Barak Obama’s campaign shows it has been very thoughtful in using web 2.0 and social media to effectively spread a message. The two important aspects of this are: 1) to think outside of the box and 2) to engage your audience. These are lessons corporations and advertisers can learn from.
The video above, titled “Take Election Day Off” make’s its point clear, take a day off. It is not a collection of videos making several points. It is short, direct, makes very familiar references (such as the Wii-mote), provides comfortable chill music, and speaks to a broad audience: students and workers. What is really interesting is it seems this video was created specifically for YouTube and Internet consumption. Rather than recycling versions of advertisements (as seen by McCain’s use of YouTube), Obama uses YouTube to spread his message, ideas, and thoughts to those on YouTube and across the Internet.
While YouTube’s use and importance is well documented, the thought process in its use is the creative outside of the box thinking. McCain has several hundred videos, compared to the 1700+ of Obama’s, the difference here shows that someone is engaged in a platform while another thinks of it as an afterthought. It is further enhanced by the sorts of videos each candidate posts, McCain’s are advertisements that can also be viewed on television while Obama uses short made for YouTube video’s to talk to his supporters (such as this video below about not letting up.)
It is very interesting to see these two trains of thoughts attempting to reach the same goal. Each follows a model that companies and advertisers have used for years, in my opinion, Obama’s is more effective. Using YouTube for your campaign or to distribute a message is not thinking out of the box anymore. It’s what you do with it. If you are engaging them with content made specifically for that platform, then your beginning to look beyond the boundaries of the box.