Politician Endorsement

Odd to see a politician being used in an advertisement as a positive endorser of a message. It seems the power of the 'Yes We Can' slogan, its symbolic meaning, coupled with Obama's reforms is striking a chord in the US and so is being used to back social messages. No idea why this was emailled to me but thought it was interesting enough to share.

Do endorsements from rappers matter?

And it is just a question! Perhaps one of the really novel events within the US presidential election contest was the creation of supportive videos and music independently of the campaign. Not just the rather naff Obama Girl, though that got a lot of coverage for him and for Obama Girl herself, but Will-i-am's Yes We Can. The novelty was that Obama's words had been inserted into the song making him appear as more than simply a politician on the victory trail but also a performer in his own right. A new song has appeared, My Flag which can be downloaded free here and is being promoted online. It does not yet have a Youtube video but it is interesting that there remains an impetus and enthusiasm to promote Obama in ways we would not normally consider as fitting with electioneering and campaigning. While much rests on his ability to deliver, if this continues it could be a highly significant arm of his permanent campaign: one he can do nothing about but is supportive of him as President. Does it matter, I think so, the fact that a DJ singer and rap artist is prepared to not just sample Obama but to build a song around his support and love for the President elect is a message to others like Jay and to wider society.

Citizen Endorsements

What is the most influential persuasion, an endorsement from someone we know. It still remains the case that many people are influenced far more by their parents and peers than any highly expensive communication strategy. The second most influential persuasion is supposedly, and say supposedly because it is based on theory and sporadic bits of research, is an endorsement from someone like ourselves. Therefore we may consider ourselves as members of social groups and so wish to be close to that group and so adjust our behaviour and attitudes to match members of that group: for social group this is identifiers rather than simple demographics, employment, but for example for me real ale lovers may be a group I wish to assimilate with and so adopt more broader commonalities with the members of the group (I shall resist a beard and woolly jumper though!).

So where is this going, well advertisers have long used the 'ordinary person' to endorse a product; I question whether anyone believes they are anything but an actor. Obama, very powerfully I think, used videos made by 'members of his movement' that endorsed him as then democratic candidate. The Conservative Party will attempt to replicate this. In their e-newsletter they state "We want to build a collection of short video clips with people explaining why they're Conservative". While the party perhaps do not need to worry about public support at the moment, the fear for any challenger is that the waverers among the electorate will worry about inexperience (one factor that led to Kinnock's defeat in 1992 despite looking like the winner in polls) and switch to the incumbent. The montage of endorsements should include a cross-section of voters and so could, if publicised right, be something that can be used to bolster support. The idea is that 'if Mr X, real ale lover from Cornwall is willing to back the Conservatives then I might trust them as well', theoretically it is a powerful persuasive tool!

Authentic Endorsements

A while ago the Obama campaign ran a competition among donators to win backstage passes to the Democratic Convention. There are 10 winners and they are now being used as endorsers of his campaign to a wider audience. to get a sense of the tactic here are some snippets from the vignettes about "the people who make up our movement... of all different ages, races, and backgrounds":

Barb is a teacher living... on her family's wheat and cattle farm, and rising fuel prices are making it hard to get by. She hopes Barack's plan for alternative bio-fuels will help the struggling economy in rural Montana. Barb volunteers for her church, sits on a hospital board, and organizes community events.

Anne is a retired budget analyst for the federal government. She says the first time she saw Barack at the 2004 convention, she thought, "This is Everyman. He is Kansan and he is Kenyan; he is African and he is Anglo-American; he is common sense and he is eloquence; he is dynamic and he is down to earth."

Trinace is a single mother and disabled veteran who served overseas for the Iraq War. She currently works for the U.S. Army as a public affairs specialist. Trinace is inspired by Senator Obama's message of change and his plans to address all of the issues that she cares deeply about...

John served in the U.S. Army for 10 years. He says his two tours in Iraq with the 10th Special Forces Group opened his eyes to "the link between our country's lack of an effective energy policy and our flawed foreign policy."

In effect these are representatives of the wide spectrum that is America, yet also representative in many ways of people who may be floating voters. Rather than persuading these people himself, Barack Obama's campaign uses them to promote his presidency to those similar to these backstage pass holders: dissatisfied patriots who want change on the issues they care about. Neatly he also approaches issues that McCain has attacked him on such as the Iraq War, energy policy, bio-fuels and of course his nationality. it is argued to be a powerful tool, people listen to people who are like them, if these messages and similar tactics become widely disseminated it may win over some of those unsure of Obama.

Taking the biscuit

Reading Hillary Clinton's twitter feed this morning I thought it was her birthday, and that she was asking voters to help her celebrate by winning for her in Oregon. Instead it was a rather crassly delivered emotional appeal and endorsement that reads as follows:

Hillary Clinton’s Springfield office had a very special Get Out the Vote celebration yesterday. Eugene native Shana Stull was the first Oregon Field Organizer hired by the Oregon for Hillary campaign. Shana is the proud mom of two daughters, Amelie and Doreen, ages three and one. In honor of Amelie’s third birthday yesterday, twenty Eugene volunteers made 518 phone calls in one hour to help Get Out the Vote for Hillary. Shana couldn’t think of a better birthday present for her daughter than to help elect Hillary as our next President. “For my daughters, I’m doing everything I can to elect Hillary. I know that she will create a brighter future for our children,”
Shana said... see full post

and on the endorsement goes. I just cannot for the life of me seeing why this will sway the floating voter. Maybe it is not necessary to make a case to vote for Clinton anymore given how long the campaign has been running but does the unqualified endorsement of a campaign activist carry any weight?

Ken borrows from Barack

Blue State Digital will run Ken Livingstone's Internet campaign, the Internet firm behind Barack Obama, for the mayoral election and last night launched the first campaign video on YouTube. The video (below) is very simple in design, featuring still shots of Livingstone with ordinary Londoners accompanied by voice overs offering endorsements from those same ordinary people. The idea, according to Thomas Gensemer, the US firm's managing director, is to position Ken in the same way as Obama as an ordinary person; differentiating him from Boris Johnson the old Etonian (perhaps linking into the Labour strategy of referring to him as Mr Johnson and not Boris).



This video complements a series of vox pops with Londoners saying how great London is to live and work in, all of which appear on Ken's Youtube site (an example of which is below), he has also used the site to attack Boris Johnson's negativity and highlighting his own positivity.



The key message is to reinforce Ken's authenticity as a Londoner, something that won him power against the odds in 2000; but the important bit is not him saying that but real Londoners endorsing him as the candidate. It is working for Obama as he can claim an outsider status to some extent; can it work for the incumbent?

How to target the online influencers

Given the CPS report on the importance of bloggers who have a significant share of the online readership and so assumed influence, and the fact that many PR agencies are seriously considering how to harness the power of the blogosphere, or sometimes counter and neutralise online criticism, Mark Hanson's article in PR Week is highly prescient. As media officer for LabourHome as well as a partner in Staniforth, Hanson is perfectly placed to consider these questions from a political perspective and offers the following advise on how to reach the bloggers who are influential.

Firstly parties need to trawl for hits of key phrases to check where the issues are being discussed; second assess the importance of each site in terms of the quality and relevance of the content and the amount of readers in order to discover where the potential audience is; this will represent a network in which there are the influentials and the long tail of readers who may contribute comments or simply lurk on the edge of the network [the theory is that 1 issue will picked up by 9 bloggers which will then influence a further 90 individuals as pictured below by Chris Anderson]; once identified the network is assessed to see how the party/candidate can use it; finally getting the network onside.

Advocacy and word-of-mouth promotion is a powerful tool of PR. If certain bloggers are influential and can promote a party, its leader, policies and initiate viral campaigns such as the one for Mark McDonald to be party treasurer, then it could be a kind of endorsement that could have an effect. Key for Hanson is that parties and candidates recognise that there are new ways to interact with the public/electorate (speak and listen to in his words), PR agencies have picked up on this Hanson suggests parties need to do likewise.

P.S. on a completely different not, is anyone else puzzled that blog, blogger and associated phrases are not in the 'blogger' dictionary?