GMMB Wins Adweek’s Media Plan of the Year for Obama for America Campaign
Posted on Jun 30, 2009
WASHINGTON - Adweek this month announced GMMB as the winner of its Media Plan of the Year for its work on Obama for America. GMMB served as the lead media placement agency for Obama for America, in addition to playing a central role in strategy and message for the historic presidential campaign.
In announcing the award, Adweek noted that "while much attention has focused on the Democratic candidate's wide embrace of Web 2.0 strategies, his adept handling of paid media enabled him to strategically outmaneuver competitors." It was GMMB's "highly effective media campaign that first introduced the political unknown to Americans, driving them to the Web and to grassroots efforts supporting him."
"The Obama campaign was the first fully-integrated presidential campaign, pioneering the collaboration of multi-media tactics," said GMMB's media director Daniel Jester. "This is something rare in traditional advertising and never before done in political advertising. Multiple tactics complemented our strategy - connecting paid media to earned media, and online to offline media."
The strategy throughout the extended primary and general election season was made up of many smaller advertising campaigns, beginning in 2007 by hyper-targeting voters with relevant messages leading up to the Iowa caucuses to ending on the national stage in November 2008. GMMB used personalized targeting to communicate with specific voter subsets, including women, youth, seniors, rural voters, sportsmen/hunters, African-Americans and Hispanics; while consistent messages were being delivered to persuadable general-market voters.
Going beyond the 30-second TV spot was also key and innovative. Research made clear that the electorate wanted more information about Obama - his campaign, his proposals and his personal story - and that the more they knew, the more they saw him as the kind of leader America needed in the White House. GMMB used 60-second, 2-minute, On-Demand and a 30-minute special to provide a deeper biography and specific plans.
"By incorporating narrowcasting, personalized targeting and long-form video into the campaign, we broke down the fourth wall of traditional presidential campaigns," said GMMB partner Greg Pinelo. "This tactic allowed Obama to have real conversations with voters and, in turn, increased voter comfort and confidence."