You don’t even need to present it. And it is that abel knight He has been forging his own character in recent years. A character who has crossed regional and even national borders.
The mayor of Vigo (he has been since 2007), beyond his political career, is above all a crack of marketing. Almost without realizing it, it has crept into the collective imagination and has placed Vigo as the quintessential Christmas city. That is why we have found it interesting to tell you what we believe can be learned from his case, and especially from that great promotional campaign popularly known as “the lights of Vigo”.
Let´s go!
10 marketing tips we have learned from Abel Caballero
1. Create a character
In his 75 years of life, Abel Caballero has doctorates, a master’s degree, a Ministry of Transport, Communication and Tourism with Felipe González in the 1980s, and a candidacy for the Xunta for the PSOE that he lost against Fraga, among other charges. At that time, in 1997, he lost the elections against Fraga, but after his tenure as president of the Vigo Port Authority in 2005, he began his candidacy for mayor of Vigo in 2007. character. As you can see, Abel Caballero is far from being that kind of “village redneck” that he may sometimes seem. He’s a created image, well thought out and… pure marketing!
2. Imitate the best
We all have references. Caballero also took his own to create that character you know today. He arrived from Madrid to Vigo but did not fit into the political gear of the moment. He disconnected from politics, and when he returned he did so with the lesson well learned. He wanted for Vigo what A Coruña had had years ago: a strong and stable mayor.
His influences in his first stage (from 2007 to 2015; then the absolute majority would come) are very close to the profiles of Paco Vázquez, Manuel Fraga and Miguel Ángel Revilla.
3. Look for an outside enemy
What does it mean to be like Paco Vázquez? For strategic purposes, look for an external enemy. Since his arrival at the mayor’s office, Abel Caballero became the main political scourge of Núñez Feijoo. That if the Xunta prioritizes Santiago de Compostela for the Camino de Santiago and Vigo nothing, that if it takes A Coruña more into account for Caixa Galicia instead of Caixanova…
Here we extract an interesting learning that worked for Caballero: localism to death.
4. Work like an animal
Continuing with the influences of Abel Caballero, we see that he also he copied from Manuel Fraga his tireless work. This translated into a very complete agenda, every day of the week and at all hours of the day, and in all kinds of soirees: opening act at a concert, official visits, etc.
5. Be empathic
But Manuel Fraga, from another era, was a more distant being. In this case Abel Caballero follows more the philosophy of Miguel Ángel Revilla, President of Cantabria: playing the folksy way.
And it is that people like accessible, close political leaders. Caballero is one of those who talks to everyone (mothers, grandparents…), of whom he is omnipresent and always with that tone of a lifelong neighborhood uncle. It is his job and, it is the reality, he dedicates himself to it body and soul.
6. Cult of the leader
How did Abel Caballero go from governing in coalition with the BNG to an absolute majority in 2015? One worked very personal official presence: weekly interventions on the radio, local TV, etc, and something important: he began to mark the works as “Mayor’s Office of Vigo”, not as “Concello de Vigo”.
7. Master the infotainment
In 2015, as we said, it was done with the absolute majority and that is when the, let’s call it that, arises, Unchained Knight. He is at another point and updates his references and his strategy: he begins to look at international mayors such as the one who then presided over London, Boris Johnson, and In general, open your mind.
That’s when he starts to attract attention. We review some of the most curious feats of him:
- Plant a royal ship in the middle of a roundabout, and here he noticed the honeys of national media attention.
- was invented the dinosaur, gardens with figures of dinosaurs that he distributed throughout different parts of Vigo. Do you remember?
The Dinoseto served to attract the attention of many people, but the idea did not materialize at a tourist level as it should, it did not attract people from outside. And that’s where the idea of ”Christmas Lights” is born.
8. Become a meme
Abel Caballero is at a different point than in 2007. He has achieved the absolute majority, the people in the city love him, and if he has to ridicule himself for and for Vigo to increase his fame, he does it. Let him not deceive you; Although everything seems very natural, he is more than thought.
In 2018, it announced almost a million euros of investment to make the coolest Christmas lights on the planet. In 2021 this figure has already risen to €1.3 million, which include the costs of the more than 11 million LED lights that will decorate the city. This could have brought him criticism for bad spending or an anti-environmental initiative. But Vigo trusts him. And he knows how to generate media attention. Two peak moments:
- That of: “The mayors of New York, Tokyo and London envy me”. Seek to give them to spare with a nice tone, to attract attention. And he gets it!
- the already famous «Welcome everyone here». And, eye! that Abel knows English to spare. But before a spotlight, the character better come out.
The result is clear. It achieved enormous expectation at the national level, which led to a barrage of visits to Vigo during Christmas. And we can only applaud Abel Caballero for this master class on how to make a viral (a good viral).
9. Manage success
The level is very high. But Abel Caballero always looks ahead. Every year, more LED lights, a giant Ferris wheel, machines that throw artificial snow… his challenge is to increase the number of millions of visitors and then he will no longer «he is going to call the mayor of New York, the mayor of New York will call him» to express his healthy envy for the Christmas lighting in Vigo.
Currently maintains the formula but has lowered the level of histrionics a bit. You no longer need it. Vigo and its lights are already on the map and travel agencies have recommended it as a Christmas visit point. Almost nothing!
10. It provokes, that something remains
Abel Caballero, without a doubt, has become Vigo’s main ambassador. His face appears on some billboards made in Madrid, he has imitators at national late nights, etc. He is a joke. He seeks to provoke. Has he got it? Yes. There are no doubts.
And you, what do you think of the political career and its way of bringing Vigo to the headlines of the national press?
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