Obama Wins Marketer of the Year Award
Last week, at the annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers, Barack Obama beat venerable marketers such as Apple and Nike to become Ad Age’s Marketer of the Year. Whether you are an Obama supporter or detractor, and whether or not you have misgivings about a politician winning a marketing award, the rationale of the marketers, agency heads and marketing services professionals for their votes points to some good ideas as we plan our communication programs for next year.
In marketing parlance, Obama built a national and in fact a global brand in a relatively short amount of time. In terms of bottom-line results, well, the polls are looking very good for him. Obama was credited for creating a social network, building the tools for engaging people and, most important, getting them to take action. As part of the general public, we are also aware of his keen discipline and focus on a single central message (”McCain equals Bush”). Something to keep in mind the next time we think about adding another qualifier to the string of “high-quality, reliable, convenient, easy-to-use . . . ”
When the judges commented on the various runners-up, we heard the same themes, often repeated but not always followed, of good marketing and good communications. For Apple, the runner-up, the key is consistency—repeating the formula for success that combines innovation with service with a penchant for creating a great user experience. Likewise the consistency, and clarity, of Apple’s message and design. Most interesting to me was the second runner-up, online shoe seller Zappos. How did Zappos pull ahead of Nike and Coors? Advertising Age reports that Zappos plows some of the money allocated to advertising into customer service, leading to strong retention. Not a bad strategy, though perhaps not something ad agencies want to hear.
Now let’s see if being Marketer of the Year pays off on Election Day.