game changer
• $ 640 million in funds, 3.1 million contributors
• Over 100 million page views of official and
unofficial YouTube videos
• 5 million volunteers
• 2.2 million `fans’ on his Facebook page
• Over 1 million on his MySpace page and
• 3 million profiles on myBarackObama.org
Architecting Customer Value

10 lessons
for marketers
1.Define your goal.
Build an integrated digital
strategy around it.
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Goal: “To build an online relationship with
supporters who will not only give money
but also knock on doors to help register
voters, and help get the vote out.”
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v/s
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Integrated Hub & Spokes Model
New media & Widgets
Email
Marketing
Hub
Online
Search &
Display Ads
Social
Media
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Email id harvesting: Strategic objective in first phase
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Email : The glue of Obama’s Digital Marketing
• 1 billion emails
• 13 million email ids
• Granular segmentation
• One-to-One
• Personalized
• Incentive
• Relevance
“Be the first to know “ the Vice-President nominee was one of the
many ways Email created buzz and engagement, and helped
increase registerations.
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Did you see Michelle?
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Answer the call
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Dinner with Barack?
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Get your official Obama-Biden yard sign
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An emailer from Obama, the day he won
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2. Bring the best minds to the table.
Empower them to execute.
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4. Leverage your customers’
passions..
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The Obama Girl series of videos
got over 60 million views.
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Yes, We Can by Will.i.am
A 2008 video featuring
60 celebrities had over
11 million views.
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Halloween: YesWeCarve.com
Obama supporters put up a site during Halloween just a few
week before the election. Here visitors were asked to express
their support through photos of Obama theme pumpkins .
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Chris Hughes, 24-year old co-founder of
Facebook was the “online organizing guru”
managing MyBO.com
Customer-Centric:
Walking the Talk.
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5. Relinquish control.
Yes, you can.
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6. Segment and connect.
Relevancy rules.
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7. Stay ahead of the curve.
Or your customers will move on
without you.
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Iphone App
1,20,000 “followers’ on Twitter
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8. Run many small campaigns.
Tactics matter as much as strategy.
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9. Make sure `online community’
translates to real world wins.
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10. Focus on the endgame.
Close the sale.
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It’s customer engagement
that causes the queue.
….whether it’s at the checkout counter,
or the polling booth.
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“Kennedy was the first telegenic brand.
Obama is the first cybergenic brand”
-Paul Saffo, futurist.
The questions you need to
ask yourself are:
How cybergenic is my brand?
How digital is my marketing outlook and toolkit?
Architecting Customer Value

10 lessons for marketers
1. Define your goal. Build an 6. Segment and connect.
integrated digital strategy Relevancy rules.
around it. 7. Stay ahead of the curve.
2. Bring the best minds to Or your customers will
the table. Empower them move on without you.
to execute. 8. Run many small
3. Change the rules of the campaigns. Tactics matter
game where you can. as much as strategy.
4. Leverage your customers’ 9. Make sure online
passion. community translates to
real world wins.
5. Relinquish control. Yes,
you can. (Or else…) 10. Focus on the endgame.
Close the sale.
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Connect with me
• Twitter: @VijaySankaran
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/esveejay
• Linkedin Groups:
Digital Marketing India
Email Marketing India
• Email: Vijay1to1@gmail.com
• www.urja.com
Architecting Customer Value