Re-election of Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama has announced his intention to stand for the 2012 re-election bid. 

Barac Obama, re-election campaign

The campaign starts with a video that Mr Obama's team released on his official website and sent an e-mail to supporters announcing his plans. Mr Obama does not appear in the video, posted on YouTube and the campaign website. The supporters look back to the 2008 campaign and talk of their hopes for 2012. The individual voters talk about what they can do to help their man - ending in the slogan "it begins with us." The president has an online network of millions of Americans and his web campaign was widely seen as a key plank of his election success in 2008.

Mr Obama's re-election campaign is reportedly seeking to raise as much as $1bn (£620m), an increase on the $750m raised for the 2008 campaign.

It is a good time to remind us how his campaign looked back in 2008 and which PR activities helped him to be successful. 

 

There is four types of PR activities in regards to political communication: media management, image management, internal communication and information management. In Obama 2008 election two of them were playing the main role: media and image management. 

Barack Obama was particularly noted for his use of the Internet to gather supporters and make himself visible. He clearly lead in using technology to connect to his audience, as well as in the blogosphere as a whole. "The integration of technology into the process of field organizing … is the success of the Obama campaign," says Sanford Dickert, who worked as John Kerry’s chief technology officer for the 2004 campaign. Obama’s use of the Internet targeted 18 to 29 year olds, the age group most reliant on new media for political information about the election.  

Through forums and social websites such as MySpace and Facebook, Obama built relationships with his supporters. He developed an upfront, personable and face-to-face quality. It gave them a sense of security and trust. The Internet provided useful and effective tools, such as the Neighbor-to-Neighbor tool on (My.BarackObama.com), allowing them to reach a large number of people in a short time in their own community. 

When looking at the use of image in his campaign Mr Obama’s poster ‘hope’ became an iconic image. It portrayed Obama in solid red, white and blue. It was created and distributed widely. The image became the most recognized symbols of Obama's campaign message. The rest of the pictures that were appearing in press were designed to create a image of Obama being bright, concerned and made people feel they were looking at a future leader that on some occasions was stylized as a saint. 

Barack Obama, election campaign 2008

There is lot to say about his previous campaign and it was successful campaigning from many angles. It will be interesting to watch what his Public Relations team will come up with this time.