Congratulations

to Advertising Age's Marketer of the Year.

The first part of Obama's success is branding: Obama ran his campaign using modern commercial marketing techniques and personnel, not the political consultancy that resulted in the last two failed Democratic attempts at the Presidency. Thus the Obama campaign logo takes its place alongside other iconic brand logos:

Obama has also made brilliant use of other modern marketing methods, from viral marketing (Yes We Can, to a cool Web 2.0 website, to message discipline. Obama is almost always on-message, and when he gets off-message, he gets back on-message quickly. And if his message doesn't seem to be working, he doesn't dump it if he believes it's a smart, compelling message -- he keeps at it, like his message about McCain representing the politics of the past, not of the future. That message didn't attract a lot of moderate to conservative voters in the summer, when everything seemed peachy-keen. But when the economy went into the crapper, suddenly his message was on-point indeed.

Perhaps one reason for this attention to modern branding and marketing is simply generational. Obama is the first Presidential candidate who actually grew up with modern marketing, which is as much about branding as it is about product. The Nike swoosh, the Apple bitten apple, the BMW roundel, and now... the Obama sunrise. By going outside of the political consultancy to commercial branding and marketing experts, Obama not only saved a ton of money compared to his competitors, but he also brought the 21st century to a profession, political marketing, still stuck in the mid-20th. Regardless of what you think about Obama, one thing you have to admit -- the youngster does know his marketing.

-- Badtux the Unmarketed Penguin