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The Death of Traditional Campaign Tactics, Part I

Submitted by Patrick Ruffini on Thu, 10/23/2008 - 20:47

The other day, the McCain campaign introduced by far its most inspired online initiative to date: its "Joe the Plumber" video contest. Today's very "I'm-a-PC" web video compilation of the submissions does not disappoint:

Contrast to this TV ad along the same lines, releases yesterday:

 

On what planet does the latter ad deserve to get released on TV, while the former gets put into narrow distribution on the Web. I'm very confident if you surveyed the next 100 people you met, all 100 would prefer the grainy, authentic, salt-of-the-earth "Joe the Plumber" web video.

This illustrates perfectly the yawning gap between TV and the Internet, and why it's not okay to just repurpose traditional TV content for the Web. If you're doing TV, increasingly your yardstick for success is becoming whether an ad has viral potential potential online. Your YouTube view count is usually a pretty gauge of whether your message has gotten through -- in both media.

And yet, some advertisers still believe that traditional TV advertising must be more formal and packaged up, that in this case, it has to use actors who are clearly not "Joe the Plumber" or his compatriots. But I believe these two contrasting uses of the same concept provide a teachable moment demonstrating why the traditional assumptions no longer rule. Not only is the web ad more folksy and authentic, but it makes a more compelling and substantive case for McCain's economic policies. What more compelling argument against Obama's tax-and-spend policies than real people -- and not fake real "man on the street" people --  talking about how Obama's tax increases hurt them?

The McCain people pledged to make a TV ad out of the videos, so perhaps a :30 or :60 version of this will appear in the coming days. And when it does, I hope they put more GRPs behind it than any ad they've done so far (and, before I forget, with the tagline: Share your story at JohnMcCain.com/Joe) -- because this is the best ad of the campaign so far.

See also: Why do TV ads suck so much compared to Web video?

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Comments

Authenticity works in either conduit

Submitted by Ironman on Thu, 10/23/2008 - 20:57.

The first ad would be better either on TV or the Net because the people in the ad are making personal heartfelt arguments.

In the primaries, I said McCain was selling a country song, Romney was selling spreadsheets. Evidently the Romney approach is taking root in the McCain ad camp.

 

mnmod

Submitted by mnmod on Thu, 10/23/2008 - 22:26.

I am tired of Joe the plumber and dislike both ads. Between the two I prefer the second for its brevity.  The longer ad features real people whose comments show that  they have been duped. Oh no-Obama wants to raise taxes on the wealthy back to what they were during the Clinton era of shrinking deficits and shared properity.  I believe  the country has been "socialist"  with a progressive tax code for nearly 100 years. Dems and repubs both favor govt spending, the difference is on what and willingness to pay for it through fair taxes.   Obama has the right prioriites with his plan to stimulate the economy through investing in clean energy and looking to the wealthiest (who are the only ones that have fared well in recent years) to contribute a bit more.

And raising taxes during a slowing economy is bad.

Submitted by Big Ben 4 liberty on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 10:48.

We don't need any tax increases at this point unless you want a prolonaged recession and an excuse to drive more large companies overseas, taking jobs with them.  The "progressive" tax code is antiquated and being used for social engineering purposes which is beyond what the constitution allows, which is to simply raise revenue.  Now, as for your Obama campaign talking points, I was doing fine until the economic slowdown and would defintely be worse of if Obama's economic plan were enacted.

Very good point

Submitted by Allen Fuller on Thu, 10/23/2008 - 23:25.

This is a very good point, and one backed up by large commercial advertisers as well. Take the current eTrade ads for example. They intentionally launched a whole campaign of TV ads intentionally created to look like grainy webcam video. It's very innovative and the McCain campaign would be savvy to embrace it.

I would be just as careful, however, of proclaiming the death of traditional campaign tactics as I was in 2000 of proclaiming the death of traditional business models. The Internet doesn't so much replace traditional outreach efforts as it enhances and augments them. The Obama campaign, for instance, hasn't found it's success by replacing traditional campaign tactics but rather by leveraging the Internet to make them better. His success in Iowa was a brilliant blend of a traditional GOTV ground game with cutting edge Web mashups.

We on the Right would be well served to seek this sort of integration -- as the Joe the Plumber ad does so well...

Fleeing communism

Submitted by josephcollins on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 12:37.

More immigrants fleeing communism/socialism!  It touches both immigrant communities and the native born population by contrasting the bad parts of the world with the freedom found in the USA.

Wish We Could See More of These Effective Ads

Submitted by ConservativeNH on Sun, 10/26/2008 - 05:04.

All his great, resonating ads are on YouTube.  While I would agree with Allen Fuller that you can't simply go without the traditional ad campaign, there have to be some of this "guerilla" ads mixed in -- especially because in this day and age and at this point in the campaign, the rest are simply ignored.  As soon as "I'm <insert candidate name> and I approved this message" is heard, people start to tune out.  In New Hampshire, we have one news channel.  The television channel, so at noon and six for the news there is nothing but campaign commercials.  I haven't seen a commercial product ad for two months!  There needs to be something to mix it up, and this ad is effective because the people in it aren't models and aren't actors.  They look like real people.  It really is effective and it quickly, succinctly, and powerfully gets its message across.

To mnmod I will ask how Obama's priorities are the right ones when he seeks to raise taxes anywhere.  McCain's are certainly not much better, but they don't encourage taxing those who are employing the middle class.  Class warfare as Obama's policies threaten to do are not the solution to our current economic problems.  I may despise -- and I do mean that: despise -- much of McCain's policy decisions and the direction he's going to try to take this country, but there is not going to be the class warfare rhetoric which will be damaging and destructive to this country.  There will not be the "us versus them" mentality.  That is critically important in these difficult times.

A Step In The Right Direction

Submitted by Squawking_Heads on Tue, 10/28/2008 - 00:07.

In this age of information we live in it's getting harder and harder for a candidate to make claims without someone digging up the past to prove them wrong.

The reason the "I am Joe the Plumber" ad works so well is McCain isn't attacking Obama like he usually does, he's letting the American people speak for themselves. How am I going to argue with any of these people? I don't know what their situation is like. Sure I could say they've been missinformed by McCain's campaign. Sure I could say there's no way he/she makes 250k. That's all speculation, there's nothing there to argue against.

I'm no economist (and I don't live close to a bank or stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night), so who am I to say that Obama's tax plan is going to work any better than McCain's? I'm sure even the economists can't tell us. All I have to go on is whose message sounds the best and frankly I haven't been impressed with most of John McCain's message.

McCain's "I am Joe the Plumber" is a good direction to be taking, but it's coming a bit too late in my opinion, but I guess we'll have to wait till election day (if not longer) to find out.