Web video

This is a different take on my Web video vs. TV post. This is a great conversation to have, particularly from Brian Donahue, one of the real leading lights of GOP advertising and author  of the must-read 30or60 blog. I'll be traveling over the next few days, but I'll have a response to this and to Josh's piece. -Patrick

Recently, my friend and colleague Patrick Ruffini, whom I respect dearly, posted on the subject of ‘new media’ versus ‘traditional media.’ The subject is a new lightning rod for political marketers and advertisers – especially the ones that fall into the ‘new media’ camp.

Here is a third approach – one that addresses the values and weaknesses of both forms of media and how they intersect, compliment and supplement one another. 

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The bottom line is – comparing ‘traditional media’ vs. ‘new media’ is like comparing apples and oranges, they are not mutually exclusive mediums for advertising and carrying messages – but different vehicles, that target different audiences, with different creative formats – each working best within their own confines of delivery.

Allow me to examine and respond to several of Patrick’s points: 

Patrick is right, web ads have frequently been a lot more memorable than presidential TV ads this cycle and there are a couple of good reasons for it.  The campaigns have been much more willing to take risks in web videos and fundamentally, television ads as a tactic are better suited to races further down the ballot.

TV ads also have to accomplish different tasks than a web ad.  A web ad’s two key goals are to draw eyeballs (“go viral”) and influence the press, while TV ads are primarily about defining a candidate in the absence of other information.  A voter who has met a candidate in person, heard about them from a trusted friend or read about them frequently in the news isn’t going to be nearly as influenced by a TV spot unless it includes radically new information.

This cycle we’ve seen great web videos and atrocious ones – but the successful ones have all been irreverent, “too long,” hokey or generally different from traditional spots.  In other words, they take risks.  It’s relatively easy to justify a risky web video because if no one watches you’re only out the cost of production.  Screw up a TV ad though and you’ve flushed the entire cost of the ad buy.  Even worse, if the ad really flops you’ve just paid money to drive your own numbers down.  

Ever since the "web video" made its debut in the 2004 cycle, it's been a tried and true tool used to move an edgier message into the earned media narrative without the costs or potential backlash associated with a broad television buy. The McCain "The One" web video is a perfect example of this, rising to over 947,000 views on YouTube, second only to the "Celeb" ad.

But with the noteworthy exception of "Celeb" and a couple of evocative McCain bio ads narrated by Powers Boothe, general election advertising has sucked this year. The quality and persuasiveness of web videos on both sides has easily outstripped anything produced by the safe, vanilla TV ad teams.

To underscore this, below is a grid of a representative TV ad and web video for McCain and Obama. You tell me which is more effective:

Best practices from Oregon. -Patrick

Rick Dancer, the Republican nominee for Oregon Secretary of State, has been chronicling his campaign travels across the state via web videos on his campaign site. As a down ballot race for an office most people have no clue about what they do, Dancer is using his web videos to tell people about Oregon, give them exposure to who he is, and weave in campaign issues.

Dancer is also playing to his strengths: He's a former, longtime news anchor/reporter from Eugene.

His opponent is a longtime Democratic politician, State Sen. Kate Brown, who is the Senate Majority Leader. As a blue state, most pundits and insiders think she has it locked up after winning a four-way Democratic primary. She seems to think this as well: she seems to be coasting, her website hasn't been updated since the Primary and Dancer has outraised her significantly since then.