Marketing advice to Jon Huntsman and his daughters

I admit I am a big geek when it comes to the long drawn out US presidential campaign season. I enjoy the marketing and PR aspects immensely.

Many people think the two-year campaign is too long. Not me. I love all the debates and speeches and talk show appearances and news coverage.

All marketers can learn from presidential campaign strategies. It plays out in real-time for you to watch live. What fun. Here was my post from 2008 created to show how we can learn from last cycle’s winner: Ten marketing lessons from the Barack Obama Presidential campaign.

(Note: This is a marketing blog, not a political blog. I am not talking up the merits of any candidates but rather using their marketing as examples for all to learn from.)

Jon Huntsman stays local

Last night I attended a Jon Huntsman town hall event in Peterborough, New Hampshire (about 60 miles from where I live near Boston). This was local campaigning at its best. A beautiful small town with the local hall decked out in patriotic colors (and with television trucks out front).

It was particularly interesting because last night was the Iowa Caucus and Huntsman's strategy has always been to focus on New Hampshire and not compete in Iowa. During the Q&A, when someone asked the candidate if he had a message to the winner of the Iowa Caucuses, Huntsman said, "It would be welcome to New Hampshire; nobody cares."

Huntsman's campaign is an excellent example of buyer persona marketing. He is focused on voters in New Hampshire who want to meet the candidate in person. He has also been using mainstream media in a big way, doing lots of interviews with New Hampshire mainstream press and scoring some key endorsements. He decided not to market to the Iowa buyer persona. And, significantly, he has chosen to downplay the buyer persona who wants to get to know candidates through social networks.

I did note that he is the first candidate I am aware of this season to talk about Grateful Dead Marketing, saying: “I’m going to travel around the country with a Grateful Dead type of caravan & talk about term limits.” Nice!

This was Huntsman's 150th event in New Hampshire. His strategy is to focus at the local level, town-by-town, to build support. He's not focused on social media. In fact he said last night in his talk that Twitter and Facebook is not important. Hmmm...

(He does have a seldom-used @JonHuntsman Twitter feed and the campaign has built him a Jon Huntsman Facebook page. There is a blog too but it is written by “Team Huntsman” and not updated that often).

I had wanted to ask him about social media, but despite emailing the Huntsman for President media office and talking to his media people at the event, I didn't get a chance. However, several television stations scored interviews. Clearly, mainstream media is more important than social media for the campaign staffers. To be fair, I was told if I came to another event they would try to fit me in, however I said because I was coming from Boston, that wouldn't be likely.

Huntsman daughters as social media proxies

Despite dissing Twitter and Facebook, last night Huntsman made a big deal out of introducing his daughters who were in the balcony by talking up their Jon2012girls YouTube channel. He told the audience to check out the videos so I did. There are only two. This one Jon2012girls Smokin' Ad is kinda funny if you've seen the original Now is the time for action! This Jon2012girls video has generated 350,000 views, numbers which prove social media has value.

The girls are on Twitter too with a feed called "Huntsman Daughters" at @Jon2012girls with 19,000 followers.

Advice to Jon Huntsman: Don't dismiss social media in one part of your stump speech and then talk up your daughter's social media in another part of the speech. You don't have to like Twitter and Facebook yourself to benefit from its use. Social media was an important part of Obama for America campaign success so it does work to get someone elected president.

Advice to Huntsman for President media staff: Return emails from bloggers seeking an interview. It is okay to say "no". It is not okay to ignore. And you might check out who is contacting you and if the person has nearly 8 times the number of Twitter followers as your @Jon2012HQ feed, you just might want to connect.

Advice to Huntsman Daughters: There’s huge potential here for you to take on social media campaigning in a big way. Do a bunch of interviews and mini-documentaries from the campaign trail and post them onto the YouTube channel. Give us an inside look at what's going on behind the scenes of the campaign by using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other networks. Give us passion. Give us personality. Show us why your Dad should be president. Be the campaign’s face to the young and social media savvy people who will help him and vote for him.

Town Hall photos shot with my iPhone 4S and tweaked with Instagram.
Huntsman Girls is their Twitter profile pic.

Comments

[T60Productions]

Hi David... solid advice... especially on using YouTube. I actually like Huntsman's strategy a lot for politicians and businesses.

If a candidate or CEO isn't interested in social media, they should pretend that they are. Turn it over to someone close to you who will enjoy communicating that way.

--Tony Gnau

[Pamela Atherton]

This is a GREAT post with really savvy advice! I love the idea of getting the girls to handle the social media portion of the campaign. It could bring in younger voters and give us a better feel for who he is.

I hope you continue with your assessments of political marketing. It's something we can all watch and learn from as it plays out.

[Elaine_Fogel]

Absolutely love this... "And you might check out who is contacting you and if the person has nearly 8 times the number of Twitter followers as your @Jon2012HQ feed, you just might want to connect." LOL

[David Meerman Scott]

T60Productions - Indeed. Nothing says that a candidate himself or herself (or CEO) needs to be active. But they shouldn't dismiss it if they are not.

Pamela - I'm going to try. It is such an awesome example that we can all learn from (especially me)!

Elaine - Sound advice for everyone, right?! thanks.

[Grant Crowell]

I've been following the U.S. Presidential candidates "social" video activities. Aside from Paul, they really treat it with a traditional midset that's out of touch with social media and networking values of today. They may turn off all commenting features (including likes/dislikes), and they don't do person-to-person engagement with their audience. The only exceptions are when they are guests on other shows, but they would have so much more effectiveness of maintaining their own channel this way.

[David Meerman Scott]

Grant - you're right. Few campaigns come at it from the social mindset.

[MichaelKolowich]

Though he'd probably be horrified to learn this, Huntsman's idea is an evolution of an idea implemented quite actively in the 2008 Mitt Romney campaign -- the "Five Brothers Blog", which was put out by his five sons. And as you suggest, "Five Brothers" was full of insider color (if not scoop), and in fact was written by the brothers themselves, not a campaign staffer.

The difference in this opportunity, though, is the range of media available to them (not to mention that the Huntsman daughters look a whole lot better on camera). Last campaign cycle, Twitter and Facebook were in their relative infancy as campaign communications tools, and YouTube was mostly used for official purposes; what a difference four years makes!

[Bob Zagami]

Huntsman is his own worst enemy when it comes to interviews and debates. He would be well served geetting a net savvy guru and turning his daughters into a dynamite social media phenonomnon. I saw them on Jay Leno one night and they were terrific spokeswomen for their father. Hope they listen to you.

[Daniel Milstein]

That is so true, David. Declining interviews is quite okay but not replying and simply ignoring the request is kind of unpleasant. I think the key here is to communicate. One thing I learned before I became a bestselling author and long before Inc Magazine voted my company as one of the fastest growing companies is it is very important to focus on personal interactions and relationship building but if done wrong, these things can sure do a lot of damage.

[Alison Guerriere]

I hope Huntsman wises up and hires good people like you in the next go around.

[Alison Guerriere]

The above comment was meant for David but there are plenty of smart people here on this message board whom Huntsman would benefit as well.

[sudha]

a great post about marketing tips for Huntsman and his daughters

[Ron Carter]

Great advice David. John Huntsman's one state strategy could be dead in the water after the New Hamshire Primary. He needs social media to keep his campaign movng forward.

[Jack]

Jon Huntsman's Illuminati Ways!

[SEO Optimization Company]

And as you suggest, "Five Brothers" was full of insider color (if not scoop), and in fact was written by the brothers themselves, Last campaign cycle, Twitter and Facebook were in their relative infancy as campaign communications tools, and YouTube was mostly used for official purposes

[Philadelphia SEO Company]

How can anyone seriously dismiss social media platforms these days?! I mean, marketers and companies spend millions of dollars promoting ads on Facebook, Linkedin etc', social medias allow you to reach your targeted audience and promote yourself on relevant pages for people who're truly looking for your service.

[vipdestiny.com]

I'm looking for a name for a new marketing consultancy - Any ideas?