What Marketers Can Learn From Obama's Campaign

"Better" never works in marketing. The only thing that works in marketing is "different." When you're different, you can pre-empt the concept in consumers' minds so your competitors can never take it away from you.

Ad Age

Stand by Your Brand: How Cohesive Design Turned Obama Into America’s Leading Man

But the “O” logo is only one element of the two-part Obama campaign. Utilizing the san serif Gotham font, his typeface creates a look that is both formal and friendly, the perfect hallmark of an ideal Presidential candidate. Paired together with its “O” partner, and the Obama brand created a dynamic duo. The symbol occupies the recognizable “hero” role, while the font literally reinforces the brand name. No piece of marketing collateral ever escapes a healthy dosing of logo treatment in a political campaign, but Team Obama has transitioned his sleek modernist look into an iconic symbol so seamlessly it borders on graceful.

dvisible magazine
h/t Steve L.

Font of Youth: How is Obama Like Target?

Like Aeron chairs or Eames furniture, Helvetica and its ilk have enjoyed a revival in the 21st century, and—like so much in campaigns—the use of the font sends multiple messages. First, given how small-c conservative most campaign design is (something like this could have been a campaign design for any candidate in the last four decades), the font and the all-around look communicates modernity—it reinforces the "change" branding. If you think of a Presidential candidate as a brand—and their campaigns do—it's young... but not too young. It also communicates a level of familiarity and safety, because you've seen if pretty much everywhere in commercial culture. (John McCain's website, befitting a conservative and old-school candidate, has a more traditional design and mix of serif and sans-serif fonts.)

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