ParkHowell.com » Barack Obama

Obama has Given Us the Blueprint for How to Activate Sustainable Green Causes Online and Off

Park — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:41:41 +0000

It’s no secret that most everything Obama’s campaign has done online has been exceptional. Scott Goodson‘s post on the Marketing Strategy and Innovation blog does a great job of spelling out the high points of the strategy.

Leveraging the Power of Inspiration
Bottom-up Brand Management
Continuous Activation Through “SMART” Objectives
Social Networking Infused with Healthy Competition
Pop-up Stores to Galvanize Online/Offline Activity

I just want to take a moment to celebrate all we – as messengers of green, environmental, sustainable, or whatever you want to call our Earth-friendly marketing pursuits – have learned from Obama’s social media outreach by featuring one of his videos. I like it because it’s beautiful storytelling that is welcoming, engaging and inclusive. Above all, it feels honest to me.

All of our green environmental outreach efforts for recylcing, conservation, sustainability, etc., should be as open and honest. That’s how you invite the rest of the world to join your cause.

What Green Markerters Can Learn From Obama’s Branding

Park — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:00:33 +0000

The Obama branding and campaign machine reinvented how a person gets elected in this country. And they made it look relatively easy. Marketers in every industry should pay attention, especially in environmental marketing. The “O” branding team put a slight spin on the same old sameness of political advertising, knocked it out of the park with their social media activation, and now look who’s coming to dinner.

All the political logos pretty much come from the same place. Some basic type treatments over a basic reference to Ol’ Glory. Seems a pretty easy platform to visually differentiate yourself. So why hasn’t anybody attempted it in 225+ years?

Without getting too outside of the box, Obama’s team landed on the “O,” a formula that should forever change how politicians are branded and get elected. It wasn’t rocket science, either. It was just great, practical design that moved the needle just far enough to make a huge impact.

They’ll even tell you in the following video that they dismissed some of their earlier concepts because they felt too different, too outside the norm. What always amazes me is how you can give a simple twist to a concept to make it fairly revolutionary. In this case, it started with rethinking how a candidate’s brand shows up in those vacant lots forested with political signage. The rest, shall we say, is history.

Environmental marketing, even with its newness, seems to suffer from the same old same old. How can you reinvent your green brand, attitude, and actions by simply tweaking what you’ve been doing by 5 or 10 percent? Done right, you too could rule the free world.

See for yourself how they did it for Barack.

Is Social Media THE Green Accountability Tool?

Park — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:30:26 +0000

The Obama campaign’s fearless use of social media during the election was nothing short of remarkable: a refreshing transparency and candidness that most candidates recoil from like a vampire to sunlight. Our president-elect continues his online conversation with those who choose to participate by posting his green initiative on YouTube. This is a direct call-to-action for America to get its clean energy act together. And he’s posted his comments for all the world to access, archive, and hold him to. Has social media become the ultimate accountability tool for all of us who choose to embrace it? Will more corporations leverage it to advance their green causes? Or will they shy away from social media due to its inherent transparency? Your thoughts…