Obama’s Goal: Getting Out the Youth Vote
January 21, 2008 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
Let’s take this as a given: it’s easier to get people under 30 interested in politics than it is to keep them committed through a lengthy campaign.
Does that mean young people are fickle? Do they not always act on their principles? Are they easily distracted?
Well, yes. But so are we all.
Miki Saxon questions whether youth have follow through. It comes down to finding a way to convince young people that if they don’t have a candidate they strongly favor, they can still make a difference by voting against someone.
I’m not sure that’s a message that will keep that group engaged right up to election day.
All the research on Gen Y, and all the Gens that follow shows that they are deeply interested in public issues. They are able to maintain focus when they can clearly see a role they can play in their community (local and global).
They identify strongly with brands, but are cynical about any attributes someone tries to overtly attach to a brand. They recognize the irony in most advertising. They recognize the irony in most speech-making. They recognize the irony in most news reporting.
Did I mention they see irony in everything around them?
So, if you’re Barack Obama and you want to ride a wave of youth support, you need to achieve these seven tasks:
- Do not deliver key messages. Instead, talk.
- Do not assume you have someone’s loyalty when all they have given you is their attention.
- Do not promise one thing and deliver another.
- Be flawed, but authentic.
- Be optimistic, but not naive.
- Explain the compromises that will have to be made, but show how your vision is worth following anyway.
- Find a way to keep young people engaged in your fights against the same old politics played by the same old players.
If Mr. O can pull off these seven things, he has a chance of carrying his youth support through the interminable, over-analyzed presidential campaign.
Photo via iStockPhoto by Micah Weber. (Text and posterization added.)
Tags: barack obama, 2008 campaign, presidential election, primaries, youth, under 30, vote, irony, presidential race, miki saxon
We live in a college town in NH and saw many young people registering to vote on primary day. (In NH they can register to vote the same day as the election.) We’ve always seen many young people voting at the national and state elections, but not so much in the local elections.
Hi Eric
Great list – for any politician trying to capture anyone’s vote, not just the youth vote.
We are tired of being “talked at” and want to be “conversed with”.
Based on my experience in business working with this younger generation, they fully expect to be listened to and taken seriously. Many have been raised independently as latch-key kids with a lot of autonomy. They have learned to trust themselves and to become self-reliant.
They want a vision and a plan they can believe in…..then again, don’t we all?
Liz
I’m reminded of President Clinton in his campaign for the White House. I’m pretty sure he did all seven of those things by going after the then-Gen X vote. He appealed to the MTV crowd (back when they still played videos) while President Bush never gave them a second thought. Bush came of as the stuffy old curmudgeon as Clinton was answering “boxers or briefs.” If that’s not talking I don’t know what is.
Voting against might not kep them engaged, but if they’d voted against they could have changed the results.