This is the last day we’ll talk about Obama. We promise. Like yesterday though, we want to focus on areas which are relevant for everyone in business. In this case there was another key factor that aided Barack Obama in securing his election win. Having accrued funding so successfully, he was able to tap into a younger generation, successfully encouraging the American youth to vote in unprecedented quantities.

Submitting regular videos onto YouTube was a must for his campaign marketing and certainly his republican counterpart used the same approach as one would expect of the viral infested web. Companies regularly use the online broadcasting site to popularise their name and products.

Moreover, a group on Facebook called the Obama Volunteer Corps tapped in to the zeitgeist via social networking, an approach that is becoming more and more popular for commercial bodies and company marketers to generate publicity and support.

The appointment of Chris Hughes, one of the founding members of Facebook as one of his senior advisers also represents his shrewd campaign management. Hughes has been running Obama’s online campaign at my.barackobama.com, in itself a kind of social networking site. With democrat blue, the site is similar to Facebook in both style and functionality.

He was able to recruit an army of volunteers (1.5 million strong), facilitated by the Facebook-like process of inviting friends to join, allowing a form of peer to peer recruitment process to unravel.

He did not stop there. Unlike any presidential candidate and indeed any politically motivated advertiser prior, Obama sought to subliminally infiltrate the gaming community. The relatively new real estate found within video games was bought up in 18 different titles featuring Guitar Hero, Madden 09 and Burnout Paradise.

A spokesperson for Electronic Arts Inc, responsible for some of the games said, “In general, the Burnout audience is typically male, aged 18 to 34. I think the sweet spot age is 27 or 28. The attractive benefit any advertiser sees in advertising on a game like Burnout is reaching that demographic.”

The most surprising aspect of this is of course the variety of methods chosen considering the product being sold. Obama and his team have entered the marketing history books with their strategic and creative approach to reaching a broader political audience than ever before. Take note.

CMFL

We couldn’t possibly write a post today without acknowledging the monumentous occasion which has befallen the U.S. within the past 24 hours. Barack Obama has won the 44^th presidential election. Its effects are resonating on British shores as the election wave is felt in seismic proportions; both Gordon Brown and David Cameron are already both attempting to piggyback the juggernaut that has been the Obama campaign by associating their respective values with the President elect.

However, wishing not to dwell too much on political matters, we’d like to focus on an area which gave the former senator a crucial upper-hand: namely his record fund-raising capability. With the most expensive White House race in history, the costs of the campaigns total in excess of $5 billion since January 2007.

Despite the financial crisis, Wall Street banks were responsible for a collective donation of $370 million, where Goldman & Sachs were the largest of the contributors – the investment bank’s employees and political action committee donated more than $5 million to this year’s campaigns.

Obama himself was able to establish a significant advantage by being the first presidential nominee to opt out of the public funding system that dates back to the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. Whilst McCain chose to receive public funds, Obama had no limit to the money he could raise thus enabling him to raise a total of $650 million to date.

Without bringing the integrity of these alternate funding processes into question, due praise is worthy for such a mammoth sum generated by Obama. His money-raising was so successful that he was able to afford to buy an unprecedented 30 minute slot on three television networks six days prior to the election. He was able to outspend his rival on T.V. advertising by a multiple of four.

The significance of this element must not be undervalued in terms of the pivotal victory fought and won by the first African-American presidential candidate. Whilst Obama the politician was able to mobilise an entire generation of young idealists and has earned the faith of his country for his progressive views and measured judgement, it seems that we should also pay our respects to Obama the businessman as well.

CMFL