For a slew of reasons that I shall not even attempt to go into, Day 5 was pretty much restricted to recovery from Day 4 festivities and meetings with the team on what we've learned from our participation in Cannes, our collaboration with Twitter, our blogging and live-tweeting, our networking, and general miscellany.
That said, there was one session I had no intention of missing: and that was DDB Worldwide hosting David Plouffe, campaign manager for Barack Obama, who inspired the packed crowd with his recollections of what worked and what didn't, what's changed and what agencies and clients should be thinking about as they seek to harness social media for their campaigns.
Memorable thoughts from Plouffe:
- Debates are no longer happening in DC only, the grassroots is now empowered to participate - and will expect to be able to participate
- In today's world, real change will happen when Americans at grassroots level demand it, thereby creating an obligation to keep in touch, directly with those audiences
- On memorable viral videos such as the Great Schlep and Will.I.am's mash-up of an Obama speech, these happened outside the campaign, people doing this on their own. if virals had come out as Obama product, there would unquestionably have been given far less credibility
- For all that is said about the power of social media, the big drivers of the campaign were old-school - email and web married with local grassroots activity
- Of course, in the same way we advocate for compelling content as the foundation for any campaign, so too did Plouffe suggest that none of this would have mattered without a spectacular candidate
- With 10 million registered, OBama can now send out a message via email and reach a larger audience than the major brodcast messages - and do so in a way that the message can be shared - individual to individual
- Video became a vital element of the campaign to give a voice and to communicate directly on the issues - nothing more valuable that a human being talking to a human being
- Campaign alignment was essential - meaning, focusing all communications on a single idea or theme, issue or location. If not, multiple voices and multiple messages will only confuse.
- Grassroots and digital was married... had to make people want to own campaign... vs soundbites and media
