I've been drawn into the Obama web

by Marc Nohr, Marketing Direct 01-Dec-08

So Obama did it. No vote-counting shenanigans or outbreaks of polling booth racism. In January he becomes president. His strategists' BlackBerries will already have bleeped with invitations to offer expertise in countries with forthcoming elections of their own. Including the UK.

Parties here will be keen to learn from their transatlantic colleagues about new marketing techniques for fundraising, messaging, volunteering and voter mobilisation. But one of the areas that will be most keenly studied is what one MIT Professor has dubbed the use of "spreadable media".

This describes the use of media - YouTube, MySpace, blogs and personal emails - to variously create, subvert and disseminate political messages in a way that is truly unique in the history of political marketing.

As a student of politics, I tried to keep abreast of the elections with my daily fix of on- and offline media. But my main source of information was a friend in New York called DeWayne. An ardent Obamaist, he plied his email address book with clips, speeches and video references on a daily basis.

The politically incorrect Sarah Silverman's "Great Shlep" was sent to me by DeWayne first. So too Colin Powell's much awaited declaration for Obama; AFL-CIO treasurer Richard Trumka's memorably impassioned speech on Obama and racism; salsa and Bollywood mash-ups of Obama speeches and remakes of classic ads like the Budweiser "Wassup" commercial (all still on YouTube). DeWayne's daily emails dominated my media consumption for weeks.

Sure, DeWayne had good material at his disposal - Obama's is an epic and rousing story which is unlikely to have many parallels in the forthcoming general election in this country. But there are some features of this phenomenon that might be.

Firstly the ceding of control from the political parties and mainstream media to voters themselves with the rise of "spreadable media". Secondly the sheer creativity that has characterised some of the content we've seen - mash-ups, music videos and remade commercials. Thirdly, the lambasting of political figures, including endless repeats of imbecilic outbursts, means candidates will have even fewer places to hide than they had before. And finally, the acquisition of a three million person database built up during the election campaign constitutes a whole new private media channel, for continued polling and activism way beyond the rallying call of a single election campaign.

- Marc Nohr is the managing partner of Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw.