Agenda Setting

In Sunday’s New York Times, there is a great article on President Obama’s “political narrative.” While the NYT and others applaud Obama for his dynamism and unique abilities as storyteller, they question his ability to tell so many at one time – that his legislative priorities are spread too broadly. Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal said, “An administration about everything is an administration about nothing.”

The article goes on to call Obama “the nation’s first shuffle president,” so dubbed because he’s telling many stories at once time, and in no specific order. Even more interesting is that his entire agenda is downloadable (literally in some cases).

“If what you care most about is health care, then you can jump right to that. If global warming gets you going, then click over there. It’s not especially realistic to imagine that politics could cling to a linear way of rendering stories while the rest of American culture adapts to a more customized form of consumption. Obama’s ethos may disconcert the older guard in Washington, but it’s probably comforting to a lot of younger voters who could never be expected to listen to successive tracks, in the same order, over and over again.”

This “shuffle” phenomenon has implications on the brand/marketing world as well. Like the President, some brands try to tell many stories at one time. Some do it well, some don’t. It’s why setting a clear agenda for the brand and communications is so critically important. Mel Exon wrote a great piece on BBH Labs’ blog along similar lines – about the importance of the big [strategic] idea.

At the same time, how do we ensure that we give different kinds of consumers relevant entry points that inspire – digital, social, mobile? Tapping into the “shuffle” and delivering on the big idea aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, they’re inextricably linked.

Obama’s brand of storytelling is amazing to watch. We’ll see where it lands him in three years…Will it appeal to only younger generations? Or will it appeal more broadly to voters at large, making way for a new kind of politics in Washington?