Memorandum

To: Candidate Smith (Presidential candidate) and Smith Campaign

From: Yingying Cao (Campaign consultant)
Date: June 19, 2015
Re: Presidential campaign recommendations

This memo involves several key elements that will help Candidate Smith enhance
his presidential campaign and bring about a successful victory when the 2016 Presidential
election comes along. The following sections are based on the research that I did on the
2012 Presidential Election. By comparing the Obama and Romney media campaigns, and
analyzing the demographics/political structure of two of the swing states, Nevada and
Florida, I uncovered the successful tools that Obama campaign used to win the 2012
Presidential election and composed this memo to get you that extra edge in the election.

The statistics of the swing state, Nevada and Florida

Since a presidential candidate must get over half of the Electoral College votes in
order to win, which is 270 votes, swings states play an important role when it comes to
the presidential election; they determine who the President of the United States is. Unlike
non-swing states, swings states do not reliably vote for certain parties, thus both of the
candidates have a chance to win supports from these states. For the research that I did on
both of these states, I put my main focus on the income, education, ethnicity/race, age
and gender. Since Floridas median household income is lower than Floridas and the
percentage below poverty level is higher, I strongly encourage the Smith campaign to
give out plans that will improve peoples lives by helping them get out of poverty. As for
the voting population, in both of Nevada and Florida, the people from the ages of 45 to
64 has the highest amount, then the people from ages 25 to 34. In order to win the
supports from these two swing states, Smith campaign should also set out certain plans
that will benefit these people. There is a high population of students attending secondary
and post-secondary schools in Florida, and since Florida has a higher poverty rate, Smith
campaign should also focus on the plans that will improve the educational system in
Florida and provide helps for the students who can barely afford schools. When
Candidate Smith campaign in these states, he will most likely to gain supports if hes
going to talk about the issues that these states are facing and give out plans that will most
likely to help them solve the problems.

Social media campaigning tactics

The 2012 presidential campaigns majorly took place on social media. Obamas
victory showed the importance of digital campaigning and how the effective use of social
media played an essential role in presidential campaign. He wisely used the digital tools
such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Website Blog to interact directly with voters and

frequently engaged in these tools while comparing to Romney. The research that I did
showed that the Obama campaign published 614 posts while Romney only published
only 168 posts during the two weeks examined. However, both of Obama and Romney
used social network as more like a digital tool to deliver their political message out.
Citizen voters voices count; they cannot be ignored. If Candidate Smith can recognize
the significance of their voices, pay attention to them, and show that he cares, he will
more likely to gain the supports from people online and attract people to vote for him.
Since about 13% of Obamas votes were from younger voters, Smith campaign can also
make the online interaction more fun engaging and publish posts concerns about younger
people.

2012 presidential campaign video analysis

Another key factor in winning this upcoming election are your campaign videos
that are going to be presented all across the United States. Both Mitt Romney and
President Barack Obama used this tool to gain mass votes all throughout America.
Although they both used these videos as part of the campaigning tool, there are clear
differences between the Romney campaign and Obama campaign. One of the main
reasons President Obama is what he is today, is because of him and his campaign teams
outstanding, and impressive way to make a short clip appeal to the citizens of the United
States and motivate them to go out and vote for him. The difference between the focus of
the two are hardly noticeable at first glance, but makes a drastic impact in the overall
outcome of the votes. Before we look at what Obama campaign teams did to accomplish
the winning of the 2012 election, let's first focus on the way the Republican Party and
Mitt Romney chose to create their visualization. In both of his campaign videos, Mitt
Romney chose the route to appeal to the American people by showing clips of the
American flag and children. By showing us this, it creates a picture in our mind of how
we got to do the right thing for our children, our future, or else we as a nation will
decline. Another aspect he uses to improve the video, is the music he chooses to play.
For both, he uses a slow, inspirational sounding instrumental to create a sense of a we
can do this mentality. After analyzing the videos made for Mitt Romney's campaign,
there have been some flaws in it compared to his opponent Obama.
Now to examine the winning candidate, Mr. President Obama. How he portrays
himself to the American people through his advertisements is very similar to Mitt
Romney, but it still has that slight difference that gave him the edge over Romney in the
final decision. In his Final Rally: "Finish What We Started" - Des Moines, Iowa video he
uses several elements to make it a successful campaign video. The first being the music.
The background music is well edited growing louder and louder as Obama is presenting
his speech, changing his tone giving you goose bumps. Doing this gives the people a
feeling of wanting to hear more of what he has to say. This is a very good technique they
used that I strongly encourage you to use for your own campaign. Obama also shows
him throughout the video connecting with the American people showing him shaking
hands, and hugging them, showing that he is like any other American in this country.
This is very important because you need to show that you understand the struggle of the
majority of the people in the United States. I cant emphasize this enough to use in your

campaign. You need something to show that you can connect to the people and that you
arent separated or against them, but with them trying to make this a better place for
everyone to live in. For the last and final video created for Obamas campaign was The
Final Push: Its On Us. Here he uses the same dramatic music that makes you crave for
what he has to say. In this video he emphasizes the bond between us and him. In order to
create the best America has to offer, he needs us to vote for him to carry out his final
promises. The tone of his voice has desperation in it showing his need for us, but also
has a tone of leadership along to go with it. If you use these techniques I have provided
you with here, I can guarantee a victory in your near future, Mr. Smith.