Published by: Logivote Team
In modern electoral history of the United States, the 2008 and 2016 presidential elections stand out not only for their consequential, historic outcomes but also for the groundbreaking strategies employed by the winning campaigns. Barack Obama and Donald Trump revolutionized the way political campaigns approached voter outreach, harnessing the power of data management, personalized communication, and technological innovation.
Despite their enormous ideological differences, the Obama and Trump both won the elections by mximizing the Mobilization trategy, specifically by using cutting-edge tools to energize their base and get out the vote.
As both Facebook and Twitter got global on 2006, and with the launch of the iPhone making access to digital information easier than ever, the 2008 elections were the first ever to be run fluffy on the digital sphere. Barack Obama – until than a relatively unknown Senator, who just defeated Democratic party giants such as Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden – and his team understood the potential of data and technology to turn modern elections. The campaign invested heavily in building a robust data infrastructure, particularly in the areas Obama had to win, which became the backbone of its voter outreach strategy.
The Obama campaign’s data-driven approach was exemplified by its use of microtargeting. By collecting and analyzing vast amounts of voter data, the campaign was able to segment the electorate into specific groups based on demographics, voting history, and even personal interests, and by adjusting the messaging to each group building the famous “Obama coalition” which rallied on women, LGBTQ+, voters of color and young voters.
This allowed the campaign to deliver highly personalized messages to different segments of the population – as black voters in Michigan, a heavily-industrail state, required a different message from black voters in North Carolina, a Southern state, for example – ensuring that each voter received content that resonated with them based not just their interests but also on how they consumed media. Another example: a young college student might receive a message about student loans and climate action, while a middle-aged parent might hear more about job creation and education reform, even if borth of them lived on Cleveland, Ohio (by the way, Obama won all of the above states)..
The campaign’s use of social media was another groundbreaking aspect of its data-driven strategy. Despite Facebook and Twitter being in their early days, the Obama campaign recognized their potential as tools not just for messaging but for voter engagement. By leveraging social media, the campaign was able to not just reach millions of voters with targeted messages, but to mobilize grassroots supporters and create a sense of community and active involvement among its base.
Moreover, the campaign’s innovation extended beyond social media. The Obama team used different apps by NGP “Voter Action Network” (VAN), which allowed volunteers to access real-time data on voters in their neighborhoods. NGP VAN’s tools enabled the campaign to deploy volunteers more effectively, ensuring that every door-knock and phone call was informed by the latest data.
The success of Obama’s data-driven strategy was evident in the election results, with the president winning not only the “swing states” he had to win but expanding his success to states like Indiana and Virginia (last time both of them voted for a Democrat was in 1964). The 2008 election marked a turning point in American politics, demonstrating the power of data and technology in modern campaigns.
Eight years later, Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign would build on the lessons of the Obama campaign, but with its own unique twists. While the Obama campaign was celebrated for its disciplined, data-driven approach, the Trump campaign – under the spirit of such an extraordinary candidate – was more unconventional and chaotic in it’s style. Yet, at its core, the Trump campaign’s success was also rooted in a sophisticated use of data that enabled targeted communication.
The Trump campaign’s data operation was spearheaded by Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm that specialized in social-media based profiling. By analyzing voters’ online behavior, Cambridge Analytica was able to create detailed profiles of millions of American voters – what they care about, what they fear from, and what they think about Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton – which the campaign used to create and deliver highly targeted messages. This approach allowed the Trump campaign to tailor its messages not just to different demographic groups across the swing states, but to individual voters within those states, based on their personality traits and emotional triggers.
Social media, particularly Facebook, played a central role in the Trump campaign’s voter outreach strategy. The campaign used Facebook’s ad platform to run thousands of micro-targeted ads, each designed to appeal to a specific audience, from immigration-sceptics in Florida to devoted Christians in Ohio.
These ads included both positive messages aimed at energizing Trump’s base as well as negative ads, utalizing Clinton’s perceived weaknesses to suppress turnout among her supporters. This was particularly true among white, rural, blue-collar voters in the midwest states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, all considered relatively-safe Democratic states (Clinton made only two visits to Michigan in the late stages of the campaign, and did’nt visit Wisconsin at all). The campaign’s ability to rapidly create, differentiate, test, and use on these ads, leveraging Clinton’s perception as an out-of-touch elitist who takes her voters for granted allowed Trump’s campaign to fine-tune its messaging in real-time, ensuring that each ad was as effective as possible.
While the 2016 election was marred by controversy, particularly regarding foreign interference and the role of fake news, there is no denying the effectiveness of the Trump campaign’s data and technology strategy. The campaign’s ability to use data to deliver tailored messages and mobilize voters was a key factor in its success, and it marked a new era in American political campaigns.
The mutual lesson from both the Obama and Trump campaign is simple: if you want to win an election, especially as an underdog and against a well established political rival, you need to galvanize all the digital assets you can, to make sure every message and every grassroot effort are tailor-made for your audience. Despite their different personal styles and political ideologies, both campaigns demonstrated the transformative power of these strategies in modern elections, enabling them to win against all odd.
