Regardless of what one thinks of presidential candidate Herman Cain, his team certainly knows how to get buzz out of internet ads. The smoking ad is a bit odd – but gets people talking. Here is his newest, He Carried Yellow Flowers:
Curious what our readers think of Mr. Cain. Will he manage to stay competitive or is he just the typical quirky candidate who fades when folks get serious after the holidays? New Hampshire loves to vote against the “Establishment” candidates (see 1996 and 2000, for recent examples). So normally I’d think Cain would have a shot there. But Romney has a pretty sizable polling advantage in the Granite State.
And I wonder how many folks are in the “Anybody But Romney” camp?? Seems like a big collective action problem in the way for those folks.
Caveat: one could be ABR without being anti-Mormon. Indeed, many of those people might be quite positive towards fellow LDS member Huntsman.
Cain has no ground game, no infrastructure of note. You can’t youtube your way to caucus and primary victories. Given that most members of the ABR camp are far more committed members of the ABO camp, I imagine that they will step into line when the time comes.
Whether Herman Cain or any other Presidential contender can YouTube his or her way to caucus and primary victories with YouTube ads could depend on whether voters take a significant political message from the ads.
One conservative writer made the following comment about the message of the ad:
Source Link: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/26/why-i-love-herman-cains-new-smoking-ad/#ixzz1c1A96zQW
If voters take the same message from the ad as did the writer, Cain could pick up votes because of the ad. That would be phenominal!
I’m rather afraid that I don’t take Herman Cain too seriously as a candidate. I also think that his support will ebb away in the next few months, and the only thing that will keep him in the race, barring a sudden abstention from dropping bizarre comments, will be a Republican desire to run a black candidate or an increased Tea Party hold on the GOP.
If forced to choose between the frontrunners right now, I think I would choose Romney. Strange as this may sound, it seems a bit refreshing to see a man who will say just about anything in order to be elected, rather than simply striving to impose an ideology.
@Grover
First-you and I are on the same page about the effect of the ad.
On my WordPress.com Blog Marcjan, I made the following comment in response to a question:
Second-the impact the ad may have in the GOP contest on voters who have clicked the You Tube Link and seen the ad could be phenominal.
As of 11:30 a.m. EST this morning [10-27-11] the YouTube stats on the video clip were running through the roof:
* 833,804 Views
* 2,411 Likes
* 5,470 Dislikes
* 5,596 Comments
* 327 Reactions
With those king of stats, there is little doubt that In the online community, the ad is generating a great deal of buzz, coverage and commentary. It certainly could be reaching a significant number of GOP voters in Cain’s base who may think it’s neat.
I enjoyed your article.
Visit my WordPress.com Blog Marcjan. It has a feature article and comments on Cain’s campaign. Link:http://marcjan.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/iowa-primary-is-it-herman-cains-high-noon/
I welcome comments from you and the commentators on your Blog.
Thanks for reading our blog and commenting. I’ll check out your post.
Those page views numbers are interesting – both for the total views and for the likes/dislikes ratio (which I’m a bit surprised at, actually).
@Grover
Much appreciated!
The Likes/Dislikes Ratio on the surface may seem unbalanced.
However, in online marketing, particularly in the field of online political communications and advertising, what counts more is the fact that there were X number of people who clicked the link for the video and viewed it, among which there were Y number of people who took the time to comment on the video some of whom took the extra step of clicking Like/Dislike.
All of that online activity generates buzz, commentary, uploads and media coverage which in turn generates more buzz, commentary, uploads and media coverage until a peak is reached. Thus, the shelf life of a campaign video ad and the exposure it may yield for a candidate may run for months.
So what’s known even as “negative reinforcement” is good news for online marketing. The number of “Dislikes” itself is a generator.
Adam Gavriel, a marketing student who is also studying political science has wriitten a good article on the topic in which he said:
Source: Adam Gavriel, “HERMAN CAIN’S LATEST COMMERICAL,”
Posted on the Getting CT Right Blog-Link:
http://gettingctright.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/herman-cains-latest-commerical/
Gavriel’s article is worth reading.