Drew Ianni, ad:tech advisory board chairman/programming, started off the Wednesday sessions with a technology-friendly introduction to Shelly Lazarus: "Ogilvy was the first major agency to believe in - and take an interest in - digital and integrating new kinds of advertising into programs for their clients."
But the chairman/ceo of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide had something else in mind: "As I stand before you, my daughter is in labor," Lazarus revealed. But that wasn't her punchline. She continued, "Remember how people used to save the front page of their daily newspaper to celebrate a child's birth? Well, I'm so happy. The front page of today's Times is a great page." The single word OBAMA - all caps, centered and splashed across the top of page 1 - will be the keeper for the Lazarus family. And, as luck would have it, the story beneath the banner was the first of a series of digital narratives that would ground the Ogilvy head's ad:tech presentation.
Digital comes of political age: the Obama campaign
"Team Obama brought their brand to life in ways that no candidate has ever done before," Lazarus declared. "They brought them directly to the people. He won and the world has changed forever."
"If you are uncomfortable with change and ambiguity," she cautioned the ad:tech gathering, "this is not your time. If you need to test something five times before you try a sixth, this is not your time. But, if you love to make it up as you go along, if you welcome the happy collision of advertising and technology, if you're really creative, if you want to try new tools, if you're looking to listen in on new conversations and respond instantly, your time has come.
"When I started in this business, direct-mail people used to say, 'Just try to imagine what is would be like if you could actually talk to a consumer or a prospect to find out if they really were interested. We don't have to imagine any more."
As brand builders and marketers, she continued, "We can conclude that the Obama team knew how to use the tools that are now available to us all." In fact, she added, it was fair to conclude that the candidate's "digital-ness" had helped drive his victorious campaign.
Indeed, the ultimate success of the new-media political effort "affords marketers with a way to use new opportunities for interactivity with their target audiences. Obama was in constant dialogue with his base without the interference of the established press. He took his messages directly to his missionaries.
"And here's a question," she continued. "He ran his campaign this way. Will he govern in the same way? Last night, around 11 p.m., I received a real-time email from Obama. 'I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there,' he wrote, 'but I wanted to write to you first. We just made history. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.'"
"It was all part of the best CRM campaign that's ever been run," Lazarus said. "The Obama campaign had a state-of-the-art web site. Pages on social-media sites. Twitter to track the candidate from one moment to the next. They had their own 'Race to the White House' game, Xbox games, iPhone applications, free ringtones. More than 12 million downloads of a 'Yes We Can' You Tube video brought emotion and momentum to the campaign. Four million donors and volunteers got daily email updates. They used every trick in the marketers' book, right down to their own 'Front Row to History' that offered winners a trip to Chicago to watch the returns. It was just like Publisher's Clearing House.
"Their motto seemed to be, 'If you think it, you can do it.' They really were masters of CRM."
Digital comes of political age: the Obama campaign
"Team Obama brought their brand to life in ways that no candidate has ever done before," Lazarus declared. "They brought them directly to the people. He won and the world has changed forever."
"If you are uncomfortable with change and ambiguity," she cautioned the ad:tech gathering, "this is not your time. If you need to test something five times before you try a sixth, this is not your time. But, if you love to make it up as you go along, if you welcome the happy collision of advertising and technology, if you're really creative, if you want to try new tools, if you're looking to listen in on new conversations and respond instantly, your time has come.
"When I started in this business, direct-mail people used to say, 'Just try to imagine what is would be like if you could actually talk to a consumer or a prospect to find out if they really were interested. We don't have to imagine any more."
As brand builders and marketers, she continued, "We can conclude that the Obama team knew how to use the tools that are now available to us all." In fact, she added, it was fair to conclude that the candidate's "digital-ness" had helped drive his victorious campaign.
Indeed, the ultimate success of the new-media political effort "affords marketers with a way to use new opportunities for interactivity with their target audiences. Obama was in constant dialogue with his base without the interference of the established press. He took his messages directly to his missionaries.
"And here's a question," she continued. "He ran his campaign this way. Will he govern in the same way? Last night, around 11 p.m., I received a real-time email from Obama. 'I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there,' he wrote, 'but I wanted to write to you first. We just made history. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.'"
"It was all part of the best CRM campaign that's ever been run," Lazarus said. "The Obama campaign had a state-of-the-art web site. Pages on social-media sites. Twitter to track the candidate from one moment to the next. They had their own 'Race to the White House' game, Xbox games, iPhone applications, free ringtones. More than 12 million downloads of a 'Yes We Can' You Tube video brought emotion and momentum to the campaign. Four million donors and volunteers got daily email updates. They used every trick in the marketers' book, right down to their own 'Front Row to History' that offered winners a trip to Chicago to watch the returns. It was just like Publisher's Clearing House.
"Their motto seemed to be, 'If you think it, you can do it.' They really were masters of CRM."
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