Yes, she can: brand lessons from the Democratic National Convention
Messages of hope and change reverberated through America’s Democratic National Convention. The result: Kamala Harris’s presidential bid is riding high, closing the gap with Trump in the polls, and adding $82 million to the campaign coffers in just four days.
It’s been an unexpected late summer masterclass in brand-building, showing the power of highly memorable, emotive marketing techniques. And while not many advertising budgets stretch to celebrity endorsements from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, the Obamas, Stevie Wonder, Octavia Spencer, Mark Hamill and Spike Lee, not to mention a 200-strong army of influencers, there are plenty of ideas marketers can steal.
Key lessons for brands:
Captivating copywriting and striking visuals used by the Dems show how the core fundamentals of advertising remain essential in brand-building in the digital-first era. The overall rhetoric delivered in the United Center in Chicago was positive and forward-thinking, the brand narrative was lucidly clear, and speakers and performers echoed the sentiments of Harris’s campaign slogan, ‘A New Way Forward’, throughout their oratory, never deviating from the core message. The Democrats used clever slogans to take down their competitors. An especially strong move was rebranding Donald Trump as ‘weird’ – a word that diminishes his importance, in contrast with the idea of him being ‘dangerous’. Whatever your politics, Harris/Walz are succeeding in de-positioning the competition to make it appear less confident and less compelling.
The convention showed that music, too, is a highly impactful tool that can unite an audience around a brand. Music drives emotional response, while lyrics can help to tell a clear story. The Democrats’ use of Beyonce's ‘Freedom’ is inspired. It's a rallying cry, it's got swagger, but it makes you want to get up and do something. It energises. And they are using it consistently – as walk-on music but also as the soundtrack to their advertising.
Harvard Business Review research has shown that emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers, and Harris, along with running mate Tim Walz, certainly tapped into the power of emotion. One of the biggest cheers came when Walz was talking about his time as governor of Minnesota. “We made sure every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day,” he said. “So, while other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours.”. Another lesson is the use of precise language to deposition the competitor.
With the digital era’s fragmented audiences, it can be tempting to forget the idea that core brand values and messaging matter. The consistency of Harris’s core brand narrative, which ran through every element of the convention right through to the official merch, is a salient reminder of the power of staying on message.Seeding rumours and engaging in stunts to build buzz is a powerful brand-building technique. Widespread rumours of a Beyoncé performance spread across social media before the event. Ultimately Queen Bey was a no-show, but in a way it didn’t matter – the Democrats had built excitement anyway and engaged media platforms to raise their profile and cultural kudos.
Diversity matters, for any brand or agency that wants to reach broad audiences and connect with people across the country. Together, Harris and Walz embody different qualities, appealing to broad swathes of society, and by engaging diverse celebrities, the convention widened its appeal to be inclusive, vibrant, creative, and joyful.
As Harris concluded in her speech that tied together the messaging from the entire four days, she was guided ‘by optimism’. And she finished with an unbelievably great line: ‘My entire career, I have only had one client – the people.’ A strong rallying cry needs the right balance of jeopardy and hope. In my entirely unscientific opinion, the right balance is two parts hope, one part jeopardy – and Harris/Walz are nailing that balance.
The Dems are flexing their marketing savvy to great effect. Whether it's enough to win, who knows – there’s still a long way to go. But the way they have clawed back their deficit in the polls is an extraordinarily impressive feat in communication.
Xavier Rees is AMV Group CEO