'Macaca' Moments May Define 2008 Presidential Campaign
'Macaca' Moments May Define 2008 Presidential Campaign
Online video promises candidates immediacy and extended reach--and will amplify any unwitting mistakes
Candidates for the 2008 presidential election are scrambling to develop Internet video strategies. But "macaca" moments may define their campaigns as much as anything the candidates themselves plan for online video.
Service provider Brightcove said last week it had inked a deal with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to handle the Internet video for his presidential campaign. This before Obama even has decided he has a presidential campaign; in his first video on Brightcove, Obama said he's forming a committee to explore whether he should run.
Obama joins former senator and vice-presidential candidate John Edwards and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack in crafting Internet video campaign strategies. Internet video will "change the entire dynamic of the campaign, much the way Internet fund raising did with our campaign," says Joe Trippi, manager of Howard Dean's unsuccessful presidential bid in 2004.
But spontaneous moments may have more of an impact, as Howard Dean should well know. These presidential candidates will be under 24/7 video surveillance, in effect, from both cell-phone-toting fans and sophisticated videographers. Soon enough, a candidate will say something stupid, unknowingly, on camera. "It'll get hundreds of thousands of downloads," says Trippi, and that person will find that he or she has "critically damaged their candidacy in a way that wasn't imaginable in prior presidential campaigns."
That already happened in the 2006 Senate race in Virginia. Candidate Jim Webb sent an aide, S.R. Sidarth, to videotape opponent George Allen's campaign. At a small campaign stop, Allen noticed the videographer and referred to him, on camera, as "macaca," which sounded derogatory and which Allen never adequately explained. The embarrassing video broke first on the Internet, then was picked up by conventional TV outlets and contributed to Allen's defeat.
Internet video also gives candidates an advantage--the ability to talk directly to supporters. Edwards has invited many video bloggers, such as Andrew Baron, co-founder of the popular Rocketboom online video site, to have access to the inner workings of his campaign. Baron says Edwards told him, "I'm ready; let the cameras come and show everything." Internet video will allow the public to see for itself "who these guys are, understand that they're human, fallible, can mess up, but can fix it, too," Baron says.
For any modern politician, video blogging has to be part of a comprehensive Internet campaign strategy, along with podcasting and text blogging. But video blogging has advantages over text, says Robert Scoble, VP of media development for PodTech.net, an audio and video podcast network. Scoble is the author of the popular Scobleizer blog and says video and audio are more authentic than text. "In text blogs, I don't know who's writing. It could be the campaign staff," he says. "But when I see someone talking into a video camera, or hear their voice on a podcast, I'm pretty sure I'm getting them."
Brightcove looks similar to YouTube, but the two are very different: YouTube is designed for consumers to share videos, while Brightcove allows businesses to publish videos to the Web, says Adam Berrey, VP of strategy. Brightcove provides tools for organizing video assets and programming them into lineups. Brightcove also provides a branded, Flash-based player, as well as tools for reporting who's watching the video, controlling who has access to it, and allowing companies to put in ads.
For Obama, Brightcove will publish campaign videos, create an Obama channel, and help bloggers and other Web sites publish campaign clips. Berrey declined to disclose the specifics of the Obama deal.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196902215&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All
Online video promises candidates immediacy and extended reach--and will amplify any unwitting mistakes
Candidates for the 2008 presidential election are scrambling to develop Internet video strategies. But "macaca" moments may define their campaigns as much as anything the candidates themselves plan for online video.
Service provider Brightcove said last week it had inked a deal with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to handle the Internet video for his presidential campaign. This before Obama even has decided he has a presidential campaign; in his first video on Brightcove, Obama said he's forming a committee to explore whether he should run.
Obama joins former senator and vice-presidential candidate John Edwards and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack in crafting Internet video campaign strategies. Internet video will "change the entire dynamic of the campaign, much the way Internet fund raising did with our campaign," says Joe Trippi, manager of Howard Dean's unsuccessful presidential bid in 2004.
But spontaneous moments may have more of an impact, as Howard Dean should well know. These presidential candidates will be under 24/7 video surveillance, in effect, from both cell-phone-toting fans and sophisticated videographers. Soon enough, a candidate will say something stupid, unknowingly, on camera. "It'll get hundreds of thousands of downloads," says Trippi, and that person will find that he or she has "critically damaged their candidacy in a way that wasn't imaginable in prior presidential campaigns."
That already happened in the 2006 Senate race in Virginia. Candidate Jim Webb sent an aide, S.R. Sidarth, to videotape opponent George Allen's campaign. At a small campaign stop, Allen noticed the videographer and referred to him, on camera, as "macaca," which sounded derogatory and which Allen never adequately explained. The embarrassing video broke first on the Internet, then was picked up by conventional TV outlets and contributed to Allen's defeat.
Internet video also gives candidates an advantage--the ability to talk directly to supporters. Edwards has invited many video bloggers, such as Andrew Baron, co-founder of the popular Rocketboom online video site, to have access to the inner workings of his campaign. Baron says Edwards told him, "I'm ready; let the cameras come and show everything." Internet video will allow the public to see for itself "who these guys are, understand that they're human, fallible, can mess up, but can fix it, too," Baron says.
For any modern politician, video blogging has to be part of a comprehensive Internet campaign strategy, along with podcasting and text blogging. But video blogging has advantages over text, says Robert Scoble, VP of media development for PodTech.net, an audio and video podcast network. Scoble is the author of the popular Scobleizer blog and says video and audio are more authentic than text. "In text blogs, I don't know who's writing. It could be the campaign staff," he says. "But when I see someone talking into a video camera, or hear their voice on a podcast, I'm pretty sure I'm getting them."
Brightcove looks similar to YouTube, but the two are very different: YouTube is designed for consumers to share videos, while Brightcove allows businesses to publish videos to the Web, says Adam Berrey, VP of strategy. Brightcove provides tools for organizing video assets and programming them into lineups. Brightcove also provides a branded, Flash-based player, as well as tools for reporting who's watching the video, controlling who has access to it, and allowing companies to put in ads.
For Obama, Brightcove will publish campaign videos, create an Obama channel, and help bloggers and other Web sites publish campaign clips. Berrey declined to disclose the specifics of the Obama deal.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196902215&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All
posted by presgore19 at 10:51 PM
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