Did Barack’s speech keep his brand promise alive?

Conventions_08_v3 84,000 screaming fans a la a rock concert.  An estimated 40+ million watching at home.  On the 45th anniversary of Dr. King’s historic "I have a dream"  speech.

The stage was set for magic.

Barack’s acceptance speech last night was clearly one of the most important of his entire career.

It was his change to communicate and solidify his brand.  This wasn’t the night for getting into the nitty gritty.  This was the night for a Steve Jobs "get the crowd pumped, make them laugh/make them cry" sort of speech.

It was a brand builder’s dream.

So how did he do from a pure brand/marketing perspective?  That was the question posed to six of us (CK, Ann Handley, Cam Beck, Alan Wolk, Stephen Denny, and me) over at Marketing Profs Daily Fix.  We had to (in 200 words or less) critique the speech based on message, brand delivery and relevance.  We also had to give a 0-5 star rating.

Mr. Obama got everywhere from a 0 to a 5 from the six of us.

Here’s a snippet of my comments:

Clearly Obama did not get the memo. Of all the speeches he will ever give – this one wasn’t about politicking – this one needed to be about creating the vision, the dream. This was the night to ignite our passion for his brand promise of change and hope.

Come read what everyone had to say and then weigh in with your opinion!

4 comments on “Did Barack’s speech keep his brand promise alive?

  1. CK says:

    Thanks for participating, Drew. What I find so interesting is how VASTLY different our “takes” are–and that’s just from 6 of us.

    It just goes to show you that different people react differently to a given set of messages (or a particular brand). So the question for marketers is: are there enough people to sustain their brands…especially when that brand is working to evolve to engage more supporters.

  2. John Rosen says:

    Drew —

    Nice job. Looks like the discussion attracted lts of participants.

    John

  3. CK,

    It would be an interesting study to ask the readers to guess each marketing person’s political affiliation. It’s pretty difficult (as Cam fully admits) to separate our reactions as a voter from those of us as marketers.

    Thanks for asking me to play along!

    Drew

  4. John,

    It has generated quite the discussion. It’s an interesting challenge — to put your political opinions off to the side and try to be as objective as you can be, based on your professional expertise.

    One of my goals was that it would be difficult for someone to guess my political affiliation from my comments. We’ll see how I do when we can put the two commentaries (adding McCain’s this week) side by side!

    I think your comment over at the Fix is correct. The outcome, especially with the addition of the wild card Sarah will make this an election that is studied and dissected for years to come.

    Drew

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