Obama on YouTube: How the Web Was Won

In the three weeks since the Obama "Yes We Can" music video was posted, 11 million people have seen it. Or maybe a few thousand hard-core supporters watched it non-stop since then, on continuous loop, 5000 times each. Either way, 11 million views represents one insanely successful viral marketing video.

Digging further into the Obama PR machine we see this isn't the first runaway hit helping his campaign. Obama's supporters and campaign organizers have led a brilliant Web 2.0 strategy for months now. A simple search on YouTube shows 1.3 million views for his response to Bush's final State of the Union address, 6.4 million views of "I Got a Crush...On Obama" featuring supposed superfan Obama Girl, and another 1.9 million views for ... wait for it ... "Obama Girl Returns".

Factor in the thousands of comments and hundreds of other videos, mostly positive, and we have the makings of the most successful viral web campaign in history. And thanks to smart leadership from the Obama camp, most of it is viral, user-generated content. That's the beauty of it, of course -- fan videos are far more credible and viral than official campaign propaganda.

Compare this to Hillary Clinton's presence on YouTube. It's nothing short of devastating. Fact is, the Clinton camp can't boast a single pro-Hillary video in the first page of search results for either "Hillary" or "Hillary Clinton". Listing current YouTube results for "Hillary Clinton" by relevance, we get, in the top 5:

1. An 11-month-old Clinton slam posted by a renegade Obama supporter. 4.6 million views. 24,000 comments.
2. Hillary Clinton Sings National Anthem. 1.8 million views and yes, it's worse than you think.
3. A brutal slam video called SwiftKids-Hillary Clinton, complete with little kids saying "Hillary Clinton is a thief".

What's up? The answer may lie in an early post entitled Is Hillary Clinton Abusing YouTube?, where two curious guys asked why the Clinton campaign didn't allow text responses to her own posted videos. "When only one person is talking, we wouldn't call that much of a conversation", they said, and are still saying, 290,000 views later.

Another reason can be found in social networking. Obama has 1.4 million "friends" across Facebook, MySpace, Latino social sites Batanga and MiGente, gay and lesbian site Glee, 50+ site Eons, and AsianAve. Clinton, in comparison, has just 310,000 "friends" in total and limited herself to Facebook, MySpace, and Eons.

Could Clinton's comparative marketing failures be a result of her own camp's heavy hand and lack of trust in Web 2.0 ways? Could Obama's success be due to his early encouragement for user-generated content, starting with his open acceptance of the Obama Girl video? Whatever the cause, he has 1.1 million more people calling him a friend, and his official YouTube Channel has 12.2 million views compared to her 1.4 million. In internet marketing terms, that's a compelling victory.

Follow Andrew Cherwenka on Twitter: www.twitter.com/andrewcherwenka

Comments

[rmreddicks]

video 2 goes a long way in explaining her campaign's present plight. Tone deafness.

Subliminally (her? me?) it sounded like she 'sang'

"whore the land of the...,"

[m4rk0]

She's too busy working with new inventions like the Xerox machine and 8mm video cameras.

[moda31]

you forgot to mention the youbama site, a whole site devoted to users posting their videos about why they support obama started by some college kids.

[wmfor]

Talk about Web savvy... there are issues that have been treated in depth on the Internet and ignored or glossed over by the MSM (that's a new term in itself due to the Internet). There are political policy arguments familiar to those on the Web that simply don't find their way into the newspapers of TV news.

I've noticed Obama picking up on lots of these and putting them forward for the general public.

As just one example, bloggers have been complaining for years about the Democrats' timidity when called shy on patriotism by the Repubs and neocons. Obama? He turned right around and pointed at the failed policies that are harming our troops and eroding our Constition, and then made it clear that these are the real results of lack of patriotism.

Well, haven't countless web analysts made the same argument? Finally, a Democrat has picked it up and hurled it back at the Right.

[wmfor]

Talk about Web savvy... there are issues that have been treated in depth on the Internet and ignored or glossed over by the MSM (that's a new term in itself due to the Internet). There are political policy arguments familiar to those on the Web that simply don't find their way into the newspapers of TV news.

I've noticed Obama picking up on lots of these and putting them forward for the general public.

As just one example, bloggers have been complaining for years about the Democrats' timidity when called shy on patriotism by the Repubs and neocons. Obama? He turned right around and pointed at the failed policies that are harming our troops and eroding our Constition, and then made it clear that these are the real results of lack of patriotism.

Well, haven't countless web analysts made the same argument? Finally, a Democrat has picked it up and hurled it back at the Right.

[ozamerican]

I think part of Clinton's problem is that she is totally out of touch with the web and how it is changing politics, in general, and campaigning, in particular.

A candidate can no longer hurl unfounded accusations and outright lies at an opponent without thousands or millions of people catching onto it quickly, thanks to the infinite resources of the web. Facts can be checked by anyone these days, whereas in the past, unless we had the time and resources to do our own research, we had to accept whatever was being served up to us by the candidates, their spokespeople and the media. The Clinton-style of drive-by character assasination simply doesn't cut it anymore because, thanks to the internet, we can no longer be played for dupes.

[BitJam]

I think you got it right. Clinton had a similar problem with her attack ads in South Carolina and Wisconsin. The Obama team was able to get response ads out in less than 24 hours so the responses could air simultaneously with the attacks. In both states Obama outperformed the polls by over 10%.

I think the Clinton camp was counting on it taking Obama's people several days to get a response out. The Clintons can't compete with Obama because they are stuck in a 1990's mindset.

[DemandTruth]

Wow. Going back and watching that first video again, how things can change in a year. When I first watched it, I kindof dismissed it, like ho-hum. That's kinda cool. Now, watching it again, it fits so PERFECTLY with everything that's going on in the two campaigns right now! How prescient of the creator! With the "authorities" coming up behind the Obama sledgehammer wielder at the end - the whole thing puts her campaign as it's running right now into perfect focus - all in a few minute clip! I guess the creator had the jump on me about how hope-dashing and inspiratio­n-dampenin­g and status-quo worshipping her campaign would turn out to be.

As a feminist, I really am sad it has to end this way. But I don't feel she has any respect for me, as a strong, independent, intelligent woman in my own right.