Presidential campaigns long ago absorbed the lessons of American advertising and marketing, and not necessarily for the better. McCain and Obama are spending hundreds of millions of dollars marketing themselves, much of it focused on the latest promotional tools and techniques. Obama in particular has done a great job tapping online social media to spread the word and build support. But it's hard to watch all this and think that the marketing and advertising gurus running the campaigns are contributing to more informed decisions by the citizenry on the critical issues of the day.
But what if the campaigns took a lesson from one of the newer trends in marketing, thought leadership?
The whole idea of thought leadership marketing is helping your customers better understand the challenges they are facing and the potential solutions. It's about educating your customers, and believing that they will reward you for the knowledge you provide.
Could the candidates take the same approach? Rather than just pushing out clever slogans, attack ads, and traditional cliches (I'm for cutting taxes, I'll fight for the middle class), what if they put some of their marketing brain trusts to work on engaging new ways to help us better understand the financial meltdown, the health care crisis, and global warming?
Why not some clean energy teach-ins, health care reform comic books, and Middle East peace videos on YouTube -- brought to you by Obama? What about some online chats with financial experts, global warming microsites, and wikis on education reform -- sponsored by McCain?
Like you, I can think of dozens of reasons why this will never happen. But wouldn't it be nice if it did?
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