The Dwight Drake (D) for Governor of South Carolina campaign put this creative web video out over the weekend. It has so far received extensive coverage. For a later entry into the race, Drake is looking for an angle on his opponents. He is connecting the video to a call to have Sanford’s removal from office brought before the Legislature in the next 30 days. A petition is linked to the video. The strategy to gain recognition and momentum seems to be working.
August is here. Members of Congress use this much awaited recess to go home, listen to their constituents, and reconnect before the fall session. The recent controversy surrounding the cap and trade bill and the looming health care reform legislation has made this time interesting for Members of Congress as they go home and check the temperature of their constituents.
Recent media accounts have shown that the response back home is downright angry. Traditionally, during this time, Members of Congress set up town hall style events where they speak about current legislation and field questions from the audience. Americans have been showing up in droves to these ‘town hall’ events holding signs, yelling, and causing discomfort for their respective members.
Much of the raw footage of these events has made it to the internet. The most notable clip was from a town hall hosted by Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius over the weekend. Senator Specter was hastled and booed over a response he made about the speed at which legislation is passed. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was noticeably irritated by the audience’s reaction. Close to 825,000 people have viewed the two and a half minute video since it was posted last Sunday.
Over 500,000 watched Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) as he was hounded outside a grocery store by irate constituents yelling “just say no” (referencing healthcare) over the weekend.
366,000 viewed a town hall with Representative Tim Bishop (D-NY) as he was taken to task over a variety of issues including his support for cap and trade and the current healthcare reform.
These are just a few examples of what has happened as Members go home and meet with the people they represent. The declining support in the polls for a public option for healthcare rightly suggests that these episodes are an illustration of the feelings of many across the country.
While those taking the brunt of this anger consider these individuals plants and not representative of what Americans are truly feeling, it is clear Members of Congress are walking on thin ice when it comes to healthcare. Whether the protests are orchestrated or organic, they still represent growing concern with the legislative agenda put forth by the Obama Administration.
From a political communication perspective, there are deeper implications that continue to arise from this trend. Video technology’s effectiveness was first highlighted in the 2006 cycle during the VA Senate race, when George Allen was caught on film calling a videographer a racially incentive slur. Now, with Flip Camera and video technology on mobile phones, citizens have the power and ability to capture politicians and events en masse. With the widespread popularity of YouTube, people are able to watch these raw videos online, almost immediately. With more social media platforms being utilized for distribution, these videos have a much greater chance of going viral, reaching thousands, even millions of people.
This drastically increases the number of participants in the political dialogue. In the past, one was required to physically attend these events to get the true feeling because news accounts were heavily edited. Now, citizen journalists are everywhere capturing real-time events and posting them, largely unedited, on the internet for millions to view.
The political brush fire over healthcare is well under way. New videos of public outrage at Congressional town hall meetings have fueled this fire tremendously.
Stay tuned for more from your fellow citizen journalist.
Current Assemblyman, Chuck Devore, representing California’s 70th district has an uphill battle in front of him. He is running for the U.S. Senate in California against political heavy-weight Barbara Boxer. His litany of life-long accomplishments pitted against Barbara Boxer’s political machine will make this a must follow race in 2010.
However, his New Media Director for the campaign, JUSTIN HART, is shaking things up a bit. He has introduced an innovative fundraising strategy for the campaign that looks promising.
The site combines ease, transparency, and flair to let campaign donors know exactly where their money is going. The genius is in allowing potential donors ‘pick’ where the money is going by selecting a campaign expense to pay for. The engagement factor is key. When people are invested directly in something, they feel more a part of it. The more excited supporters the better. Finally, the air of transparency builds trust with the donor knowing that their hard earned money is going directly to a specific purpose and not lost in the war chest.
Next, the campaign’s new media savy includes a Twitter feed that lets people know who and how much has been donated. It then links to the individual’s Twitter home page. The focus is on small donations to build grassroots support-much like Barack Obama’s plan in 2008.
In an interview with Wired Magazine’s Epicenter blog, Hart explains,
You’ve got to rise above the noise. You can’t just do it and not have an angle, or a specific thing that makes people want to donate. If you’re a charity, for example, is there a unique angle you can pursue as far as new contributors — new contributors from a specific city, or something around a special event that you’re doing? If you just lay it out there, no one’s really going to pay attention… For us, of course, being conservatives and Republicans, and having lost the November election, with technology being one of the tools used by the victorious side — not only to vanquish us, but to vanquish Hilary Clinton earlier… conservatives are taking that message to heart. For them, I was kind of this symbolic, poster child of our way back out of the wilderness.
With ChuckBucks’ launch today, we will soon find out whether Hart’s savy will translate into dollars. Yet, the innovative approach and creativity is second to none and will likely be mimicked by campaigns in the future whether or not Chuck Devore is able to take down the Barbara Boxer behemoth.
If you haven’t noticed Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube offer beefed up targeting strategies based on demographics and interests. For example, if you’re on Facebook and you’ve recently gotten engaged, you will immediately begin to notice a plethora of ads pushing all types of wedding services. This is what many in the advertising world believe is the future of smart advertising.
According to respondents in a recent survey this is a good thing.
A study by Q Interactive, and reposted on Mashable, offers some interesting insight for advertisers. Notably, 56.6% of US internet users between the ages of 35 and 44 would view and advertiser favorably based on online ads tailored to their interests. 56.2% of this same age bracket also prefers to receive free online services and information in exchange for the use of their data to target relevant data to them.
According to the study, while some suggest creating ads targeting a consumer’s interests would be excessive, the study found consumers welcome it.
This is just one of the many ways in which social networking sites provide advertisers with plenty of data that can be utilized to make ads as effective and potent as possible.
For political campaigns and issue advertising, this is the beginning of an important new trend. Political advertisers put tremendous stock in the ability to target audiences. As it’s been determined long ago, voters rarely act in one mass group, voting for people based on one overarching issue. Voters, like consumers, have niche tastes and interests, and vote according to which candidate appeals to them on the issue(s) they care about most as an individual or member of a particular demographic.
While most voters get weary of the constant drumbeat of ads touting one or two specific campaign issues, this new advertising method, based on interest targeting, may prove more welcome.
The RNC recently released a web video attacking Obama’s Government-Run Health Care Plan.
The video exposes the pitfalls of goverment-run health care. The ad hits on three major issues people are concerned with: Americans losing their rights to choose a doctor, medical procedures taking much longer to receive, and the plan prohibiting patients from paying for better medication even if it’s out of their own pockets.
The beginning phone call recording successfully plays on the overall decline of customer service in this country. People used to have a personal relationship with their doctor; now it looks as if health care in this country will revolve around automated answering services and civil servants rather than personal care and medical professionals. And the end, “disconnecting now, good-bye,” suggests the plan’s general disregard for the individual.
It will be interesting to see how the Democrats respond, but we may be on hold for a while.
Very interesting study, aptly titled The Internet’s Role in Campaign 2008, published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project analyzing voter habits on the internet during the 2008 Presidential Election.
This study provides an in depth look into the online trends and behaviors of voters, who spent time online in 2008, gathering information and communicating about the Election. The findings in this is survey are crucial for political consultants and advertisers with a vested interest in better understanding the political consumption habits and activities of voters. Here are some highlights.
More than half of the voting-age population used the internet to get involved in the political process during an election year.
Some 74% of internet users–representing 55% of the entire adult population–went online in 2008 to get involved in the political process or to get news and information about the election.
Nearly one in five (18%) internet users posted their thoughts, comments or questions about the campaign on an online forum such as a blog or social networking site.
Fully 45% of internet users went online to watch a video related to the campaign.
One in three internet users forwarded political content to others. Indeed, the sharing of political content (whether writing and commentary or audio and video clips) increased notably over the course of the 2008 election cycle. While young adults led the way in many political activities, seniors were highly engaged in forwarding political content to their friends and family members.
Young voters continued to engage heavily in the political debate on social networking sites. Fully 83% of those age 18-24 have a social networking profile, and two-thirds of young profile owners took part in some form of political activity on these sites in 2008.
Among the entire population (internet users and non-users alike) the internet is now equal to newspapers and roughly twice as important as radio as a source of election news and information. Among internet users and young adults, these differences are even more magnified.
Online political news consumers are delving deeply into the long tail of online political content–nearly half of online political news consumers visited five or more distinct types of online news sites this election cycle.
Voters are increasingly moving away from news sites with no point of view, and towards sites that match their own political viewpoints–and this is especially true of those who delve deepest into the world of online political content.
Another interesting area of analysis were the differences in online activity and behavior between Obama and McCain supporters.
Due to demographic differences between the two parties, McCain voters were actually more likely than Obama voters to go online in the first place.
However, online Obama supporters were generally more engaged in the online political process than online McCain supporters.
Among internet users, Obama voters were more likely to share online political content with others, sign up for updates about the election, donate money to a candidate online, set up political news alerts and sign up online for volunteer activities related to the campaign.
Online Obama voters were also out in front when it came to posting their own original political content online–26% of wired Obama voters did this, compared with 15% of online McCain supporters.
I found this gem on Twitter today. It is an audio / video illustration, titled, “The Crisis of Credit Visualized.” It walks the viewer through the financial components that brought on the current credit crisis that’s gripped our nation. It’s produced by Jonathan Jarvis, an interaction and media designer.
According to Jarvis, “The Crisis of Credit Visualized distills the economic crisis into a short and simple story by giving it form. It is also argues that designers have the ability to see a complex situation, then turn around and communicate it to others. By giving graphic form to the credit crisis, it becomes comprehensible. Not only do economic activities take shape, but new relationships can emerge between these shapes.”
This type of work epitomizes smart media – defining an important and complex issue in a clear and easy to understand format.
Digesting all the spending being proposed in Washington can get difficult. It’s hard to comprehend and place this new massive spending in context.
While sobering, this well-produced video, from Stop Spending Our Future (Sponsored by The Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity Foundation) does a good job at providing a visual aid to the many numbers (read: tax dollars and debt) being tossed around by politicians.
They have a number of other well-produced web videos at stopspendingourfuture.org
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, under new chairman JOHN CORNYN, has a new website and brand new spot targeting Senate Majority Leader HARRY REID.
The effort, the first targeting a 2010 senate candidate, flies under the website called www.REIDistributewealth.com .
The new spot, titled, “Trillion” was released this week. The details of the broadcast buy are unclear.
The NRSC’s interest in targeting Reid stem from what Republicans consider his staunch partisan approach and what appears to be his electoral vulnerabilities.
A Las Vegas Review-Journalarticle on Monday cited recent polling, by a conservative political action group, showing Reid vulnerable among Nevada voters.
Reid was viewed favorably by 47 percent and unfavorably by 47 percent of Nevadans surveyed by the Salt Lake City-based polling firm NSON Opinion Research for the Legacy PAC, a California-based activist group that hopes to target Reid for defeat in 2010.
In the survey of 400 Nevada voters, which carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, 47.3 percent viewed Reid favorably, including 27.3 percent who had a very favorable view and 20 percent whose opinion was somewhat favorable.
Among the 46.8 percent who had an unfavorable opinion of Reid, 8.8 percent of those polled viewed him somewhat unfavorably, while a whopping 38 percent had a very unfavorable view.
Today, two political video media pieces were sent to me, which could not be any more different from one another. One is an example of interesting and thought provoking, while the other is an example of stodgy and standard.
The first piece was produced by CatholicVote.org, a faith based educational program dedicated to informing all Americans about the critical issues in the public policy arena.
According to their website, “Life: Imagine the Potential™ is our newest campaign designed for sharing on the Internet, and for use on broadcast TV. ” The campaign is focused on reaching beyond staunch pro-lifers, Americans who are either indifferent, or who have not yet thought about the great potential of every human life.”
The second piece is a spot released by Terry McAuliffe’s campaign for VA Governor. It’s the first television ad in the race, five months before the state’s June primary. He is truly defining ’slow burn’ strategy, this far out with TV.
According to POLITICO’s, Kraushaar, “The ad, airing in the Hampton Roads market, features a smiling McAuliffe at a famous Norfolk dinerBBQ joint declaring that “the best ideas don’t always come out of Richmond” – a dig at his two primary rivals who have spent years in the state legislature.”
While neither media piece appears to be edited using high end graphics or cinematic techniques, the catholic spot has much more value in terms of appeal. The music grabs your attention, while the chyron graphics keep you guessing with questions. It creates drama and makes the viewer think about the spot after it’s played.
As much as the Catholic piece provokes interest, The McAuliffe spot provokes boredom. It’s chyron graphics are tired and the look and feel of the spot equally passe. The spot could have been shot for a candidate in 2002 – really. It’s surprising, for a guy who has and can raise millions of dollars. With the amount of money McAuliffe is spending on the buy, months in advance, I would imagine much more would have gone into producing a much better spot.
Yes its bio, and yes it’s for raising name ID, but that still doesn’t mean all creativity is lost.
Brian Donahue is a founder and managing partner of CRAFT | Media / Digital, an integrated political and public affairs consulting firm, specializing in television media advertising, online media, direct mail and strategic communications.
August is here. Members of Congress use this much awaited recess to go home, listen to their constituents, and reconnect before the fall session. The recent controversy surrounding the cap and trade bill and the looming health care reform legislation has made this time interesting for Members of Congress as they go home and check the temperature of their constituents.
Very interesting study, aptly titled 
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