Thursday, April 26, 2007

Video to Kill the Printed Star?

NOTE: You may have wondered why I have removed the latest Doughty Street Ad which I posted earlier this morning. Apparently I jumped the gun - it isn;t supposed to be released until next week - I'll re-post it then.

I found this video yesterday on ConservativeHome. It's made by Eastbourne Conservatives to promote their local election campaign. It's simple, effective and as ConHome says, it makes you feel like you'd want to be part of their team. This type of video campaigning is going to become hugely important. By the time of the next election all candidates will be doing it.



And this is from South Norfolk Conservatives. It's got a rougher feel than the Eastbourne video and is slightly less polished, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.



Is it possible that all parties will eventually campaign in this way and do away with printed leaflets, which they find difficulty in finding the manpower to deliver? I don't think so. The two communications mediums will always be complementary. But I do think video campaigning is now about to come of age.

15 comments:

Roger Thornhill said...

If you look closely on both vids you can see the Elephants in the room.

The problem is they talk about the nice things they do (recycling, social environment, recycling and of course recycling) but ignore all the other things that local councils do do yet should not, but we pay for.

Not impressed. Lets see a councillor resist the EU Regionalisation, sack "Diversity and Outreach Coordinators" etc.

Adam said...

Competent, well-executed and wonderfully lacking in spin (the merits of policy aside). But I do wonder who is watching this other than other activists and (i assume) the opposition.

If its part of a wider promotional campaign it might have value, but if its just sits on YouTube (and ConHome) and it serves little practical purpose.

Anonymous said...

Good Eastbourne video but the opening music made me cringe.

"Look how trendy we are!"

In a town known as God's waiting room.

Anonymous said...

It may be known as God's waiting room but in reality Eastbourne is changing. And let's face it these ads are aimed at a younger generation of voters - rightly so.
I like them and suspect they are being plugged through local association websites and literature. Goon on them for giving it a go - we will watch to see the results in those authorities and hope they are successful.

Anonymous said...

"It may be known as God's waiting room but in reality Eastbourne is changing."

I hope so. In my experience the younger generation in Eastbourne seems to consist worryingly of a large proportion of chavs.

"And let's face it these ads are aimed at a younger generation of voters - rightly so."

Why this assumption that young voters like trendy cheesy music? It seems almost patronising. I'm young and I can't stand it, I resent being spoken down to or treated like some clown who votes for parties because they have a "cool" sound on their election broadcasts.

Anonymous said...

Er ... the Arms Trade video is in the most prominent position on the front page of the 18 Doughty Street website, together with instructions on how to embed it.

David Anthony said...

It couldn't possibly replace printed media at the moment because the vast majority of people simply would not view the videos on the interent. How are they going to find them?

What I would like to see however would be political parties incorporating a CD ROM into election leaflets. Instead of the cheap local variations that are mailed out come election time, why not have a nationwide 'election pack'.

These packs will look a lot more professional and can then be used to link to the Party website where individual canididate sites would be published.

Mass produced CDs are relatively cheap to produce and once visitors have visited the website once you can update all your news to that from there on.

Chris Paul said...

are you sure you didn't remove the arms trade video because most of the comments said it was shit, racist and didn't get to to real problem ... white capitalists and their government (and opposition) lackeys in the developed world

would have been interesting ot see the Eastbourne etc stats without the Iain Dale plug

if it gets 500 hits they won't whether any of them are their voters or not

very clever

perhaps you should take that one down too

Anonymous said...

The Eastbourne video is excellent and was obviously made on a larger budget.

South Norfolk have too many images for too short a period of time.

Otherwise, it is certainly a form of campaigning that will do well among younger voters.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to their 'we want to hear what you really think' referendum site,they have a lot of email addresses to send video emails to.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to their 'we want to hear what you really think' referendum site,they have a lot of email addresses to send video emails to.

Wrinkled Weasel said...

I think the South Norfolk vid scores heavily because it is just so simple and so not done by coke sniffers from Islington.

By golly, it almost made me want to live in Norfolk.

Audrey said...

Is it just me or is there an echo in here? And Oh, God, the clothes and the accents! I think most Tories would do better to avoid the medium of video!

Audrey
www.frogend.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

>It may be known as God's waiting room but in reality Eastbourne is changing. And let's face it these ads are aimed at a younger generation of voters - rightly so.

I don't buy that. Internet access us across the age range - probably especially in Eastbourne.

And what is the age of most political bloggers?

Matt

Anonymous said...

Audrey
>Oh, God, the clothes and the accents! I think most Tories would do better to avoid the medium of video!

That's quite sad. I hope that at least in local elections we won't have the "tut, blondes are no good" or "tut, old codger" judgements coming in too much.

If you've got something to say, say it and stand behind what you say.

Matt