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