I don’t recall many modern presidents running conferences consistently over such a long period of time, much less in the midst of a pandemic. I have always maintained that this exercise is one of the pillars of the president’s communication, marketing and image. However, 3 years after its inception, it has fallen into a baroque process, which etymologically indicates that which is excessively ornate or ornate.
1. Length of messages in AMLO’s Morning
There is a lot of marketing learning about the morning conference, the first and most evident is the loss of purpose: the first edition lasted 52 minutes and 12 seconds and added 591 thousand views on the AMLO channel, as can be seen on the channel of the Presidency or in that of Lopez Obrador (https://www.youtube.com/c/lopezobrador/videos) in contrast, on Monday, April 25, it reached 2 hours and 46 minutes. It is clear that the conferences have become longer and longer and with this the attention has diminished; for example, of the 12 most viewed conferences on the Mexican Government Channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/gobiernodemexico/videos) it can be extracted that the ideal average of conferences should not exceed 49 minutes with 46 seconds. On the president’s channel, the 12 most viewed videos have an average of 1 hour and 26 minutes. The first takeaway is that message length erodes attention, especially when compared to content absorbed by younger audiences on TikTok, where the most viewed video on that platform in 2021 lasted less than 10 seconds.
2. Audience growth
As the space remained, there was no audience growth. The first conference reached 591 thousand views, that of April 27, 736 thousand. No media outlet would be satisfied with a 20 percent audience growth in 4 years. However, it is also true that when it comes to current issues, such as lithium, the conference can reach more than a million views. This clearly indicates that the morning session is extremely sensitive to the situation and that it is far from setting the agenda as was the case at first. In marketing we must be careful not to over-communicate. It is incredible that a country the size of Mexico is left without relevant topics for a presidential conference, but the reality is that this is the case. The big topics surely happen once or twice a month, the rest is tactical communication. In this sense, the morning —as a communication vehicle— would be more effective if it were led by a press officer and that the important news was given by the President. That way it would be easier to frame the importance.
3. Spokesperson
From the beginning, as head of government in CDMX, Andrés Manuel López Obrador created the morning as a personal vehicle, it is an intrinsic part of his image. Upon reaching the presidency he brought all the positive values of the environment (the morning is finally a means) but also the weaknesses. Four years of maintenance of a main spokesperson confuses the receiver of the message, sometimes it is about important messages, in others not so much. That dilutes the spokesperson, this happens even with the most experienced announcers in the world on radio and TV. That is why it is essential to bring experts and collaborators, to share the load and take advantage of new audiences. Few presidents have had Donald Trump’s stage management, and in that case it was unthinkable that he share the stage. The same thing happens in some way with President López Obrador, the presence of his brand is of such magnitude that the other secretaries and experts fail to help carry the weight of the morning. Perhaps the exception was López-Gatell, but that was surely caused by the situation.
4. Looking ahead to the elections from AMLO’s Morning
The closure of the government is coming and with it the electoral campaigns. The morning has to be transformed if it seeks to communicate the government’s message while candidates from all parties seek governors and the presidency. He would argue that the morning as a communication vehicle should serve the Country and its citizens, it is not about the president in office. On previous occasions I have expressed that the morning could transcend this government and become an exercise in Mexican communication. But for this to happen, it must be seen as a means, a tool to keep the country informed. It may be one of the legacies of this presidency, but it would have to learn from its mistakes and become a better, more agile and inclusive format. Young people do not watch 2-hour content and that means that AMLO’s morning is not democratic in terms of marketing, rather he ends up informing the media, journalists and politicians, which undermines the central idea of his creation. No working Mexican can listen to the president 2 hours a day. This is 8 to 10 hours a week, but for example, an average Netflix user in the UK watches the platform for 8 hours and 52 minutes. It is clear that if there is a desire to bring the government closer to the citizens through this format, these messages must be modernized, focused and cut, otherwise it could fall on the Congress Channel or the Plenary Session of the SCJN than on the best of the cases they add 5 thousand views per day.