Am I impressed or what?

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 05:38:20 GMT

I have to say I am completely blown away by the advanced level of marketing skills being displayed by the presidential campaigns in the market right now. I am seeing some pretty clever word of mouth, viral, grass roots efforts. I'm also blown away by the level of website functionality most campaigns are offering. Site like HillaryClinton.com and BarackObama.com are incredibly dynamic. They offer functionality websites on 3rd and 4th releases don't have. What makes me laugh about this is these websites will easily take 6 months minimum to build. Probably more like 10 months which means if you do that math all those statements the candidates made about not being sure they are in the race is complete bunk. These campaigns have been in the planning stages for a year minimum.

Can one candidate outdo the other? Will viral campaigns really draw voters? Only time will tell. But it's going to be fun to watch. Today I'll look at the Clinton campaign...

Case in point;

Hillary Clinton has an initiative called I Can be President directed at teaching children anyone can be president. The site has a mashup of Google Maps to locate people in your area involved in the campaign. This campaign completely leverages her differentiator, being a woman. It also says, if you are a woman or minority you too can be president. What's more adorable that children drawing posters. My opinion A+. She also has her own podcast series called HillCast (don't love the name). I'm less impressed with this effort because if you watch the podcasts they are like watching the evening news. This takes the spirit out of what a podcast should be. She is very rehearsed sounding with lots of makeup and fancy suits. Podcasts should be real and insightful, even a bit vulnerable. This podcast series is her way of saying what she wants to say on the news but doesn't get the air time. My opinion D. Of course there is the obligatory MySpace site. This site is very posed as well. It's written in 3rd person which is kind of creepy. Someone cut and pasted the standard bio into the MySpace template and it doesn't fit. She would do better to get someone a bit more savvy about these things to perk up her info. Again, D. As of now she has 2,346 friends. John Edwards has 14,519 friends on his MySpace. Will I vote for Edwards because he's more popular than Clinton? Is anyone else feeling that gawky this is high school pit in your stomach yet?

Technorati tags: social networking, politics, Hillary Clinton, marketing

Spaces goes to Sin City!

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:15:48 GMT

Spaces has announced the official launch of the Sin City Seven Sweepstakes! Entering the contest is easy: You just need to add 7 friends to your list of friends in your Space (who need to accept and add the same seven friends), select a team name, and ensure your Space features a blog entry, list module and the Expedia gadget developed specifically for this campaign!

You can check out the campaign at the interactive landing page here. Get your friends and get spinning!

Technorati tags: live Spaces, contest, vegas

Marketing today: campaigns

Am I impressed or what?

Spaces goes to Sin City!