12th Dec 2007
Obama and the chat show advocate
Colleagues of mine in the US last month launched an excellent corporate blog called All About Advocacy which offers an excellent view of the emerging trends in communications and how they are being applied by big brands, large corporations and even politicians.
Today’s post is by Weber Shandwick’s Chief Reputation Strategist, Leslie Gaines-Ross, who focuses on the ever-changing world of reputation, thought leadership and research insights. Leslie tells the following story:
“A colleague called me this morning from the airport to tell me that the ultimate Advocate endorsement just occurred — Oprah’s endorsement of presidential candidate Barak Obama. Oprah used Advocacy brilliantly. Each person who attended the rally received a list of four phone numbers and names along with a script to use in calls asking for support in the upcoming primary. And get this…everyone in the audience was asked to text Obama for President. When election day comes around, the campaign can text message or call everyone and remind them to vote for Obama. The future is here. Advocacy starts now.”
This will have the trickle down effect that the Advocacy paradigm works to: High Intensity Advocate (Oprah); to Advocate (audience); to call to action. It will be interesting to see this plays out ’cause all you need is a Obama ‘badvocate’ and you begin to neutralise the effort. Vote Clinton, woops!
[...] with new voters many of whom are republicans and independents. Last month O’Conall Street highlighted the Obama campaign’s recruitment of advocates and its ability to ignite interest in those [...]