Branding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – Obama Says Give it a Logo

Barack Obama could have had a great career in marketing and branding.  There is no doubt he knows how to craft a brand strategy.  Take a look at his latest branding initiative – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  Earlier this month, President Obama announced that all projects funded by the recovery program would carry the official ARRA Seal – a new logo created just for the ocassion.  Check it out below:

Not very inspiring, huh?

This week, USA Today published three other logo options provided by (and including commentary by), two corporate identity experts, Alan Siegel of Siegel & Gale (if you read KeySplash Creative Conversations on a regular basis, then you know I’m a big fan, read my interview with Alan here) and designer DJ Stout from Pentagram.  Here are the options provided by the experts:

Alan Siegel: Wings of a nation
“The wing implies freedom and energy, the ability to rise above.  It is derived from our powerful unifying national symbols, the flag and the bald eagle. The wing is intertwined with the flag, reinforcing both a sense of home and a national vision. The result is an extremely dynamic symbol that speaks to the power of a positive outlook and the ability to see the road ahead.”

Alan Siegel: Shining city on a hill
According to USA Today, “The symbol is inspired, says Siegel, by a 1630 discourse by Gov. John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay colony. It was a favorite of President Reagan, who quoted it often in his career. He used it last in his 1989 farewell address to the nation: ‘For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.’”

DJ Stout: Just the Web address
“The most important part of the identity that they have now is the Web address. In (the logo’s) current form, it is getting lost and actually looks like an afterthought.  Our solution gets rid of the old-fashioned and overused icons of leafy plants and outdated machinery cogs and gets to the modern heart of the message. The Obama administration wants you to go to the website to find out about the recovery effort. That is, if you even give a hoot.”

What do you think?  Will an official seal/logo help?  What would you include in the logo?

Will You Watch Barack Obama’s Inauguration? Take the Poll

It’s an exciting time for Americans as the first African American prepares for his inauguration as United States President tomorrow.  Many Americans have bought into Obama’s brand promise of change.  We’ll have to wait and see if he can deliver.  Let’s hope so.

Six Degrees to Barack Obama – Time Magazine Person of the Year 2008

It’s certainly not a surprise that Time Magazine chose Barack Obama for its 2008 Person of the Year title.  What is unique about this year’s announcement is the interactive web page that Time created showing how every other Time Magazine Person of the Year ever named can be connected to Barack Obama in 6-degrees or less (just like the classic game, 6 degrees to Kevin Bacon).

The web page adds a fun, interactive element to the annual person of the year announcement, and I have to give Time props for putting it together.  You can follow the link to view the interactive 6 degrees to Barack Obama page.  Once you get to the page, hit the Enter button to enter the site, and then select the Skip Intro link if you want to skip the introduction and go directly to the interactive 6 degrees to Barack Obama page.

What do you think?  Clever and cool, huh?

Image: Time

Barack Obama Launches Weekly Presidential Address on YouTube

Even the office of the President of the United States is jumping onboard the social web bandwagon with the launch of President-elect Barack Obama’s weekly radio address now on YouTube.  Now, this is cool!

Did the November 15th Obama YouTube video launch contain any amazing messages or concepts?  No.  It’s nothing we haven’t already heard, but the point is that the social web is where it’s at.  Companies and brands that don’t get on board soon, will feel the negative results sooner rather than later.

Your thoughts?

And in case you want to take a look at Barak Obama’s first weekly YouTube address as President-elect, you can watch it below.

Branding Lessons from the 2008 Presidential Election

The 2008 Presidential Election has finally ended, and the results provide a valuable lesson in branding.  In simplest terms, people are changing – quickly.  The social web has certainly played a part in making that change move so fast.  Never before has the exchange of information and ideas been easier or faster.  With the power of the social web and the word-of-mouth marketing it fosters, people have chosen a brand promise of “inclusion” over one of “exclusion”. 

In other words, President-elect Barack Obama ran a campaign based on an inclusive brand promise, while Senator John McCain’s campaign focused primarily on his core supporters, conservative Americans, with many people outside of that demographic feeling excluded.  While Barack Obama spoke of wanting to meet with world leaders regardless of the United States’ current relationship with them in order to start a dialogue and move forward, John McCain repeatedly stated that he would not sit down and converse with these same leaders.  At the end of the day, the majority of Americans supported the brand promise of inclusion and cast their votes for Barack Obama. [Read more]