What lessons can businesses learn from the unexpected emergence of Amy Klobuchar in the New Hampshire Primary?
Anyone with even a passing interest in politics has no doubt been keeping an eye on the USA Presidential race.
The amount of information, or narratives, available for pundits to digest is overwhelming. And who knows how objective and independent any of the information that is transmitted really is.
For example, the other day during the New Hampshire Primary I tuned into CNN and was amazed by the nine-person panel they had on screen to ‘analyse’ the results as they came in. And, funnily enough, all were left-leaning commentators or Democrat strategists.
So, for a bit of fun, I switched to Fox News and it was like I’d gone through the Looking Glass. Analysing the Democratic Primary results was the Head of Donald Trump’s New Hampshire campaign and Donald Trump’s former Press Secretary.
I won’t award any bonus points for guessing what messages were emanating from either panel.
Seizing the moment
The interesting thing, from a communications perspective, has been the way moderate challenger Amy Klobuchar has promoted her campaign from “who is that?” to “oh, I know about her” status.
From afar, the best move I’ve spotted was what happened a week earlier during the Iowa caucus. For those of you who aren’t following, the whole counting process at this rather cumbersome event was an absolute stuff-up. It was over 48 hours after the ‘polls’ had closed before any kind of results were officially released. In fact, it was so bad that the Head of the Democratic Party in Iowa has been forced to resign.
So, on the night, the so-called front runners (Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttegieg, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren) were all keeping their powder dry waiting to see if they could reasonably go out and claim victory.
However, with no actual results to publish all the media coverage was effectively standing still. They had nothing to talk about for a few hours
Enter the challenger.
Enter Amy Klobuchar. With nobody saying anything, Klobuchar decided to steal the moment. While the remaining candidates were figuring out if they could justifiably claim any kind of victory, Klobuchar threw caution to the wind and went out to speak to her supporters about… anything.
gone from zero to hero
The result? Every single network covered her entire address in full. Every network! Compare this to when Mayor Pete, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie got on stage, they were speaking somewhat at the same time, so networks had to pick and choose pieces of their speeches.
Not Klobuchar though. She had the vacant airwaves to herself and she made the most of it.
The peril was obvious – with nothing to talk about, what could you say? But the power was obvious too. With no one else saying anything, she could do all the talking.
She then went on to perform well at the next debate and, before you could say “healthcare for all”, she’d claimed double the votes of Elizabeth Warren in New Hampshire.
The lesson for business is obvious – what are your competitors saying? And, if they’re not saying anything, how can you step into the vacuum, raise your head above the crowd, and get people to notice you?
“What different perspective can you articulate to show that your company has its own brand and standing?”
What topics could you make your own in the media where your foes dare not tread? What different perspective can you articulate to show that your company has its own brand and standing?
Because if you sit back, you’ll probably be struggling to cut through like Joe Biden.
But if you show some courage, maybe your brand could change from obscure to a challenger – simply by seizing the moment to say something.
