--- title: The Best Marketer Has Been Elected President description: The Clinton campaign used the traditional playbook while Donald Trump focused on real-time media image: https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/hubfs/Trump%20win.jpg --- [Skip to main content](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/the-best-marketer-has-been-elected-president#maincontent) [ «  View All Posts ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog) # The Best Marketer Has Been Elected President November 9th, 2016 1 min read By [David Meerman Scott](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/author/david-meerman-scott) ![Trump win.jpg](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Trump%20win.jpg?width=1539&height=927&name=Trump%20win.jpg) **Donald Trump is a marketing genius.** Donald Trump understood his [buyer personas](https://www.webinknow.com/marketing-basics-buyer-personas) better than the Clinton campaign. Donald Trump created a strong, memorable message from the moment he announced his candidacy a year and a half ago. “Make America Great Again” (#MAGA) captured his promise to buyer personas. People all over the country knew the slogan. Quick question: What is Hillary Clinton’s message? Most people don’t remember “Stronger Together” and if they do, I’m not sure they think it’s powerful. ## The old rules of marketing vs the new rules of marketing **Donald Trump created a powerful brand and built it using free media. ** The Clinton campaign used the traditional playbook. Clinton hired all the right people and crafted an enormous machine to run using advertising, grassroots canvassing, and other accepted campaign strategies. They relied heavily on traditional polling data similar to what companies do with market research. Clinton was like a big company hiring a bunch of advertising agencies to run traditional campaigns. As I've written about for more than a year, [Donald Trump focused on real-time media](https://www.webinknow.com/trump-the-real-time-marketing-master-that-the-pundits-dismissed), especially Twitter, and mega rallies all over the country. His tweets and the video of the rallies were reported in real-time by thousands of media outlets. He understood his buyers and spoke directly to them frequently by [Newsjacking](https://www.newsjacking.com) what was happening in the news. These simple approaches that any orginization can adopt generated a reported $5 billion in free media for Trump. There are many lessons here for all marketers. What a fascinating case study. I’ll be parsing the results over the next days. *Important note: This is a marketing blog, not a political blog. I am not commenting on any candidate’s views on the issues nor am I publicly supporting any candidate. I write about the US Presidential election because it is a massive marketing case study playing out for several years, not because I voice my support for any candidate over another.* For more of my posts about US Presidential election marketing going back three election cycles, go [here](https://www.webinknow.com/topic/us-presidential-campaign-marketing-pr). [![New Call-to-action](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/413105/e5b62938-97f3-40a1-9bc9-f10843b48ec1.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/413105/e5b62938-97f3-40a1-9bc9-f10843b48ec1) [ David Meerman Scott ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/author/david-meerman-scott) David Meerman Scott is a business growth strategist, advisor to clever entrepreneurs who are building emerging companies, and the international bestselling author of a dozen books published in 30 languages. David’s high-energy keynote presentations, masterclasses, and virtual events educate, energize, and inspire. Connect: [mailto:david@freshspot.com](mailto:david@freshspot.com) Topics: [ New Rules of Marketing and PR ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/topic/new-rules-of-marketing-and-pr) [ Marketing ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/topic/marketing) [ US Presidential Campaign Marketing & PR ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/topic/us-presidential-campaign-marketing-pr) [ Newsjacking ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/topic/newsjacking) Don't forget to share this post: ## Related Articles [![](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Stefano%20Paciotti.jpg?width=1500&height=1084&name=Stefano%20Paciotti.jpg) ### The Ham Whisperer of Rome: How Stefano’s Honest Videos Won the World’s Heart June 24th, 2025|1 min read ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/the-ham-whisperer-of-rome-how-stefanos-honest-videos-won-the-worlds-heart) [![](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/hs-fs/hubfs/story%20time%20shutterstock_2078659261.jpg?width=1500&height=999&name=story%20time%20shutterstock_2078659261.jpg) ### The Story Customers Tell Themselves May 6th, 2025|1 min read ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/the-story-customers-tell-themselves) [![](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Facebook%20Live%20no%20more.jpg?width=1352&height=893&name=Facebook%20Live%20no%20more.jpg) ### Meta Focused On Profit Over Users: Now Deletes Facebook Live Videos After 30 Days April 28th, 2025|1 min read ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/meta-focused-on-profit-over-users-now-deletes-facebook-live-videos-after-30-days) [![](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/hs-fs/hubfs/shutterstock_2077138888.jpg?width=1500&height=1000&name=shutterstock_2077138888.jpg) ### What Makes a Great Marketer? 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