The mid-term elections of 2006 will go down in the history books as a watershed in new technology campaigning. MySpace, YouTube, text messaging, Second Life and, of course, blogs play, if not lead, then important supporting roles in the campaigns of almost all candidates at every level of government. Now, Internet video phone company SightSpeed is hoping another trend catches on with candidates: video email.
SightSpeed is best known for its web-based video calling or conferencing service, a free option that delivers pretty good two-way video communications. (Just like Skype, SightSpeed offers its free service in the hopes that consumers will upgrade to premium options). SightSpeed offers a video email service, also free (but again with premium upgrades), and it’s this option that at least one political campaign has deployed.
Campaign strategists for Democrat John Garamendi, who is running for Lieutenant Governor in California, decided to send a video message from the candidate to around 1,100 supporters as a test of the service. The video, embedded as a link in emails, worked well, according to Garamendi’s Director of Strategy and Outreach Terry Leach.
The open rates on the emails were high, twice that of traditional email, in all likelihood because recipients were intrigued about the notion of receiving a video message from the candidate. “We’ve used it twice and we intend to use it again in two-and-a-half weeks,” Leach said. “In a statewide campaign you can’t possibly get your candidate in front of all the voters” so SightSpeed’s video messaging, which can be highly individualized for groups large and small, is the next best thing.
“It’s much more like a handshake” than a TV commercial, said Dan Miller, managing director of venture investment firm the Roda Group, which backs SightSpeed. “Why do candidates go out and shake as many hands as possible? Because it’s a very effective thing to do. But you can’t do it on a grand scale.”
Miller himself, former President of AskJeeves, spurred SightSpeed’s entrance into the political campaign world by a chance encounter with Leach. “He walked up to me literally in the park” and asked if SightSpeed’s video email might be helpful to Garamendi’s campaign, Leach said. She took a look and thought the idea of sending targeted video emails is “the marriage of the old style person-to-person campaigning with new technology.”
Garamendi’s use of SightSpeed’s service, which is free for 30-second video messages but costs only $5 per month for two-minute video messages, has attracted more allies to the candidate. “A very large environmentally advocacy group wants John to share information on a regulation that would bar municipalities from regulating land use. They’ve asked him to use SightSpeed to share why he’s concerned about this particular proposition,” Leach said.
The idea of targeting particular niches with video emails is really the key to effective use of SightSpeed’s system, Miller says. “You can target it to particular niches of supporters. You can target your message specifically to them,” making video email even more effective than TV commercials, which, by necessity, are pitched very broadly.
All the candidates need are a video camera and a free (or almost-free) SightSpeed account. The low cost of the option was appealing to Garamendi’s campaign. “It’s very difficult to assimilate great ideas when you don’t have resources in a campaign,” Leach said.
But sending out video emails en masse, or even to selected groups of people, has downsides. “One of the dangers of it is it’s new,” Leach said, and some people don’t understand it. The very notion of sending out video seems like a big step — political analyst Bill Bradley (not the former Senator) referred to Garamendi’s video email not as an appeal or a pitch but a “plea,” a charged term invited by the impactful video-ness of the missive.
Another danger is that “it’s not a professional media spot,” Leach said, just the candidate and a video camera. The simplicity probably works well with some candidates but could prove fatal to others.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 4:07 PM | Print | Comments (0)
It’s 9/11 and it’s the fifth year after the attacks. Commemorations are everywhere, including, of course, all over the web. These kinds of “anniversary” remembrances are very helpful to those still grieving (and for most traumas of this magnitude, the grief is fresh for years) but for me, I’d rather not revisit that day. I still remember very clearly how I learned of the attacks, what I felt, what the weather was like, who I talked to and what I did that day and the next.
I don’t feel particularly compelled, then, to go back and recall everything. But for those who do, the web has plenty of video content made on September 11, 2001 and shortly thereafter. CNN has a remarkable offering on its Pipeline service: a “history” day that replays all of CNN’s original coverage that day.
CNN’s replayed coverage began at 8:30 a.m., minutes before the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York and it continues through midnight. Pipeline is usually a premium access-only site, but today CNN is offering the service for free. (Demand must be high because I can’t get onto the site.)
Another place to turn: filmmaker Steve Rosenbaum, who created the critically acclaimed film “7 Days in September,” is making that movie available through September 15 at no charge to viewers on Google Video (direct link to film here). That film, originally shown in theaters, captured the emotions of those who shot footage on the fateful day.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:49 PM | Print | Comments (0)
The New York Times’ Fred Bierman has this piece today on Amp’d Mobile, the MVNO backed by MTV Networks and Universal Music, among others. Bierman uses as his jumping off point comedy writer Donick Cary, who has developed an edgy parody of the Bush Administration called “Lil’ Bush.”
Amp’d let Cary, who was a writer for “The Simpsons,” “Late Show With David Letterman” and other top-notch comedy shows (but nonetheless was having trouble finding the right work), have free rein to create what he wanted. The result is a mobile phone entertainment series with truly original content.
Amp’d, which also streams live TV channels from Fox Sports and Spike, in addition to selling video games, other original video creations and music, is pricey - $30 to $150 per month. But, the original content is obviously a big draw. Amp’d generates an average $100/customer per month and just finished its third round of financing, raising $150 million in the process.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:21 AM | Print | Comments (0)While search giants Google, Yahoo! and others have come under fire for helping Chinese authorities with their censorship regimes, other U.S. tech suppliers are apparently aiding Chinese police by supplying them with the latest in information technology…which can be used to trap criminals or political dissidents. Business Week has this special report on how Cisco, Motorola, Oracle and other U.S. tech leaders are actively selling technology to Chinese police in a way that potentially violates American export controls put into place after the Tiananman Square massacres in 1989.
Those restrictions bar U.S. companies from exporting “any crime control or detection instruments or equipment” to China. And yet, American IT and technology companies are, apparently with the Commerce Department’s blessing, not only selling these instruments and equipment to China but actively promoting their use for the repression of political unrest.
Some American companies have gone out of their way to appeal to the Chinese government’s pronounced concern about avoiding unrest. In Chinese-language brochures distributed at a police-technology trade show in Shanghai in 2002, Cisco repeatedly referred to its gear with such phrases as “strengthening police control” and “increasing social stability.” Cisco, based in San Jose, Calif., says there’s nothing unusual about its marketing in China. “We sell to police organizations in many countries,” says Rick Justice, senior vice-president for worldwide operations. “We do business [in China] the way we do business anywhere.”
The Commerce Department defends itself by saying that the technology is used to catch “criminals” (but oddly enough, Commerce bars the shipment of such useless items as handcuffs to China.) Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA), who helped draft the law that bars the sale of crime control or detection equipment to China, is appalled.
But Lantos, the California congressman, says the sanctions have been undermined. “The Commerce Dept.’s decision to interpret the law narrowly is absolutely unconscionable,” he argues. “By allowing American companies to sell high-tech computer and communications devices to the Chinese police, our nation is directly aiding in the suppression of political dissent in China.”Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:58 AM | Print | Comments (0)
Just about the time Jeff Pulver’s Video-on-the-Net conference is getting into full swing tomorrow, Apple’s iconic CEO Steve Jobs will be unveiling something big. By now everybody knows that one item on Apple’s agenda tomorrow is the announcement of movies for sale at iTunes, with Disney presumably the first studio to agree to sell feature-length films on the popular video and music portal.
More speculative is whether Apple will finally release its bigger screen iPod — I say yes, because why announce movies and not the better device on which to watch them? What point would Apple have for delaying the bigger screen iPod marketing push when it dovetails so nicely with long-format video content such as films?
Now, the New York Times’ John Markoff is suggesting another juicy tidbit for tomorrow: one or more announcements that center on the delivery of video straight into living rooms. Apple of course makes computers and one rumor (sounds like real guesswork to me) is that Jobs will announce living-room-ready versions of the company’s least expensive computer, the Mac Mini.
Another “possibility” is a Wi-Fi technology that connects Macs and PCs. We’ve all been through this before with Apple — speculation about what exciting new products Jobs will announce reaches a fevered pitch the day before these oh-so-effective marketing stunts.
As if selling movies on iTunes and a bigger screen iPod weren’t enough…whatever happens tomorrow, it’s bound to be the talk of Video-on-the-Net.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 7:53 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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