Outside Insight by Jorn Lyseggen

Author:Jorn Lyseggen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241281642
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

A single massive data depository was created that could merge the information from fieldworkers, consumer databases and pollsters and marry that with newer information such as Facebook accounts, Twitter handles and mobile numbers. The system also enabled campaigns to run tests in which two versions of a message were sent to see which one performed better. It turned out that the better-performing messages were around ten times as effective as the ones that performed poorly. The team discovered that voters seemed to be most receptive to messages from Michelle Obama. Joe Biden? Not so much.

Wagner’s team discovered that half of the campaign’s target voters in the 18–29 demographic were completely unreachable by phone. But analysis of social media provided a crucial and powerful insight. Of all Facebook users in the US, 98 per cent had a friend who was a fan of Obama. The campaign recognized that the world had speeded up. Voters were used to mobile apps that removed friction and made their lives simpler. Based on this, the team built an app that was downloaded by 1.2 million Obama fans in the younger demographics. The campaign used this app to mobilize Obama supporters in swing states to encourage their Facebook friends to vote for Obama. The campaign found that roughly one person in five contacted by a Facebook pal acted on the request, mobilizing 5 million Obama-friendly voters.

For fundraising, the campaign developed a solution called Quick Donate, a software program that enabled people to donate money via text, online or email without having to re-enter credit card information: it was designed to be the Amazon One-Click of political fundraising. Those who signed up gave around four times as much as other types of donor. And there was another strategic element: timing. The campaign’s marketing team hit prospective donors when they thought they would be most receptive – after a debate, a campaign rally or an announcement by a senior Republican. The figures spoke for themselves: Obama raised $500 million for this first presidential campaign; in 2012 he raised close to $700 million.6

Obama’s marketing campaign was the most sophisticated that had ever been used in any political campaign up to that time, and it changed political campaigning as we know it. Today every politician with aspirations to public office takes a page or two from Obama’s playbook. Obama’s online campaigns from 2008 and 2012 were seminal marketing campaigns with relevance beyond the political landscape. They became case studies inspiring marketers across the world to this day.

By embracing Outside Insight, Obama took advantage of social media and all the other information that was available and used technology to connect the dots. His real-time analysis of voter intentions helped his team to allocate its scarce resources in an optimal way. According to one senior official quoted on CNN, they were able to ‘run the election 66,000 times every night’.7 Embracing Outside Insight, Obama understood the voters’ shifting sentiments better than anyone and used his insights to become the President of the USA.

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