All this fuss over a concession speech.
Addressing supporters after the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary won by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama oozed the sort of charisma Mitt Romney would have killed for in his campaign. It so galvanized Will.i.am of the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas that he created the “Yes We Can” Internet video around it.
The 4-minute, 30-second clip — released on Super Bowl weekend — became an instant viral hit and has brought more than 10 million views to its host website and nearly 4 million to its various YouTube pages. Traffic to Obama’s website increased so much last week that it was temporarily overwhelmed.
The black-and-white video collects celebrities such as John Legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Scarlett Johansson and Herbie Hancock to speak and sing along to a video of Obama while an acoustic melody plays in the background.
Simple, but effective.
“The video recognizes one of the core attributes of a great YouTube video, which is the mash-up,” said Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube. “They’ve taken existing footage and re-edited it to have a different meaning. . . . This mastered that medium.”
Obama supporters may have done it best, but they are far from the first. Other candidates and their supporters have been using YouTube to raise awareness since the start of the presidential campaign. Seven of the 16 major candidates announced their bids on YouTube, and all host their videos at .
“It provides candidates with a lot of opportunities, particularly with campaign-finance laws as they are,” said Rob Fairbank, a former state representative working locally for Sen. John McCain’s campaign. “You can use the Internet for all sorts of free advertising and to communicate with your supporters.”
YouTube’s Grove said that when politicians make themselves accessible online, it empowers supporters to do the same.
“The ‘Yes We Can’ video is infinitely more powerful because it was made by somebody outside that campaign — this idea that it comes from the grass roots and not from somebody who works on his staff,” he said.
Witness the heartfelt but less successful tribute to Clinton, set to Alicia Keys’ “Superwoman.” (It later was yanked by RCA, Keys’ label, over copyright issues.)
“That’s the one thing I kept having sent to me . . . (although) it’s not entirely clear to me yet what impact it really has,” said Tyler Chaffee, state director for the Clinton campaign.
Thousands of other videos — official or not — sing the praises of Ron Paul, Romney, Mike Huckabee and McCain on YouTube. And they draw wildly different responses.
“John McCain is the ONLY candidate with the honor, courage and commitment to lead our country,” commented jtellez1988 on the video “Courageous Service.”
“John McLame is a freakish pathological liar who makes Bush look smart. VOTE RON PAUL!” commented jonmcelroy1 on “John McCain vs. John McCain,” which has drawn 372,000 views and 2,259 comments since being posted last year.
Plenty of eyes to catch
There is no question the market for Internet videos exists: 77 percent of all U.S. Internet users watched a video in December, according to ComScore, averaging about 3.4 hours per month. That comes out to 10 billion videos viewed in December in the U.S. alone, with YouTube accounting for about a third of them.
“There’s a certain amount of luck where something just rises up like that, and if we had done 100,000 views, we would have been happy,” said “Yes We Can” director Jesse Dylan, son of music legend Bob Dylan. “It’s always possible for any candidate to do that, but I can’t imagine people coming out for McCain in quite the same way.”
The media frenzy over “Yes We Can” has not hurt, either. The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, National Public Radio and a half dozen other outlets have devoted considerable ink and airtime to the video.
“That video and the broader viral videos on YouTube are reaching potential voters who don’t watch the TV news and don’t read daily newspapers,” said Josh Freed, spokesman for the Obama campaign in Colorado. “There are significant numbers of young voters coming into the process for the first time, and any effort to bring them in is helpful.”
The attention “Yes We Can” has garnered no doubt contributed to Obama’s fundraising streak over the last two weeks. As of Friday, Obama had raised $7.3 million to Clinton’s $6.4 million since Super Tuesday.
“Yes We Can” cost less than $10,000 and took three days to shoot — impressive considering its 36- member cast. The official Obama website embedded the YouTube clip and encouraged supporters to share it with friends.
But does it actually translate to votes, or is it preaching to an already vocal choir?
“I don’t know that it’s going to make a difference,” said John Hart, president of Nashville, Tenn.-based Bullseye Marketing Research. “It’s just like a song — it goes deeper than that. I give young people the credit of being a little more intelligent than just following a candidate because they like a certain rock band.”
Hart likened viral video campaigns to a tinder-dry forest.
“When the climate is right,” he said, “any match will do.”
The YouTube effect
Taking on McCain
Rather than building support, some videos try to take down candidates, like the one above targeting John McCain.
A man of the Founding Fathers
Ron Paul has had much success on the Internet, thanks in part to videos like this one featuring the Founding Fathers.
Huckabee and star power
Mike Huckabee’s Internet videos and TV ads have made use of a high-profile backer, actor Chuck Norris.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
