In branding, slogans, mission statements, catchphrases and other critical components of marketing, messaging and memorability, nothing gets you as much respect (even from your detractors) and memorability as a witty rejoinder. In the recent Obama-Romney Presidential (yawn) debate, after Governor Romney remarked about how the U.S. Naval Fleet is at the smallest level that it's been since 1916, The President, without a moment's hesitation, dropped one of history's best one-liners...one of the snappiest rejoinders ever in an otherwise unsurprising exercise in political platform recycling. Ever reader of The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog should have jumped up off the couch (like Tom Cruise on Oprah) and said, "Douglas E Castle must have loved this!"
This is an aspect of humor applied to marketing (President Obama's making himself stand out) that can be used by anyone to boost his or her personal, professional or corporate brand.
Here's how it played out:
Monday night's final presidential
debate didn't break any social-media records—but it did provide what
many on Twitter felt was a delightfully ridiculous moment, and one worth retweeting and commenting about.
Total Twitter activity around the debate was the lowest of the three presidential debates, with 6.5 million tweets over the course of 90 minutes.
(The first debate saw 10.3 million tweets, while the second saw 7.2
million.)
The most tweeted moment was President Barack Obama's retort to
Romney's attack about the decreasing size of the U.S. military: "We
also have fewer horses and bayonets," Obama said. [As an aside, this was worded so neatly and hilariously that it was an instant meme and a viral sensation]
The campaigns were paying
attention: After the debate, the Romney campaign purchased the promoted
tweet for the hashtag #horsesandbayonets while the Obama campaign
purchased the promoted tweet around searches for "bayonets."
And why create a new meme when you can recycle the old? One of last week's joke debate accounts, @romneybinders, changed its handle to @horsesbayonette, thus preserving its existing follower count and staying on trend.
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It doesn't matter whom you'd prefer to be the next president of the U.S., Obama had a Mad Marketing Tactics Blog "Branding Moment".
Here's a YouTube version of the video. Click on either the hyperlink or on the YouTube video player, which is sometimes shy about appearing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK3ORgw-h_4
And for those of you who need more visual stimulation to call your attention to this Mad Marketing Tactics Marketing Alert, here it is then for admiring and for re-pinning on Pinterest:
#MadMarketing
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