Capturing the millennial vote with video

Jonathan Bowers, February 8th 2008, 3:28PM

In the film Wag The Dog, Robert De Niro is a spin-doctor drafted in by the US Government in a time of crisis. The President has been accused of sexual misdemeanours with a firefly girl and it's about to hit the news just weeks before Election Day. De Niro needs a diversion and he turns to Dustin Hoffman's Hollywood producer to create him a war - something that will unite the American people behind their leader. The information is delivered to the people via TV and newspaper. In the end, the President is re-elected and the manufactured war actually turns into a real concern.

It is a clever film and a great watch - but ten years later, it would never work. Why? Because the internet would easily have exploded the myth Hoffman created. And millions and millions of people today are influenced by the information they access online. The television is still of course a massively important conduit but the internet like never before has the capability to create a majority. Few understand this better than the US Presidential candidates who are well aware that there is an online battle to be won.

In this battle Barack Obama appears to have the upper hand - as well as a little help from his friends. The Viral Video Chart reveals that a new video posted just 6 days ago has already been viewed by over 5 million visitors. It has been linked to by more than 2000 sources and commented on across all social media platforms by many more. The video is the 'Yes We Can' Obama Song by Will.I.Am.

As The Campaign Spot (National Review Online's blog) points out and as De Niro knew a decade before, Hollywood can provide a very powerful message. It is no wonder that 18-30 year olds (the millennial voters) are turning out in record numbers. It is also no surprise that Barack Obama is winning the majority of this vote on nearly every occasion.

Tags: pr, video
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Direct response marketing is big for b2b

Jonathan Bowers, April 20th 2007, 4:49PM

The Direct Marketing Association in the US has done its first major survey focussed on the b2b sector, discovering that the biggest single area of spend is direct response communications.

The most interesting finding for me is that the US statistics separate off online marketing and online PR (termed new media). Within direct response communications, online marketing is now the second largest focus taking 18.8 per cent of the budgets. While Online PR has a much smaller budget and appears as the smallest area mentioned (at 1.5 per cent) it is great news that companies are taking blogs and RSS and other such tools seriously enough to acknowledge its worth.

I doubt that we would find such a statistic in the UK just yet but am sure from talking to businesses and PR professionals that we are quickly moving in that direction.

Tags: marketing, pr
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Will PR need journalists in 5 years time?

Jonathan Bowers, July 11th 2006, 4:53PM

An interesting question came up last week at the CIPR Northern Conference in Leeds.

Julia Hobsbawn had just been talking about how new media has changed the landscape in terms of reporting news and the rise of the columnist within newspapers.

The question was 'We know journalists can't do without PR, but can PR now do without journalists?'

I agree with Julia's answer, which was that we will need journalists as they are still a quality gauge and as such consumers have built a level of trust with them that the Internet is still some way off reaching.

Even when a business press release appears almost unchanged in a paper, it is much more credible for the public, because it has been chosen to appear on the pages of the publication than if it were on the company's website.

Trust is still the most important commodity in terms of reaching an audience, but I wonder how long will it be before the Internet and globalisation make this less important and if they do, what might the world's most important commodities become for reaching consumers in our global marketplace?

Tags: pr, trust
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Podcasting from the CIPR

Jonathan Bowers, June 29th 2006, 5:51PM

I'm starting to look forward to the UKFast podcast from the Northern conference of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations on July 6th.

When you think about it - podcasting is a perfect form for this kind of information exchange. The organisers will not want to reveal everything from the event - as it devalues the experience for the delegates. At the same time they want to create a flavour of the day to raise the profile of the event, entice professionals in the sphere along to future conferences and promote their remit as a resource for the latest information on PR.

I'll be plugging in to the mixing desk as well as catching up with the keynote speakers for more relaxed chats in order to put together an overview of one of the most important events in the PR calendar.

If you'd like to get hold of a ticket then try Don't Panic, the event organisers and I'm sure they'll be able to help you out.

Perhaps I'll see you there and get a short interview out of you for the podcast?

Tags: podcasting, pr
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