The former First Lady of America knew that a simple nod and a wink was all it would take to launch her presidential bid.
The wink came in the shape of an understated video, where Hillary Clinton appears in an almost cameo role well over halfway through, while the nod was a simple tweet stating: “I'm running for President. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.”
Neil Laurence, CEO of Laurence Creative, the company which ran the campaign for Kevin Rudd in 2007, said that it was expected that Clinton would make the announcement with nothing more than a tweet. “It's all she needed to do,” he said. “There was already a massive fuse. She just needed to light the match.”
The video positions Clinton as someone who is first and foremost concerned with the lives of working Americans and predominantly features a host of everyday people explaining their hopes and dreams for the coming year.
The clear decision to make this campaign less about Clinton as an individual and her personality and more about people and policy could be a part of a wider strategy.
Former Green Party communications co-ordinator Julie Macken, who ran the campaign for the recent NSW elections, says that the video, and the understated strategy behind it, will most likely be in keeping with a desire by the Democrats to drive a bid based solely on policy. “I feel quite optimistic that Hillary will make this about intellectual policy choices and not about her own personality,” she said.
Macken notes that the recent NSW elections were highly unusual in that they, too, focused on policy issues, rather than a popularity contest between the party leaders, as had been the case “for decades”.
Speculation suggests that the rise of online and social media has opened up the political advertising game to focusing more on policy issues, rather than scrapping over which candidates are seen as most popular.
Reports in the US suggest that the Clinton bid will start small, but is likely to build up to an effort which costs more than any other presidential bid waged before. Clinton and her team are looking to raise as much as US$2.5bn in a blitz of donations.
By way of a comparison, the Commonwealth Government in Australia is thought to have spent a total $170.2m on advertising and media last year.
Email Nicola at nicolariches@yaffa.com.au.