What can AOC’s success teach us about the power of marketing?
Marketing best practices can be applied to an electoral campaign with incredible results!
Regardless of the goods or services that you are marketing, it is important to consider your audience, your message, and the best channels to deliver that message. If we think of an electoral campaign as a marketing effort to sell a candidate to voters; we will quickly realize that marketing best practices can be applied to an electoral campaign too.
Setting aside your personal political affiliation, the success of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) should provide ample proof that even with burdensome financial limitations, great marketing can produce incredible results.
In what was widely seen as the biggest upset victory in the 2018 midterm election primaries, AOC defeated Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent. She won despite being outspent by a margin of 18 to 1 and is currently the youngest woman to ever serve in the United States Congress.*
Example 01: The brochure
In the documentary Knock Down the House, AOC examines her opponent’s campaign brochure and offers a succinct comparison to her own.
AOC wants you to know her name and when the primary election is being held.
She concisely lists her commitments to the voters in an effort to explain why they should vote for her.
Crowley does not prominently feature the date of the primary on the exterior or the interior of the brochure.
The incumbent’s brochure also lauds his values and promises that he will work to oppose President Trump.
“There is nothing about the path forward here. Trump [is mentioned] three times. Commitments, zero times.”
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
AOC’s brochure features Spanish text in addition to English text to accommodate the diverse population of New York’s 14th Congressional district.
Crowley’s brochure text is written in English only and according to AOC, uses insider language that may not be clear to (or in the best interest of) the average voter.
Example 02: Social Media presence
In 2008, the New York Times said that Barack Obama’s campaign transformed politics with the internet. In the decade that has followed Obama’s well-known campaign, no candidate has leveraged the internet in the ways that AOC has.
Despite their financial limitations, the AOC campaign recognized that social media was a cost-effective channel that could be used to communicate with their target audience.
“You can’t really beat big money with more money. You have to beat them with a totally different game.”
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Today, most politicians realize that they should have a social media presence — Unlike AOC, most politicians still don’t know how to do so effectively. The differences between AOCs social media following and Crowley’s is quite obvious.**
- Twitter: AOC: 379K fans, 4.3K posts; Crowley: 3.6K fans, 1.1K posts
- Facebook: AOC: 88.5K fans; Crowley: 15K fans
- Instagram: AOC: 127K followers; Crowley: 1.4K followers
There is so much that can be said about AOC’s social media success, but the tweets below offer a quick comparison of the candidate’s disparate approaches to social content.
Crowley’s Twitter content was scarce ( ≈1,100 posts) and sounded inauthentic.
AOC’s Twitter account shared content frequently ( ≈4,300 posts) and almost anyways focuses on “we” rather than “me”.**
Following her victory, AOC has continued to effectively wield the power of social media. In July 2019, news articles about AOC received at least four times as many interactions as those about any Democratic presidential candidate.*
Bad marketing has a cost
Too often, marketing can be considered nonessential and best practices carelessly dismissed.
At times, the return on investment for marketing efforts can seem ambiguous. In this case, it seems apparent that Joe Crowley’s campaign didn’t have an emphasis on marketing and it played a role in their loss.
In the documentary Knock Down the House, we are introduced to three other female “upstart” candidates. None of the women are career politicians and they are running for office in their respective states. Of the group, AOC was the only one to be successfully elected. As always, there are a number of factors to consider, but one thing is clear — AOC had the most robust and compelling marketing effort.
