Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Is yeswecan the Defining Moment in Political Viral Marketing

While most sports fans last week were getting ready for SuperBowl Sunday, one of the defying moments was taking place in this years presidential campaign. And it took place online, at Dipdive.com with The Yes We Can Song.

As I am writing this on Sunday afternoon east coast time, the YWC video has been viewed over 3 million times on YouTube in just over a week and has garnered over 20,000 comments. Within the next week it will probably become the most viewed political video of all-time on YouTube. And these figures don’t count the number of people who’ve heard the song on Dipdive.com.

The video was created by the Black-Eyed Peas’ will.i.am and involved the participation of 30-odd famous musicians and actors like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Tatyana Ali, Nick Cannon, Common, Kelly Hu, Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Nicole Scherzinger and Kate Walsh.

CNN said about the video:

With just a few days to go before the critical Super Tuesday primaries, Black Eyed Peas’ frontman will.i.am and director Jesse Dylan, son of legendary musician Bob Dylan, have released a new song featuring a host of celebrities and one very unlikely music video star: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
“Yes We Can,” released Friday, is centered around footage of the speech the Illinois senator gave after the New Hampshire primary last month.
The music video includes excerpts from that Obama speech and appearances from celebrities including jazz artist Herbie Hancock, former LA Lakers captain Kareem Abdul Jabbar, singer John Legend, model Amber Valletta, actresses Kate Walsh and Scarlett Johansson, and others.

The video stands out from other user-generated content in that is looks and sounds professional. But that does not take way from the power of the video and the impact that it is having. The viral nature of social media means that 3 million plus people have watched a 4 ½ minute speech by Barack, and it did not cost his campaign anything.

Purchasing four and a half minutes of national TV airtime would have been near impossible. But through social media marketing the Obama campaign is able to reach its out to its young enthusiastic demographic base, further demonstrating that he is the candidate of change.

I have always thought that the Internet would play an important role in this years election, and this video shows how the Obama camp and his supporters understand the power of social media much better than any other candidate.

Article Source: http://social-media-optimization.com/

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