Yes YouTube Can?
Can John Legend and Scarlett Johansson have an effect on Barack Obama’s campaign? How about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? The Pussycat Dolls?
A lot has been written about whether YouTube will influence the upcoming election; it’s nothing new. But has anyone come up with an answer? Many of these videos are judged on how many people have watched, but as anyone in advertising will tell you: eyeballs are one thing, influence is another.
For example, an Apple “1984″ ad spoof depicting Hillary Clinton as Big Brother got more than 7 million views on YouTube and a huge amount of press, mainly around who the creator was. As information came out about the individual who created the video, the fact that it was one random guy who felt like making a smear ad weakened the influence of the video.
Recently, Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas produced a video (embedded above) that included 37 celebrities in support of Obama and was based around a speech he gave in New Hampshire. In just one week since it was made public, it has received 3.5 million views on its home site, Dipdive.com, and more than 7 million views on YouTube — one week, 10 million views. Plenty of eyeballs, let’s move on.
What stood out about this video was that it felt like the first political video that really carried some weight. While talk of young voters influencing elections has been a hot topic the past few presidential races, the reality is that this is the first year we are seeing a serious increase in young voter turnout — the New Hampshire primary showed a 14% increase in voters 18-29 over the 2004 race. The Huffington Post agrees that this year, young voters will be a decisive group.
As a member of this voter demographic, it is pretty clear that while there is significant motivation to vote, for the most part we don’t necessarily dig deep into the issues or policies of each candidate… And let’s be honest, they don’t differ that much. On the democratic side, more of the talk is about who would be best to beat the opposition in the general election. Whose character would most likely get ripped to shreds? The fact is, many decisions are being made and answers are being found through non-traditional and non-qualifiable mediums, like YouTube.
So, back to the video. Based on Obama’s “Yes We Can” speech, the video uses one of the most influential groups of people on young people today — celebrities. These aren’t the ones getting pulled over for DUIs or in bitter custody disputes. These are sophisticated, well-respected (and very attractive) celebrities fully endorsing Barack Obama and evoking emotions and memorability that hasn’t been present in other political videos. It doesn’t reek of propaganda and the celebrities come off as passionate and physically invested in the Obama campaign.
I do not intend to endorse a candidate here, but want to point out how the simplicity of the “Yes We Can” video combined with the emotion and passion it evokes succeeds in not only attracting more than 10 million viewers in a week, but more importantly, helps influence a now powerful, and easily influenced, group of voters.
It’s a successful combination of eyeballs and influence. While Obama Girl will make you laugh, “Yes We Can” brings out a whole different set of emotions, Obama supporter or not.
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