GROUP 195
Source: Google
The proliferation of media over the last several years has brought about the rise of integrated marketing communications (IMC) which has played an enormous role in democratic elections worldwide, but perhaps most notably in U.S. presidential elections. IMC is an essential component of building the brand identity of each candidate through the crafting and delivery of appropriate messaging.
Source: Google
The unprecedented success of the Obama presidential election campaign in 2008 and his re-election in 2012 undoubtedly set new heights for the impact social media platforms could have on reaching and targeting constituents, mobilising offline efforts and winning votes. His social media campaign strategy focused on understanding the social behaviours of his constituents and creating a new kind of political dialogue that removed the power of political messaging away from the mass media model and placed it firmly into peer to peer, public discourse, which proved to be incredibly successful and a key contributor to his overarching, back-to-back presidential wins: 2008, 52.9% of the votes (over John McCain) and 2012, 51% of the votes (over Mitt Romney) (Federal Election Commission, 2008)
Source: Google
Source: Youtube
Source: Youtube
However, social media holds distinctly different properties to traditional mass media and back then, may not have been sufficiently powerful to achieve these victories using this medium alone (New York Times Presidential Results 2008). Other demographics or segments of the population that relied more heavily on traditional mass media (i.e. baby boomers and retirees), also needed to be reached through their preferred mode of communication.
Source: Google
In fact, Obama spent half a billion dollars on mass media for his re-election in 2012 and allocated significant spend to broadcast and cable advertising (Issenberg, 2012). He also used email campaigns with targeted and quirky subject headings that were deemed incredibly successful, generating over $690 million fundraising dollars (Bachman, 2011).
Source: Google
Direct mail was also used in the 2008 election where both Obama and Mitt Romney spent nearly twice as much on old-fashioned fliers, get-out-the-vote cards and other forms of direct mail as they had on internet advertising in an effort to appeal to millions of baby boomers and retirees who still preferred this form of communication (Eggen, 2012).
Despite the undeniably strong focus on digital and social media at the time, some argue that it was Obama’s integrated approach to communication that his success was attributed to:
“The Obama campaign wasn’t a win for technology; it was a win for strategy. It was a win for the power of a strategic vision, executed in an integrated media campaign. It was strong messaging and strong branding, executed across different channels. People went on Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks and got the same brand as people who received it on TV and radio — all the same brand. It was so powerful because it was consistent across all the media consumer touch points,” (Tassel, 2009).
With the 2016 United States presidential election not too far off (scheduled for Tuesday, November 8, 2016) and Republican and Democratic parties soon to be selecting their nominees, it will be interesting to see the role social media will play in the election campaigning process. Just how ‘significant’ a role remains to be seen, although early campaign stages already point towards the likelihood of it superseding anything we’ve seen to date.
In a world now driven by social media, social media is a key driver in rallying the support of voters in presidential campaigns.
Rand Paul sends Snapchats, Jeb Bush makes his own Instagram videos, and Hillary Clinton comments on current events and policy through Twitter. It is possible that the broadcasting o major speeches and private events through Meerkat is not too far off, if they aren’t already doing this already. Digital touches every aspect of presidential bids while also influencing how and when the Oval Office campaigns will be launched (Simendinger & Huey-Burns, 2015).
Questions:
Has the propagation of this category (social media) of IMC started to take such a strong hold that it will erode the relevance and use of mass media in upcoming election campaigns?
How does social media work to support other categories of IMC in political campaigning?
Do you foresee an equal balance between IMC and traditional media in the upcoming campaigns?
References:
Bachman, K, 2011, Digital losing out on campaign ad billions, Ad week, Retrieved 4/9/2015, http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/digital-losing-out-campaign-ad-billions-132676)
Eggen, D, 2012, Direct Mail still a force in campaigns, The Washington Post, Retrieved 4/9/2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/direct-mail-still-a-force-in-campaigns/2012/10/12/24f6f830-0bf9-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_story.html
Federal Election Commission, 2008, 2008 Presidential Popular Vote Summary, Retrieved 4/9/2015, http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2008/tables2008.pdf
Issenberg, S, 2012, How President Obama’s campaign used big data to rally individual voters, MIT Technology Review, 4/9/2015, http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/509026/how-obamas-team-used-big-data-to-ra lly-voters/.
Simendinger, A & Huey-Burns, C, 2015, Digital Strategies Fuel 2016 Campaign Launch Decisions, Real Clear Politics, Retrieved 4/9/2015, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/03/23/digital_strategies_fuel_2016_campaign_launch_decisions_126010.html
Tassel, J, 2009, The Obama Campaign: Politics 4.0, Winning Campaigns Online, 2009 AAPC Conference Issue, Retrieved 4/9/2015, http://www.winningcampaigns.org/Articles/Obama-Campaign-Politics-4-0.html)
Marketing Management Blog 
Hello fellow marketing students!
re: integrated marketing, it is interesting to contrast to the ineffectiveness of the Australian political advertising. During the 2000’s, the Liberal Govt introduced Work Choices IR reforms. The Australian labour movement, represented by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, ran a very effective media campaign attacking the proposed changes, and alternate models were proposed by the centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP), who won the subsequent election in a landslide. The Liberal (right-wing) Government at that time used federal funds to produce and air an advertising campaign promoting Work Choices, a decision that which was criticised by the federal opposition and challenged in the High Court. The ads cost $121m (source http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/work-choices-ads-cost-121m/story-e6frg6n6-1111114652423), did not resonate with Australians & a large waste of taxpayer money – refer video below for the small budget response by the ACTU..
LikeLike
Thanks for the further insight. I was aware that social media is growing in politics, what what I didn’t fully realize is that a) social media can also help shape the political agenda (ie bottom-up focus: large-scale individualized collective action), b) the erosion of party politics and the growing role of personalized politics (individual expressive personal action) and c) the role of close association connections and civic participation (rather than generic mass communication) influence an individual to vote in a particular way. Although social media appears to be spontaneous, I would expect that any political social media campaign is well planned, coordinated, crafted and timed to hit key strategic points with any campaign – yes it is growing, but I also recognize that it is a profession and skill in itself.
Thanks for prompting my further reading and hope the references assist.
http://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/digital-democracy/social-media-influence-politics-participation-engagement-meta-analysis
Bennett, WL 2012, ‘The Personalization of Politics: Political Identity, Social Media, and Changing Patterns of Participation’, Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science, vol. 644, no. 1, pp. 20-39. Available from: 10.1177/0002716212451428. [17 September 2015].
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really enjoyed this blog – the topic was a refreshing contrast to sporting goods, junk food and cars.
I don’t think that social media has eroded the relevance of mass media,…yet. While I do think this will happen over time, there are a wide variety of demographics out there (particularly when you’re looking at an election campaign) and people still have a really varied tolerance for social media, and even the Internet.
Social media supports the other categories of IMC in that it is another tool to reach people. It’s low cost and pervasiveness are very attractive to a marketing campaign and the potential reach of social media is of vital importance in political campaigning. Being active on social media will also allow candidates better access to a younger demographic, and people who are potentially voting for the first time.
LikeLike
In my view, the level of social media will increase over time as the use of social media increases.
I have gathered the following links for you to read:
1. Political Marketing: Principles and Applications a book by Jennifer Lees-Marshment (2009)
https://books.google.com.au/bookshl=en&lr=&id=odV9AgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=imc+and+political+campaigns&ots=pSrJILVACx&sig=VkusZ7dY4B4p3HSDm6X6w17IX2s#v=onepage&q&f=false
2. Is social media changing the way politics work? An audio/article by ABC News Australia
http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/07/30/3814292.htm
3. The political power of social media. An article by Clay Shirky (2011)
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2010-12-20/political-power-social-media
I would also like to add my thoughts:
Any marketing campaign aims to reach customers through various touch-points. A political campaign thus, enjoys direct contact with voters through this medium. It is cheaper than traditional media. And most importantly, it leverages the effects of traditional media. In other words, it is advertising broadcast to a wider audience at an economic cost.
Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube allow interactive information sharing. Additionally, features such as message customization and feedback are very helpful in driving political IMC campaigns.
Good luck!
LikeLike
Thanks for your thoughts and feedback – duly noted. Do you recall any particular instances in recent elections where social media had more dominance over other modes of communication in IMC?
Angie & Esme
LikeLike
Thanks for the blog Angie & Esme, it’s an interesting read and different from the usual perception on marketing (ie. brand recognition & pricing).
A book that I was reading recently, “The Zen of Social Media Market”, had some good insight into how to use social media in collaboration with traditional mixes (despite the really cheesy book title). It suggested that marketers should approach social media in the same way that consumers do. That is to say, marketers should use the medium to tell a story rather than advertise a product. Therefore, social media can be especially effective I imagine for election campaigns as it allows the promoter to tell an evolving story of both the campaign itself as well as the candidates back story.
Today shows a good example of how politicians use a story to create followers/interest. Throughout the day there has been updates on the visit from the pope. I liken this to the good testimonial stories that are the halcyon of social media strategy in the ‘for profit’ sector.
The White House
Yesterday at 12:30pm ·
Pope Francis just touched down in America! Tune in tomorrow at 9am ET to watch as President Obama greets him at the White House: go.wh.gov/PopeVisit #PopeInDC
Watch President Obama and the First Lady greet Pope Francis at the White House: go.wh.gov/PopeVisit #PopeInDC
The White House
17 hrs · Edited ·
The state arrival ceremony for Pope Francis will be the largest since President Obama took office. Find out how the White House prepared, and tune in to watch starting at 9am ET: go.wh.gov/PopeVisit #PopeInDC
The White House
15 hrs · Edited ·
“Your message of love and hope has inspired so many people, across our nation and around the world.” —President Obama to Pope Francis: go.wh.gov/PopeVisit #PopeInDC
LikeLike
Oh yes…very much so because social media is playing an increasingly dominant role US cultural…period.
Obama was the first candidate who used social media as a major campaign strategy and won the Social Media Battle in 2012.
Sending out voting reminders and made interacting through Twitter and Facebook resulted a big deal in political campaign. From a marketer perspective; word of mouth advertising— is the most powerful form of persuasion -a recommendation from someone you trust. People connect with on your network pages, such as family, friends, colleagues and shared-interest group members which creates multiple levels of trust building on relationships.
Research show that 66% of social media users were interactive that allowed 39% of active American adults are twice as likely to vote as those who are not.
Obama’s was defined as social-media-savvy while “McCain’ was fined as a social-media-deaf. Both candidates from Republican Romney and McCain campaigns were failed to use social media effectively and did not achieve the grip as the Democrats did.
Obama basically dominated the social media space because their team got how networks work.
Source;
http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/how-obama-won-the-social-media-battle-in-the-2012-presidential-campaign/
LikeLike
A very interesting blog – a modern take on an issue that has been around for generations – the role of mass media and communications in election campaigns.
In one of the more recent Marketing Management, I recall Wayne being disenchanted with the concept of ‘social’ media. I think his view is that all media, by definition, are social in nature, by which I mean they perform the task of distributing information or opinion to an audience, whether targeted or mass, press or digital etc.
However, back to the point. I agree that in the modern world, and in the context of this blog, media like Twitter, Facebook etc etc etc allow politicians real-time access to the people they want to communicate with. The internet has clearly been the defining factor in the immedciacy and intimacy of communication that we now ‘enjoy’.
However, I question a few things: Does modern ‘social’ media improve the quality of the information we receive? Do we really reveive information that much faster than we used to? Does the bombardment and ubiquity of news of all sorts actually confuse the real situations we want to hear about, as they get lost in a sea of irrelevance and spam ads, i.e. is modern news media effective and efficient? And does the information we receive make us any more informed than we used to be via traditional news and political medie, i.e. television, newspapers and the radio? (I realise that I am starting to sound like my father here!…).
I’m sure there are statistics about how much faster we get our news, but one of my main points is how much more of it we get; not just saturation on the topics we are interested in, but we are saturated by a seemingly infinite number of topics. Applying this to political communication, I think that politicians are in danger of two things. Firstly , their messages being forgotten or buried in a wave of same-time digital communication. Secondly, I think that the breadth and scope (note I do not say depth) of digital media communications in the political arena prejudices and lessens the impact of the really important messages.
Consider this. It’s federal general election day in Australia, in 2015. Just try tor imaging the myriads ways you will be bombarded with information: newspapers, television, radio, the internet, email, Twitter, LinkedIn, flyers in your mailbox, last-minute campaigners at the polling stations, campaigh vehicles with loudspeakers, billboards, mobile advertising etc etc etc. Now I appreciate that this represents one hell of an integrated marketing campaign, but is it effective? Or does it have the opposite effect; does it induce voter apathy.
I grew up in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s, a time when political parties and politicians actually stood for something, and weren’t afraid to say so. At the 1992 general election, Mrs Thatcher was the incumbent Prime Minister for the Conservative Party, but hot on her (high) heels was Neil Kinnock and his Labour Party. The media was simpler then as suggested earlier, and the most widely read newspaper was ‘The Sun’, which sold more than 4million copies every day, which were then circulated exponentially through workplaces etc.
The Sun was owned by Rupert Murdoch, who was a Conservative Party donor and a right-wing media baron. An impending Labour win at the general election would have been a disaster for Murdoch, his conservative cronies and of course, his bank balance. So, in one of the most famous, brilliant and spectacularly successful pieces of tabloid journalism in British History, The Sun published a front page that had a picture of Kinnock’s head, stylised in a lightbulb, and the headline ‘If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave the country please switch the lights off”.
The effect was spectacular, and a sure-thing Labour victory became a narrow Conservative win. This is a wonderful example of the power of an unilateral marketing campaign; there was only this front page on a newspaper, nothing else. But it had the power to change the tide of opinion, and subsequently, history. The Sun even had the audacity to boast about this, claiming a few days later that “It Wos The Sun Wot Won It”.
10 years later, and ‘New Labour’ was the media darling, under the leadership of Tony Blair. They were swept to power by headlines such as the one below ‘The Sun Backs Blair’. Just a few years later, Blair was literally demonised by the Tabloid press, in pictures and in words, and removed from office, to be replaced by his 2iC, Gordon Brown.
Fast forward a few more years, and The Sun has had enough of the Labour Party, announcing ‘Labour’s Lost It’, at the same time backing the eton-educated David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party – see ‘In Cameron We Trust’ below.
The point of this is to demonstrate the power of a simple message, delivered simply even in modern-day politics in the digital age. No need for fully integrated marketing campaigns, pushing confusing messages across a multitude of digital and non-digital channels. There is still room in certain parts of our increasingly complicated and confused consumer decision landscape for behaviour, beliefs and values to be fundamentally influenced and changed in a flash, using 1 piece of exceptionally powerful communication that is channelled at a large audience that trusts the sender of the communication.
I never thought I’d say this, but Long Live The Sun!….
LikeLike
Good blog, I really liked the insight into the 2008 victory being a win for strategy not technology. I remember all the focus being on the mega bucks and the social media dominance, but the dominance doesn’t work unless it’s an effective consistent strategy. This is where the power of the IMC really takes hold, where there is consistent, strong messaging in all forms of communications.
If the overall strategy doesn’t resonate with the general public, then they might end up having the opposite effect.
LikeLike
Thanks for the blog!
The topic of political campaigns and social media is an interesting one. It is clear that any integrated marketing communication strategy must involve a social media component to reach out to the ever increasing voting power of the younger populace.
To name a few social media helps to support the other properties of I.M.C through;
1. Active communication of objectives and what their political party has achieved to date.
2. Selecting particular channels within social media to push the message to a particular segment of voters.
3. Ability to measure results in a quick and cost effective manner through automated benchmarks built into online activity.
Despite the advantages of social media, I don’t see traditional mediums being phased out long term. I feel traditional mediums are required during the maturity stage of the campaign where the voters must be reminded of the messages on the regular basis to maintain their enthusiasm to obtain their vote come election day. What also must be noted is that due to the wide audience reach of social media, maintaining a constant image throughout all channels will prove difficult due to the fact that the audience themselves now have the ability to voice their opinion on any comment, tweet or gif image in real time and the perception can no longer be isolated.
LikeLike
Whilst there is still plenty of research yet to be done on the relatively recent social media as marketing tools, there is no denying they are extensively used considering the reach they provide at minimal cost.
However, would social media still leave out certain segments of the population if not used as part of a marketing mix? How big are these segments? Do they matter ? Is it fair to decide that they do not matter ? Indeed this stresses out the importance of well considered integrated marketing communication where using a range of means of communication relevant to a predetermined strategy is essential. In the case of the US election it undoubtedly generated awareness and interest judging by the measure of tweets for example and perhaps a desire to be part of the interaction and possibly take specific actions in one way or another. Whether it can be correlated to the outcome for President Obama remains to be ascertained through further marketing research in this particular field. Technology provides a formerly harder-to-capture amount of data that can be analysed quickly to identify what part in the integrated marketing communication met the goals and to what extend. This is invaluable information in order to identify what can or should be adjusted in order to better achieve the goals.
LikeLike