Obamacare Struggles Make for a Perfect Communications Case Study

If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got somewhere else to be…

You may be shocked to learn that Politico posted something interesting today. Inflammatory “PR firms cash in on health rollout woes” headline aside, the story makes a good point: the Affordable Care Act launch is a perfect encapsulation of the challenges facing communicators in the digital era.

Multiple firms have capitalized on this fact by turning it into a case study; the myriad lessons are obvious after the jump.

• Test your tech before launch
• Explain the benefits of your product in the simplest possible way (hello, infographics)
• Appoint an official “public face” for your campaign and insist that he or she address the public directly
• Speaking to the previous point, repeatedly remind everyone why you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place
• Choose a message that will remain consistent throughout the life of the campaign
• Tailor that messaging to allow for some...