2008 Primaries, Branding Politix, Creative, Grass Roots Organization, New Media • March 17th, 2008

MoveOn beckons Web 2.0 to race

by Greg Batiansila

MoveOn.org, the outspoken left-leaning political website, is showing just how much the political grassroots landscape has changed in just one election cycle.

The site is calling on filmmakers, writers, directors, actors, editors, composers, graphic artists, and animators to use their creativity and create an ad supporting Barack Obama. MoveOn has even YouTubed their call to creative arms.

What you’re seeing and will continue to see is a move on the Internet toward social media, one where the audience creates content and essentially contributes in a conversation with itself and a website. The result is powerful – you give contributors their minutes of fame and priceless exposure, get free content, and engage the audience to share and contribute.

Politically, this is the first major step toward audience-created media that skirts campaign rules and campaign-driven “talking points.” If MoveOn.org posts its top 100 videos, and one or more are risky or take avant garde stabs at the opponent, both MoveOn and Obama can simply disassociate itself from the ad as something made by a novice and not from their campaign – even while displaying the ad under the context of a contest. But if something is truly moving and great, Obama or MoveOn can snatch the ad up and give it national play.

Locally, politicians could use the same platform to engage the electorate. What about a social site that encourages audience video of the worst potholes in your district? Or the most unsafe intersections? The candidate could then use the video to make their point (we’re responding – showing a follow-up of the district responding immediately; or it’s time for a change – let’s get people in office who can respond to these problems!).

Navigating today’s political arena requires something beyond a knowledge of HTML code and sound bytes. It requires a knowledge of forward-thinking strategies that will enliven the audience and might even give you some electorate-driven ideas for your campaign.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 8:46 am and is filed under 2008 Primaries, Branding Politix, Creative, Grass Roots Organization, New Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.