One of the major advantages that Barack Obama currently holds over Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination here in the United States lies in how his campaign has managed the media.
Clinton’s campaign has complained that the media coverage is more sympathetic to Obama (which is pretty evident to anyone who watches CNN or MSNBC), but a bigger issue is simply the volume of coverage.
In political contests, pundits often refer to the “air war” and the “ground war.” The air war consists of media exposure (either paid advertising or press coverage) to drive awareness, while the ground war consists of the door-to-door organization to get out the vote.
In many ways, this division resembles the classic divide between Marketing (air war) and Sales (ground war) in business.
When it comes to the air war, the key is to drive awareness. As I’m fond of saying, your most potent competitor is generally ignorance.
Because Barack Obama has become a magnet for free press coverage, he has a significant advantage over Hillary Clinton in the air war. Every time he holds a 15,000-person rally at a sports arena, with thousands more spilling out into the streets, it’s a newsworthy story that can draw national coverage, and perhaps even more importantly, local news coverage in both print and TV.
It’s possible to substitute money for coverage by blanketing the airwaves with paid advertising, but as Mitt Romney has demonstrated, pound for pound, paid ads are less valuable than free coverage.
The advantage that free coverage brings can be seen in the relative fortunes of the Obama and Clinton campaigns. While both have raised roughly the same amount of money since 2006, Obama’s press advantage also allowed his campaign to spend more on the ground game than Clinton, while still maintaining a larger warchest.
The same principle applies in business. If you can get the press to do your job for you, why spend money buying ads? What’s more valuable, a 1-page ad in Fortune, or a glowing article? And don’t forget, that article didn’t cost you $25,000.
The key question then is, how do you get that press coverage?
You can spend a ton of money ($20,000+ per month) on high-priced PR agencies, but as the example of Hillary Clinton shows, the best spin machine in the world can’t help much if you don’t have a story people want to write about.
Barack Obama has been successful during the nomination battle not because of his spinmeisters, but because he successfully embodies a story that people want to hear and retell. What American doesn’t want to believe that anybody (including an African-American with a Muslim name and father, raised by a single mother) can grow up to be president? And if people want change and a break with the past, there is no way for Hillary Clinton to argue that she is best positioned to deliver it.
Great marketing isn’t about selling your story. It’s about being the story.
The same applies to the business world. Google famously refuses to spend any money on advertising. Guess what? They don’t have to, because they are the story.
Microsoft can spend far more money than Apple on ads (and it does). But Apple always wins the air war (at least during the iPod era) because it is the story.
To sell your story, be the story.
P.S. Thanks for reading my 1,000th post! In case you’re curious, here’s post #1, from almost exactly 7 years ago.
Let’s try that link again…
Happy anniversary to you and us, your readers!
Antoine noted how each candidate has used various media (toward the end of the post).
Congrats on the 1000th post! Quite an accomplishment.
Interesting post too. I agree that if you are or have a great story, it will win hands down over paid ads and/or PR. If you’re unable to be the story, how can you overcome it? Or in other words, what would you advise Hilary to do?
Ryan,
As Kenny Rogers once put it, you’ve got to know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em.
If I were Hillary, I’d try to run out the clock with dignity, and hope that Obama made a huge blunder before the convention (if, for example, he praised Adolf Hitler’s policies and began wearing a swastika).
You can never guarantee victory, just put yourself in the best possible position for things to break your way.
The constant spinning and thrashing just makes Hillary look bad, aided and abetted by a press that’s eager to call for her head.
This is America, where you can come back from just about anything. Hillary might still have a shot at 2012 if McCain defeats Obama…but not if she destroys the party trying to get the nomination.
I’ve been reading your blog for the last couple of weeks now and I really enjoy it. Good stuff!
Congrats on 7 years!!