Al Gore may have “invented” the internet, but it wasn’t until the 2008 Presidential campaign that both Republicans and Democrats decided to logon in earnest.

In a previous post, I covered John McCain’s “Spread the Word” incentive program, designed to award points to volunteers for a variety of activities. Barack Obama isn’t giving away points or miles that I know of, but has made excellent use of social media to assemble a grass roots army of supporters. When Paul McCartney was quoted as saying “Think globally, act locally”, he could not have imagined how well the Obama camp would exploit the notion. Through the web site www.my.barackobama.com , the campaign provides tools to “make local organizing easy” and that is just the beginning.

In a recent survey of Chief Marketing Officers about the Millennial generation, 75% acknowledged that Generation Y will have a significant impact on their organizations over the next 3 years, while 54% admitted that they do not yet have a strategy for targeting, attracting, or retaining this group as customers.

Count Obama as one who has a strategy and is doing it right. He enlisted the services of Chris Hughes, one of the founders of Facebook, to be in charge of the campaign’s new-media strategy. According to a recent New York Times article, Mr. Hughes has contributed to “revolutionize the use of the web as a political tool”. Results are strong, as the campaign has raised more than 2 Million dollars in contributions of $200 or less and mobilized a ground force of hundreds of thousands to help in campaign grunt work.

Driving around town this past weekend, the success was obvious to me. The Obama camp had rights to a big intersection in the morning and covered all four corners with so many people that the police should have been called in for traffic control. When the McCain supporters took over in the afternoon, there was a light sprinkling of volunteers barely able to distract driver attention. The contrast between these two day-parts created a visual image in my mind of mosh-pit in the morning, followed by high tea in the afternoon.

According to Mr. Hughes, Obama was an early believer in social networks and created his own Facebook profile over two years ago. Putting a stronger stamp on his convictions, Obama has promised to hire a chief technology officer for the White House, if elected. Obama’s wise use of social networking will be fully validated if the youth vote comes out in force on election day. Historically apathetic, the current generation of Millennials feels more empowered than their predecessors and technology is their not-so-secret weapon.

For marketers residing in the Boomer generation and pondering the importance of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the lot to their business, I would advise pulling the plug on task forces formed to rationalize the channel and begin to play the game in earnest. It’s all about meeting your customers where they are.

If Obama wins this election, it will be partly due to the most effective loyalty program ever. The design breaks from “best practices” as recognition and emotion are everything, while no points were given away.

Maybe there is something to learn from politicians from time to time!