The Authenticity Election

This Tuesday is Super Tuesday in the US Presidential primary races. For anyone in our business almost regardless of your candidate preferences, you can't help but watch the strategies that each campaign takes with some professional interest. This year has been particularly enlightening. 

As we've listened to the pundits over the past couple of months, much of their analysis has pointed to the surprise that this election has become more and more about 'authenticity'. Both of the early front runners in 2007 that had all the advantages of name recognition and financial backing have seen their leads evaporate. One, Rudy Guiliani is already out of the race. Another, John McCain crashed and resurfaced. An unknown senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, has become a serious challenger to the nomination nearly everyone assumed Hillary Clinton owned. 

We see all of these shifts in relation to how tuned in the candidates and their campaigns are.

What has our eye most is the authenticity trend. When we got down to defining the sixth and final step of our Tuned In process, we quite naturally got into a good deal of debate over the right model for marketing an idea, a product or service. What we eventually settled on was 'Establishing Authentic Connections' as it best described the ability to create and communicate leading thoughts that motivate specific buyers to act becasue they are believable.  

The candidates who are moving are establishing authentic connections. We watch with an eye towards how well they speak to real problems, promote their thought leadership, speak directly and leverage the New Rules of Marketing. In this election, each of those techniques is having an impact. Tuned In candidates and campaigns are taking share every day. It hasn't been money that's changed the game, it's the connections through new mediums to new audiences. 

It will be interesting to watch how this plays out on Tuesday and beyond but if current trends continue, we may be watching a major landscape shift in how national elections are won.