To date, I have not exactly been one of those who has bought into the beliefs that the Internet is the all-embracing solution of things. Nonetheless, it is a fantastic tool with its pros and cons.
How useful is it when it comes to public relations? Very useful if done right.
One of the most popular videos currently running on Youtube is featuring Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas fame promoting US presidential candidate Barack Obama. Cleverly done, entertaining and very likely to win him some votes.
When accessed today, some 6.7 million viewers had logged on to watch this roughly four minute long clip. And interestingly, Obama's PR machine fingerprints have not yet been linked to this product.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
youtube as a pr tool
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2 comments:
Obama’s campaign is mentioned all over the place, it has undoubtedly been a success online. As I’m writing this his campaign has 757,557 people adding him as a friend on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/barackobama). Much of the success I would say is due to him being able to inspire many young people, a generation who naturally are active on the internet. In the democratic primary election there are a record number of young people coming out to vote, and according to exit-polls a large majority of them are voting for Barack Obama.
Concerning Will.i.am he was quite active in John Kerry’s presidential campaign 2004 and has been an outspoken democrat for quite some time. It is interesting to see how he now instead of just giving rally concerts for the candidate uses the internet to reach the desired audience instead, with much greater success. The video has been posted on numerous blogs and showed in both political as well as entertainment programs on TV, the latter much due to the interest which has been shown online.
How much a music video with celebrities actually effect the voting outcome in the end is up for debate though, but it is definitely an interesting example of how the internet can be used to get a message across to a specific audience/public.
Interesting and a very informative addition to my post. Thank you Mattias. I did notice that the campaign is all over the clip but has the making of it been associated with Obama's PR machine? Did I miss that completely?
Well, whatever the outcome of that particular issue, this is a clever way of involving the younger generations in the campaign. I forwarded this link to my son (who to my major surprise had NOT seen this video) and he was highly impressed. If in the USA he'd be one of Obama's voters.
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