Ogilvy & Mather Digital Chief : Trump Up Success the Donald Way

Hillary Clinton forked out a total of $450 million throughout the presidential campaign in 2016. Donald Trump? A relatively modest $239 million, And if not for Twitter, Trump wouldn’t have won the White House.

The man himself had admitted to it.

"I doubt I would be here if weren't for social media, to be honest with you,” he told Fox Business Network in October 2017.

This was the example which Ogilvy and Mather Malaysia, Head of Digital and Social James Gaubert narrowed in on Donald Trump’s successful media campaign.

Speaking exclusively at Comma 2017, Gaubert explained that while his often odd-hour Tweets have been criticized as "unpresidential", divisive and even dangerous, the man could certainly teach us a thing or two about nailing a marketing campaign.

This was done simply by harnessing the power of social media and turning himself into a brand that wins.

“He has spread himself across the social media channel better than any other presidential candidate has ever done,” said Gaubert.

He was stressing how important branding and spreading the message is when selling something or someone. As the first thing Americans do when they wake up is to look at their social feeds, Trump worked on feeding that and he won.

On top of that, although the media was seen as his proverbial enemy, it was also the media that picked up on his tweets and then spread the message further, giving him a bigger win.

Gaubert says that advertising the brand and making that brand stick in one’s head is what works best.

'The first thing Trump did is to leverage on his brand, which he already had thanks to his television show, The Apprentice' - Gaubert

Trump’s Wee Hour Twitter Rant

“The first thing Americans do when they wake up is look at their feed. And the first thing they see is Donald Trump.’

“He nailed it. He is Tweeting at the right time”.

Trump’s Controversial Tweets

“Why does he do that? Because the media picks it up and spread the message for him.”

Trump’s Appeal to his Audience

“He was real, he was raw. He used Instagram stories and Facebook Live. People felt there were able to connect with him in real time. Consumers felt that he was on their side.”

Social media not only allowed Trump to bypass what he claimed as bias media coverage, it also allowed him a tremendous platform to speak directly to his then 41-million followers on Twitter.