Five Ways Obama Has Changed Campaigning

Presidential campaigns are always a big show. There’s the 24-hour breaking-news cycle, there’s scandal, there are attack ads. But this election cycle was something special. We witnessed the birth of a new type of campaigning – led by the Obama campaign’s embrace of high-tech.

He Used the Web
Many businesses and media outlets have grasped the power of the Internet. Most politicians haven’t. Obama was the notable exception this election cycle – but from now on, politicians will need to use the web to win.

“The internet is a great platform for politics,” says Pete Giangreco, senior partner at Chicago’s political powerhouse The Strategy Group. “YouTube can keep you accessible, and blog posts keep you in touch with your supporters.”

YouTube is just one way Obama rose above his rivals. The official videos the campaign created for YouTube were watched for 14.5 million hours. Buying that kind of time on broadcast TV costs $47 million.

And most of his fundraising was done online – of the $750 million raised through the campaign cycle, $500 million of it came through online donations.

And, as Giangreco says, it keeps the campaign accessible – when attacks on Obama’s association with controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright were revisited throughout the campaign, voters could easily re-watch Obama’s speech on race. To date, over 6.7 million people have watched the 37-minute speech.

He Integrated the Media
One reason for Obama’s success is his approach to integrating media. He wanted his media managers working together across platforms.

“From the start, this campaign was organized so the forms of media would not be in different silos,” says Giangreco. “It was a very integrated campaign.”

This integrated approach allowed the Obama campaign to make important announcements on the official website and send millions of text messages to supporters – notably Obama’s announcement of Joe Biden as his vice presidential pick, delivered via text message.

He Changed the Math
Giangreco says clinching the nomination hinged not on much-hyped Super Tuesday as much as smaller caucus states, where a few volunteers could make a huge difference in every county. “And that required changing the math.”

“Caucus states gave us the advantage. While other candidates were focused on primary states, we looked at Idaho and Utah, caucus states where we could make a huge difference with fewer supporters.”

The earliest, and arguably most important, example of this strategy came in Iowa.

“In Iowa, we knew most voters were older, dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. We also knew these caucuses were small, maybe 20 people at a time. So if we got some younger Dems to come out and support us, we could sweep more counties with limited resources.”

He Used Volunteers
The Obama campaign’s approach to volunteers was original in presidential politics. Obama made call lists and scripts available for download from the website – making it easy for volunteers anywhere to make calls from home.

“It was training, training, training,” says Giangreco. “We never stopped with training.”

This campaign was the only one where volunteers could make calls, throw parties, and organize fundraisers – all without ever meeting an Obama staffer in person.

He Organized for the Future
All this organization won’t be left on the campaign trail. Obama plans to use this “standing army” of volunteers to help pass legislation and promote volunteering efforts. The new White House website change.gov was recently rolled out, along with a personal message from Barack Obama imploring visitors to engage in volunteer work.