The Online Marketing Secrets of the Obama Presidential Campaign

Jascha Franklin-Hodge, CEO of Blue State Digital, gave an interesting presentation at the IAB Canada winter conference about the online tactics the Obama campaign used in their fund raising/canvassing/propaganda campaign (see copy of presentation above).

One point that was not emphasized in the presentation was that the online component of the Obama online campaign was planned/managed by Chris Hughes, better known as Mark Zuckerman's college roommate, a.k.a. the co-founder of facebook.

The Wall Street Journal did an interesting article on Hughes participation in the campaign back in 2007:

"After graduating from college a year ago, Mr. Hughes moved to Palo Alto to work on product development full time at Facebook. During the 2006 campaign, Mr. Obama wasn't running yet, but his staff decided to take advantage of the growing interest in him among young people and wanted to set up a profile for him on Facebook. Mr. Obama's Senate Internet director, Jim Brayton, emailed Facebook's support team for help and Mr. Hughes responded.

Mr. Hughes quickly helped the Obama camp set up an official profile on Facebook. It included photos of Mr. Obama, information about his favorite musicians (John Coltrane, Stevie Wonder) and movies ("The Godfather" I and II, "Casablanca") -- and almost immediately drew messages of support from other Facebook users. "Run for president! Save us!" wrote Alex Sheperd, a University of Missouri student, in the first message on Mr. Obama's page.

Four months later, Mr. Obama announced his candidacy. Mr. Hughes, who had stayed in touch with Mr. Brayton, called to see how he could help.

Mr. Hughes was hired after an interview over coffee at Washington D.C.'s Union Station. "I asked him about some of his ideas," for the Web site, Mr. Brayton says. "He basically went on for an hour." Mr. Hughes won't disclose his salary. He has taken a leave from closely-held Facebook but says he retains an ownership stake and stock options."

From the tone of this article it appears as though Blue State Digital acted as production house under the direction of Chris Hughes, rather than as the strategists behind the campaign. Either way, way to go Chris & Blue State Digital on probably the best executed political campaign to date.

Chris Hughes will also be on the cover of Fast Company magazine next month (April 2009).