Redefining the US Political Campaign: Obama’s successful rise to the US Presidency
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008I had the distinct opportunity to attend the Rotman Lecture series to watch an insightful presentation by Rahaf Harfoush, a key member of Barack Obama’s Campaign that helped reshape the way political campaigns are run. Ideally, the voice of the people should be represented, and to garner their support means listening to their concerns and persuading them that you will answer those concerns. The Obama Campaign took it one step further: It harnessed this support by arming people with tools to help spread the message and making them feel integral to the campaign. This popular armament provided incredible individual empowerment that caused an explosion of smaller campaigns that fueled the Obama fire.
The Campaign unleashed its brand to the masses and the public embraced it and made it stronger. A great example of this is the Yes We Can Video by Little Will.i.am, an initiative developed by supporters who took Obama’s message, made it their own, and spread the word. It became synonymous with the Campaign and eventually amassed over 14.5 MM views.
