This year's election will go down in history as the greatest celebrity death match of all time. Prior, the election was a genteel amateur fight with a referee, 16-ounce boxing gloves and headgear. This year the election was a Royale Rumble of Republicans and a UFC style Cage Match in the general election. President-elect Trump emerged victorious from the giant heap of sweaty politicians and took home the title. Linda McMahon, co-owner of World Wrestling Entertainment was so proud that she joined the administration. Today he gets to wear his crown as he is sworn in as the new Heavy Weight Champion of the World.
Rumor has it that Obama is going to be a surprise guest to challenge Trump in next year's Summer Slam. Okay, fine, that would be fake news. Alas, how was the White House won? Here’s the inside story, brought to you courtesy of Oz Sultan, Trump surrogate, campaign counter-terrorism advisor and social media superstar and your favorite journalist Richard Hecker.
Like all good adventures it starts out with a gold escalator, hired boosters and ends in with the great Wall of Mexico. And that was just in the first 15 minutes of the match. On June 16, 2015, the bell was rung, Trump came down the magical gold escalator declaring his candidacy and US politics changed forever.
“This election was significant because the rules of the match changed. There was no script, no storyline. It was all real time and ground breaking. Trump declared his candidacy like an entrance video in a wrestling match, complete with, fans, cheers and a crazy attention grabbing statement. If you ever listened to a wrestler giving an interview and then making an entrance, you’ll understand the allure of Donald Trump.” According to OZ Sultan, Trump surrogate and campaign advisor.
Round 1: The Primaries. Speak your mind, foment revolution. Like all good wrestlers, the candidates had their promo videos. Alas, only two stood out from the pack. Donald Trump with his gold plated news conference at Trump Tower announcing his candidacy and Bernie Sanders with his Marxist call for Revolution. The other 15 Republicans and two Democrats sounded eerily the same. Trump stood out from the pack by beautifully harnessing social media, and armed with his special move, The Tweetstorm, he manhandled his competition. (Authors Note: We named his power move “The Tweetstorm for this story)
The citizens of America wanted new characters in their Monday Night Raw lineup. They were tired of the same old wrestlers, same old moves and aging storylines. They wanted a fresh entertaining face. They got in the yellow haired 70-year phenom, The Billionaire, Donald Trump. He stood out of the pack as a rough and tumbles, speak his mind, heel. In wrestling terms, a heel is the bad guy in the dramatic storyline. He attacked the GOP, the democrats and the media. However, with each step he took in the character, the people’s boos turned into cheers. Trump built groundswell. He slowly built momentum. He turns hate into energy to fuel his character and amplified the love that he got. All attention was good attention.
Like a good restaurant opening, he started with boosters at his announcement and then built a cult of real followers, one person at a time. He tested his messaging, and stuck with what worked. “Build a wall!”, “Drain the swamp!” were messages he tested and saw riled the crowd and then focused around. He built his character as the campaign evolved.
“The Millennial generation is fueled by social media. The Tweetstorm was such as an effective move, paralyzing the competition because it spoke to people where they were, on social media, and how they wanted to hear it, raw and rough. The people were tied of the same old story and were ready for a street fighter to take country to the next level. Trump represents America today, brash, aggressive and entrepreneurial.” said Oz Sultan.
Round 2: The General Election. Rile the audience and look into their eyes. Bill Clinton was a phenomenal wrestler. He knew exactly how to get under the skin of the audience and mesmerize them with his moxie. Trump learned the mystique of the warrior from President Clinton and perfected it. He looked into each voter's’ eyes, saw what pained them and delivered the exact message they needed to hear.
“Trump listened. He heard the pain of Middle America - they had lost their homes and lost their jobs and there wasn’t a sense that the country was there for them. Yes, more jobs were created under Obama but they were not in the same places jobs were lost - and therefore it didn’t help Middle America. People didn’t want to move. Trump made this his core message. These people didn’t want to be pandered to - they didn’t want someone being nice, they just want a job. Simple.” said Oz Sultan
The Character
Obamacare was useful for about 20 million Americans. However, there are over 318 million Americans. Jobs is the unifying issue across almost all of the 318 million people. Trump seized on this as his rallying cry and appealed to the masses.
“Trumps message spoke of populism and a new style of engagement that people hadn't heard in quite a long period of time it was a throwback to Americans thinking about being Americans and building their American Dream. And that he sold the message of job creation and economic hope that was a far cry from Hillary's message of business as usual and more of the same.” Says Oz Sultan
How did Trump win the match!? Build a crew that got your back!
All good wrestlers have their crew. It could be an association or a formal group, but it’s important to have a team that represents your storyline. Trump represents those in America that didn’t have a voice, those that didn’t have a wrestler to support. He built his crew of people from all races and cultures.
“Trump built a digital SWAT team from outside of the beltway that included a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian and a barking dog. Okay, there was no dog but it was a diverse crew that represented all cultures in America. Meanwhile, Clinton packed her crew with political insiders that didn't know the modern weapons of technology.” Says Oz Sultan.
Know your audience and which weapons to use for their enjoyment! Like all good entertainers, it is essential to know your audience at each stop on the tour. Trump did his homework, studying every small city and town to make sure he knew how to speak to the crowd at each stop. Trump’s campaign utilizing cutting edge advertising and social media marketing technologies. Trump knew when to throw a chair or jump off the ropes. He knew which crowds like a ground match and which want to see a cage match.
Trump even built his own data platform, Project Alamo. “Project Alamo took all known databases, and profiled every citizen to figure out which citizen was on the fence, and which channel was best to reach them. The general public heard Trump’s branding campaign on Twitter, while the citizens in the swing states got a highly targeted direct marketing campaign speaking to them as individuals. Project Alamo, led by Brad Parscale, allowed us to target messages to each voter. This was crucial at the 11th hour call as we knew who to engage and how to canvass at the last minute. ” said Oz Sultan.
Delivering the right taunts!
People like being riled up. It’s part of being human. Delivering the right taunt at the right time can make all the difference between an exciting match and a boring fight. Clinton didn’t understand the need to entertain the crowds. Ultimately, winning the title comes down to ratings. Ratings come down to engaging the crowd. Good bad or ugly. The crowd is paying their ticket price to see a good fight.
Listen to the crowd and they will return with energy!
The Clinton campaign saw zero need to focus on independents or soft republications. The campaign coasted, assuming victory. They ran ads that screamed “I'm with her!” Meanwhile Trump focused his message around “Make America Great”. I’m with her signifies the election is about her, not about the people. However, Make America Great signifies making the country great, which helps everyone. Clinton focused on herself as a historic candidate. Trump focused on the country. “I’m with her”, doesn’t imply she is with you. Middle America wanted a candidate that promised to be in their corner. The more the people heard Trump yell into his microphone of Twitter, the more his message resonated and soon the heel became the hero and the election was won.
“Trump had directions and motivations slogans instead of policies. This enabled him to define and redefine them for each audience and craft his message accordingly. Clinton had explicit policies and marketed her years in public service, which left her little room to move to listen to her audiences. Trump listened and pivoted messaging to address the needs of independents and soft democrats (Bernie voters) where Hillary continued to tout the same message without accounting for shifts in voter attitude and sentiment. At the end I’m with her really meant she’s not with you, to a lot of voters.” Says Sultan.
Using the Referee as Bait:
Like all good sporting events, there is a referee. However like all most WWE wrestling matches, the referee is part of the fight. In this case, the mainstream media played the role of the referee. Trump fueled his energy from the press.
When you watch a wrestling match, you learn that the referee is not there to provide a fair fight, he is there is enhance the entertainment of the match. Often times you’ll see a referee knocked out cold. In this election, the media played this role.
“Trump played the media by attacking them, sucking the wind out of his opponents as he got all of the promo time, then attacked them for being unfair and going negative on him, even when he started it, leading to more air-time. He riled up the crowd, which created ratings and therefore more media focus. Yes he was mean at times. However, characters can change over time. Throughout his career Hulk Hogan transitioned from heel to hero and back and again.” .” Says Oz Sultan.
The people were always entertained regardless of which side he was on. Trump saw this for it was, a messy wrestling match, while Clinton misread the will of the people and the demands of the crowd. Trump was portrayed as the successful asshole (the Ted Dibiase of present day) while Clinton had difficultly showcasing her achievements and getting people behind her.
“People would rather have a successful asshole, than a nice person who did stuff. People wanted a strong leader, they wanted a leader to take back the country.” Says Sultan
Running Interference!
No wrestling match is complete without a cast of characters running interference and attempting to change the course of the match. Let’s look at each interruption, the spin and the reality. We’ll cover these in the next story, after this commercial break.
The 3 Count and Winning the Match!
“Trump is a shrewd and artful dealmaker. Every time I’ve met with the man, it becomes clear he is intense and driven to solve problems. This intensity to break though challenges and power through to victory.” says Sultan.
Ultimately Trump walked away with the belt amidst a stunning last second victory. He won by a hair of a margin. What future wrestlers can learn from the experience is that if you want to win on the big stage, you need to listen to the crowd, draw from their energy, hear what makes them tick, rile them up, then tailor your message to each audience member so they empathize with you. It doesn’t matter whether you are the heel or the hero, people just want to be entertained. Once you have crowd, use every weapon at your disposal, including the referee to neutralize your opponent and go for the pin. #Winning #DreamFWD
This story was written by Richie Hecker @RichieBlueEyes & Oz Sultan @ozsultan. They are long-time tech community organizers and entrepreneurs. Richie is CEO of Traction + Scale and Oz Sultan is CEO of Sultan Interactive Group.