This time last week we witnessed the finale of one of the most historic elections the world has ever seen.  Obama is now getting to work on running the United States of America – soon to be all in a day’s work!  "It's been a long time coming, but tonight... change has come to America," Obama declared.

After months of campaigning, Obama finally beat his closest rival, John McCain in a landslide victory.  So a fresh start for the US and the world – the first ever black American President, and a time for ‘change’. 

Obama achieved this by using ad space wisely, including placing ads on video games and TV.  According to adweek.com, Obama’s television ad placement ‘was achieving 98 per cent reach and a frequency rate of 20 to 25 exposures a week to viewers 18-plus with his messages….McCain was reaching the same audience levels but with only about 10 exposures a week.”  Adweek went on to say ‘Obama was completely saturating those markets….He got his messages across, about his character, the issues and differences between him and his opponent.  And for constituents who want to learn more, he directed them to Web sites…’ 

Relying on blanket advertising is fine if your target audience is every adult in the population and you have a budget bigger than the turnover of many companies, but Barack Obama is also undoubtedly an excellent communicator with the personal touch, but what is also clear from this election is his unprecedented and progressive outlook in communicating via modern media channels to gain electoral support, coverage, younger/new voters, and even sponsorship.  By launching his own website, online TV channel ‘Barack TV’, Obama blog, not to mention his infamous facebook site, enabled Obama to engage with a much wider and larger audience.  

A prime example of how to communicate successfully, using a targeted campaign with both online and traditional media channels to compliment one another.  A master class in effective PR Broadcast. 

So a new President and young family in The White House from January 2009...and apparently a puppy too.  A ‘first dog’ - things certainly do change!   A historic time to witness and be part of – and definitely one to tell the grand kids….how long before the Presidential puppy has its own Facebook group?