Tag: viral marketing

The Viral Vote

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Four years ago I called the 2004 Presidential campaign the first “internet” election (see archived article here.) Things have progressed a bit since then and now campaigners are working hard to see who can get “the viral vote” by unleashing the most contagious, the most shared, the most viewed online content.

In the last week, I’ve received several emails encouraging me to check out various videos for Obama and for Hillary. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given my party affiliation that the McCain camp has left me alone (we’ll see if that continues after the conventions). I already wrote about the massive success of Obama’s “Yes We Can” music video. On Friday I received an interesting request from a strong Hillary supporter (and good friend) to not only check out a website but also pass it on to friends in specific states (“especially to Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wyoming and Mississippi”).

Since video views on YouTube appears to be a new measure of campaign momentum (and Barack appears to be winning this popularity contest hands down), my friend’s email also included a link to a YouTube site. Unfortunately for the Clinton campaign, she appears to be losing the viral vote. A quick review of various pro-Hillary videos on YouTube suggests that her most watched segment has only garnered 160,000+ views. Compare that to the over 5 million of Obama’s “Yes We Can” music video on YouTube and another 6 million or so on DipDive.com it is easy to see who’s got the “big mo” with the viral vote.

Since comedy also plays a part with the viral vote (remember “this land is your land”), I also wanted to share a bit of light satire that compares Barack and Hillary. Clearly, the creators of this are fans of the former as continuous clicking on the solitary headlines reveals lines like “Barack Obama subscribed to your feed” and “Barack Obama built you a robot.” The complementary but not complimentary Hillary site offers up such lines as “Hillary knows all the words to all Celine Dion songs” and inside jokes like “Hillary voted for Sanjaya,” a reference to a not so gifted American Idol contestant. Don’t forget to click on the headlines to see a broad set and to seek out your pop-culture maven if you don’t understand a particular reference (my son caught one of the references to a Lost, the TV show, character).

I’m sure you’ve seen other examples of the viral vote in action. Keep ’em coming.

UPDATE 2/28/07 from MEDIAWEEK:

As crunch time approaches in the Texasand Ohio primaries, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama has
launched an aggressive local Web campaign and first major Web effort by a presidential candidate to incorporate video. Mediaweek’s Mike Shields and Katy Bachman have the story.

For more details, and for breaking news throughout the day, go to http://www.elabs2.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=cc4,17l8,21,m887,kn0v,646q,7zwm

Is Obama a cult marketer?

Posted on by Drew Neisser

A reporter asked me the other day my thoughts on the Obama campaign and if it was a viral success story. Here’s what I said:

The Obama campaign is an unquestionable viral success and has all the makings of a cult. Obama’s “yes we can” music video has been an enormous success on YouTube with over 10 million views in under one month. That same video is running on a site called DipDive.com, which in less than three weeks has attracted over 6 million visitors. DipDive is ranked by Alexa in the top 7000 sites for US-based traffic [which is amazing given its short existence.] This is viral marketing at its best. By the way, my 17-year old daughter was the first in my household to see the video and she then shared it with the rest of our family. She had heard about it from one of her friends who linked to it from her Facebook page. And so it goes.

Obama has struck an emotional chord with millions of Americans. Not since JFK, has the word “charisma” been so often associated with a presidential candidate. People who know him speak highly off him. I was at lunch with a business associate in New York who had a good friend who knew him from Chicago. That friend heaped praise on him, sufficiently so that my friend in New York was prepared to support him even though she really had no idea what he had done or what he hoped to do. It is almost to the point of blind faith. And that’s what a cult is all about. Many want to follow a leader with a grand promise who exudes confidence. That’s Obama. He makes himself very easy to like. He makes it exciting to be excited about a candidate. My daughter, who turns 18 in August, will be voting for the first time this November and is simply thrilled at the prospect of casting her vote for such an exciting candidate.