What Can Brand Marketers Learn from Politics? 2016 Edition

In the first two cycles the received wisdom was that the grass roots power of social media activation swept President Obama to office Less attention was paid to the fact that they also involved the highest advertising spend in campaign history or the fact that the 2008 campaign was set against a backdrop of at least two ongoing wars a stock market in free fall the highest unemployment since the Great Depression and a housing crisis that led to repossessions and a collapse in the values of the biggest asset many Americans owned Significant ProbablyIn 2012 the world looked better but the blood was not dry and the incumbent President ran against a party with no ideas better than they had in 2008 and with changing demographics at his back To paraphrase the Sun newspaper of 25 years ago quotIt wasn39t the tweet wot won itquotSure amp160social media was interesting and valuable but its role was exaggerated by any reasonable measure amp160Most interesting among the arguments for its effect was that social media created an inescapable need for speed truth and authenticity and thatamp160was the message for brands In a connected world you could run and run fast but you could not hideSo here we are in 2016 The Republican front runner for now has achieved his position amp160by translating tabloid fame into what a cohort of the population have embraced as quotstraight talking antiestablishment populismquotamp160Truth and authenticity would seem to have very little to do with it Winston Churchill in order to remain on the right side of parliamentary protocol once accused an opponent of being quoteconomical with the truthquotamp160It would be an accusation that could be reasonably leveled at Mr Trump and others and it would appear that no amount of social media outing and outrage can persuade Mr Trump39s supporters of his possible unsuitability for officeSo marketers are now hearing from pundits that they can embrace some of the Trump playbook An article in Ad Age on March 8amp160the parentheses are mine suggested the following might work1 Keep messages simple truth optional2 Leverage live events you can39t beat rabble rousing3 React in real time on social media keep lying until it becomes the truth4 Be bold and less apologetic contempt for both the truth and your competitors are equally valuable5 Don39t underestimate the power of earned media all news is good newsI have sufficient confidence in the marketing community to expect that only the nonparenthetical version will make the marketing playbookOf all the advice offered it39s possible that quotbe boldquotamp160may be the most significant The implication is that you can profit from fearlessness if you can build a brand that is beloved by small but committed population cohorts and if you are unconcerned about rejection by the majority In an atomized world of communication and commerce this seems like a highly plausible opportunity and one that can unlock the potential of media targetingPerhaps the more important learning from this race is the evidence that little is now beyond disruption and that walls of the establishment are not impenetrable and that committed minorities can make significant inroads in traditional structuresHopefully and I am expressing a preference that the power of the minority never translates into control of the majority May Mr Trump get to 49 and never to 51The Sun is Britain39s biggest tabloid daily After John Major39s unexpected victory over Labour39s Neil Kinnock in the 1992 General Election their headline the next day was quotIt was the Sun wot won itquotamp160The Sun39s final preelection broadside before the election was quotIf Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn off the lightsquotamp160The Sun had declared war then victoryImage at top courtesy of Corbis The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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What Can Brand Marketers Learn from Politics? 2016 Edition

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Rob Norman

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What Can Brand Marketers Learn from Politics? 2016 Edition

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