In this age of online politics, it is interesting to see how effective the Conservatives and Liberals have been at harnessing the web to get out their message and sway public perception.
Based on the sheer numbers, the Conservatives are crushing the Liberals.
The YouTube video of Stephen Harper performing at the NAC Gala as topped 170,000 views since it was posted on Saturday:
The punditry is call this a political masterstroke, the sort of video that actually changes people's view of the prime minister, and shifts votes.
The irony is that the idea came from Laureen Harper, and was not conceived of as a political move at all.
So how effective is the video? First, assume that the video is effective in of itself. No one watching can help but smile, except maybe for the most partisan Liberals. But an average Canadian voter, who might not have voted Conservative before, would be impressed by what he or she saw.
So it comes down to how many people have seen the video. At the time I'm writing this, the YouTube version of the video had been viewed 174,976 times.
An hour ago it was 170,275 times, so the video continues to rack up views.
This doesn't count the number of people who saw the CTV version of the video.
In contrast, consider the much ballyhooed Grit Girl videos. In total, the 17 videos have garnered 74,631 views. And that is over a period of 7 months. The latest video has been up for two weeks, and has had 91 views.
Just to help the Liberals out, I'm going to add in the Liberal Party commercials as presented on YouTube. You know the ones -- Michael Ignatieff in front of a forest backdrop droning on about something or other. There three videos are World View (61,605 views), Jobs (20,985 views) and Green Jobs (5,962 views). Total views: 88,552.
Add that to the Grit Girl ads, and you have 163,183 views, and not much hope of going up any higher.
The NAC Gala video has topped that in two days.
But then I've included the official Liberal Party commercials, but not the official Conservative Party commercials. On YouTube, the Conservative "Just Visiting" spots are Country (54,731 views), Arrogance (21,809 views), Hypocrisy (38,851 views) and Economy (7.106 views). Total views: 122,497.
Add that to the current tally is the NAC Gala video, and you have 297,473 views, nearly doubling the Liberal count.
And over half of those views are that video of Stephen Harper singing a Beatles classic. The video that people are saying is a game changer.
Total cost to the Conservatives? $0
You know that a sizable fraction of those views are from people who had seen an excerpt on the TV news, then looked for it online on YouTube so see the entire performance for themselves and to share it with friends.
Now that's viral.
Of note: A total of 1,834 people rated the NAC Gala video, garnering it a rating of 4.5 out of 5. The most viewed Grit Girl video, "Jim Flaherty on the Recession", only earned 56 ratings, also a 4.5. That means only 0.46% of the viewers of the Grit Girl video were impressed enough to bother giving the video a ranking, while just over 1% of the viewers of the Stephen Harper video were so inclined. Remember that people tend to vote for things they like, and simply click away from things they don't like without voting at all, among people who bother to participate in voting. So the score is less important (it will always be high) compared to the participation rate in judging whether a video is connecting with people.
The Final Insult: The Secret Outtakes video, in which Rick Mercer spoofs the Green Jobs video, has had 32,448 views, crushing the Green Jobs video (5,962 views) it was spoofing.
Comments