A couple of interesting videos appeared on YouTube over the last few weeks. First, on March 18, Twitter launched a video celebrating its fifth anniversary (yes, it’s only been 5 years!):
And then, on April 4, the Barack Obama 2012 Campaign released the following:
I was immediately struck by the similarities between the two – similar music, between 2 and 3 minutes long, with a series of sound bites by individuals, identified in white text at the bottom left, and a final fade-in of a catch-phrase. Coincidence? Probably. Twitter uses well-known individuals, while the Obama Campaign focuses on folks-like-you-and-me. But you can bet that in both cases, the outcome reflects the best market research money can buy. And it seems that – at least right now – if you want to connect with your customers, this is the style you’ll want to emulate, in terms of length, content, images, and overall structure. Oh, and put it on YouTube. And the cool thing is that anyone can do it.
By the way, I’ll be interested in seeing how closely the like/dislike counter at the bottom of the Obama video end up matching voter distribution. Unless those are all folks that tend to sit at home watching YouTube videos instead of getting out to vote.
