Uba Kontrovasie

Obama won because of hip-hop

I saw this interview live whilst I was eating my supper, other friends who also saw it said they cringed.

I’ve got all of Dizzees’ albums and I know for a fact he’s not stupid, some of his lyrics are quick witted and quite clever. Part of me thinks was he playing up to the camera?

Judging by the comments on youtube his views, combined with Jeremy Paxman selecting him for the interview did not go down too well with the public.

Did Obama win because of hip-hop? Er…No!

I do however think that rap superstars and I mean real rap superstars like Jay-Z and Puffy endorsing Obama definitely worked in his favour. Obamas’ political campaign was executed in a close to perfect manner, endorsements from key celebrities showed that he understood or at least was trying to understand youth culture and I believe this helped him secure a lot of crucial votes from younger 18-25 year old voters.

Who did McCain get backing from? Arnold “Hum-Vee” Schwarzenegger (I can’t believe I spelt that right the first time) and Sly Stallone, hmm…who do you think made the smart the move?

Either way if you were ever looking for a good example of word of mouth marketing try Jay-Z bigging up Barack Obama at a packed Glastonbury headline performance.

Tags: advocacy, McCain, Obama, US election 2008, WOM, youth culture

I see the little ones have grown up, Chai?

When I was a kid I used to get taken to asian fabric shops by my parents every other Saturday. As my parents were regular customers they used to have a bit of banter with the shop keepers who used to serve them complimentary chai and food.

You don’t exactly see this happening in John Lewis, but we may not be too far away from it now.

Brand owners are definitely trying to get closer to their clients as they’re understanding the benefits of WOM and client retention. WOM, Social Media and advanced CRM techniques seem to be at the top of every brief I see at the moment.

I believe we’re seeing this trend for a couple reasons, firstly the credit crunch! The cost of acquiring a new customer and educating them about your brand’s product offering is expensive in comparison to up-selling to existing customers.

Secondly brand owners are understanding the effectiveness of WOM coupled with good CRM. Good CRM = happy and loyal customers > happy and loyal customers tell their friends about good brands (the WOM bit) > friends end up buying from a brand they partially trust due to WOM recommendations.

Tags: CRM, eCRM, social media, WOM, WOMMA