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Stuart Aitken talks to Blue State Digital's Seth Reznik about the key learnings from the Obama campaign, the importance of hard work and why the old rules of traditional media still apply online.
Friday, 30 January 2009
Blue State Digital may not yet be a household name in the UK. In the US though they are best known as the internet strategy and technology firm responsible for Barack Obama’s all conquering online campaign.
In recent months the firm has set up office in London and is currently building up its client list. According to Blue State Digital's client services director, Seth Reznik (pictured right), the majority of the company’s work is in the non corporate sector – an example being its recent involvement in the 'Hope not Hate' campaign being co-ordinated by the anti-fascist magazine, Searchlight.
But for Reznik there are vital lessons that all marketers can learn from the firm’s work. “Obama is a brand,” says Reznik. “He’s not just a person or a candidate. He’s a brand, not unlike Nike or Google or whoever else.”
What are the key learnings for brands from the Obama campaign?
We do presentations for companies at big trade shows and people ask that same thing. I think good examples are some of those websites that are already community based. Some of the stuff that Google is doing around their mobile operating systems for example is impressive. BlackBerry allows you to visit the BlackBerry owners lounge where you can talk to users and share tips and things like that. Also the TV networks are doing good work. Around TV shows for instance, you can go online and ask questions of the cast members and things like that. All those things are fruit from the same tree.
What we always tell people is that one of the ways in which they can get these kinds of programmes going in the most immediate way is to invest in cultivating that young, more internet aware group of people. A big part of it too is data collection. Being really aggressive about data collection, and maintenance of that data and understanding who it is that you have on that list. It’s also about really aggressive online promoting and programming. I think that the entertainment folks are starting to get this. Yes you can have a TV show, but it’s not sufficient to just have a website where you have the biographies of the people on the TV show, it should be about getting something else on there, you know like little clips and exclusive material that you can’t see on TV and those kinds of things.
One of the key things you discussed during your recent discussion at Ken Livingstone’s Progressive London event was the importance of openness – the idea that people may come on to your website and say things that you might not want them to, but it’s important not to shut that down but instead try and engage with that conversation.
I think that’s really true. First you have to make it easy for people to come in the door. Once they’re involved that openness can apply to anything. It can apply to a social network of course, but that’s just one application of it. Just being out there and listening to people is a big thing. A lot of times people talk about openness – you know they invite you to “email us here” for example and it’s just a black hole. If you’re going to ask for things from people then you have to actually be willing to listen to them. It seems simple but of course it’s more complicated because that takes time to cultivate this. And people are often of the assumption that these things happen by themselves.
You also stressed that success involves a lot of work.
Yes. This is the internet of course, but the old rules of all these things still apply. That is, programmes need to be planned in advance and run with interesting strategic promotions, held to real standards. And it should be the case that when you make a promotion, that things are making money. It’s not free of course to work on the internet. To gain somebody’s email address for example and to maintain it all costs money. Email and data is extremely valuable. Acquiring it can be tricky and expensive.
And maintaining it too is a labour intensive process that can’t be ignored…
Absolutely. We talk to people all the time who say to us “We have this great idea – we’ll just start this campaign with this.” Where we come in is to take them from the thing that they’re excited about to start with and help them develop a programme that leads out over the next few days and weeks, but also over the next few months.
Have you had many approaches in recent months from corporate companies asking, “Can you help us do what Obama did?”
Yes we do talk to some corporate and non-corporate entities. For example, we work with a telecoms coalition in the States to help advocate for more openness in the cable television market. There’s a website called wewantchoice.com. Something like that is a community building exercise – not nearly on the scale of the Obama campaign but the idea is similar in that we’re trying to rally people around a concept. One of the advantages that some of these corporations have is that people who are coming to the site may already be big time advocates of what they’re doing.
You said at the Progressive London event that you don’t have to be Obama to make these campaigns work.
Definitely. If I told you that it wasn’t a big part to do with him then that would be wrong. He was a force of nature and a guy that came along at the right time and had this great personality and speaks to people and people identify with him to a great extent. That said I think what was done - the staggering amount of hard work that went into the interactive part of it and the fundraising and the messaging - made a huge difference. And while no one else is Barack Obama – and you’re not going to raise $500m let’s say – the methods are universal. We worked to achieve realistic goals in a cheaper way and in a more timely way and in a more real way. Anyone can say they have so many members or they have a Facebook group. But what does that really mean? You want to have something that has real credibility on the internet. Among your following there, if you fake what you’re saying there then people will notice that.
Similar to what I was saying earlier, if you promise something to people you have to follow through with it. It’s just like anything else. The old rules from any other media still apply here.
Friday, 30 January 2009
In recent months the firm has set up office in London and is currently building up its client list. According to Blue State Digital's client services director, Seth Reznik (pictured right), the majority of the company’s work is in the non corporate sector – an example being its recent involvement in the 'Hope not Hate' campaign being co-ordinated by the anti-fascist magazine, Searchlight.
But for Reznik there are vital lessons that all marketers can learn from the firm’s work. “Obama is a brand,” says Reznik. “He’s not just a person or a candidate. He’s a brand, not unlike Nike or Google or whoever else.”
What are the key learnings for brands from the Obama campaign?
We do presentations for companies at big trade shows and people ask that same thing. I think good examples are some of those websites that are already community based. Some of the stuff that Google is doing around their mobile operating systems for example is impressive. BlackBerry allows you to visit the BlackBerry owners lounge where you can talk to users and share tips and things like that. Also the TV networks are doing good work. Around TV shows for instance, you can go online and ask questions of the cast members and things like that. All those things are fruit from the same tree.
What we always tell people is that one of the ways in which they can get these kinds of programmes going in the most immediate way is to invest in cultivating that young, more internet aware group of people. A big part of it too is data collection. Being really aggressive about data collection, and maintenance of that data and understanding who it is that you have on that list. It’s also about really aggressive online promoting and programming. I think that the entertainment folks are starting to get this. Yes you can have a TV show, but it’s not sufficient to just have a website where you have the biographies of the people on the TV show, it should be about getting something else on there, you know like little clips and exclusive material that you can’t see on TV and those kinds of things.
One of the key things you discussed during your recent discussion at Ken Livingstone’s Progressive London event was the importance of openness – the idea that people may come on to your website and say things that you might not want them to, but it’s important not to shut that down but instead try and engage with that conversation.
I think that’s really true. First you have to make it easy for people to come in the door. Once they’re involved that openness can apply to anything. It can apply to a social network of course, but that’s just one application of it. Just being out there and listening to people is a big thing. A lot of times people talk about openness – you know they invite you to “email us here” for example and it’s just a black hole. If you’re going to ask for things from people then you have to actually be willing to listen to them. It seems simple but of course it’s more complicated because that takes time to cultivate this. And people are often of the assumption that these things happen by themselves.
You also stressed that success involves a lot of work.
Yes. This is the internet of course, but the old rules of all these things still apply. That is, programmes need to be planned in advance and run with interesting strategic promotions, held to real standards. And it should be the case that when you make a promotion, that things are making money. It’s not free of course to work on the internet. To gain somebody’s email address for example and to maintain it all costs money. Email and data is extremely valuable. Acquiring it can be tricky and expensive.
And maintaining it too is a labour intensive process that can’t be ignored…
Absolutely. We talk to people all the time who say to us “We have this great idea – we’ll just start this campaign with this.” Where we come in is to take them from the thing that they’re excited about to start with and help them develop a programme that leads out over the next few days and weeks, but also over the next few months.
Have you had many approaches in recent months from corporate companies asking, “Can you help us do what Obama did?”
Yes we do talk to some corporate and non-corporate entities. For example, we work with a telecoms coalition in the States to help advocate for more openness in the cable television market. There’s a website called wewantchoice.com. Something like that is a community building exercise – not nearly on the scale of the Obama campaign but the idea is similar in that we’re trying to rally people around a concept. One of the advantages that some of these corporations have is that people who are coming to the site may already be big time advocates of what they’re doing.
You said at the Progressive London event that you don’t have to be Obama to make these campaigns work.
Definitely. If I told you that it wasn’t a big part to do with him then that would be wrong. He was a force of nature and a guy that came along at the right time and had this great personality and speaks to people and people identify with him to a great extent. That said I think what was done - the staggering amount of hard work that went into the interactive part of it and the fundraising and the messaging - made a huge difference. And while no one else is Barack Obama – and you’re not going to raise $500m let’s say – the methods are universal. We worked to achieve realistic goals in a cheaper way and in a more timely way and in a more real way. Anyone can say they have so many members or they have a Facebook group. But what does that really mean? You want to have something that has real credibility on the internet. Among your following there, if you fake what you’re saying there then people will notice that.
Similar to what I was saying earlier, if you promise something to people you have to follow through with it. It’s just like anything else. The old rules from any other media still apply here.
