Hillary Clinton Announces Candidacy with Video but Obama Wins the First Round in Viral Video Battle

Hillary Clinton just announced plans to run for the Democratic nomination for President with the formation of an exploratory committee.

Like fellow senator Barack Obama, she disclosed her plans by posting a video to her Web site. It went live this morning.

Unlike Obama's video which provides both an embed code and web address so it can be published on other blogs and web sites, the Clinton video (also in Flash) is not shareable. There is no embed code, "e-mail" button or even a distinct web address for the clip.

The Clinton clip is downloadable as Quicktime file, which is cool, but that's not a viable viral video strategy, in our opinion.

It will be very interesting to see how viral video is used in the presidential election. It's inevitable that candidates will communicate directly with the electorate with video. I think the most successful use of campaign video will be clips that can be shared easily.

In the election battle for the smartest use of online video, Obama wins this first one over Clinton.

-- Andy Plesser

Hillary Clinton, Campaign Video

Posted on 01/20/2007 at 11:36 AM
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Comments

Hey, many people I know are talking about the fact that Hillary Clinton lost the lead in Iowa... most of them think she will lose the election. Myself, I'm not sure. But I don't believe her message that "only the former first lady has the experience to bring about change"! Surely experience has more to do with political experience and knowledge, rather than merely being married to the ex-president. Anyway, I guess they keep their campaign messages fairly simple to appeal to people.

Posted by: Will Hillary Clinton be president? | Saturday, January 05, 2008 at 12:23 AM

And at 54 megs for a 1:49 message Hillary's video is by far the most bloated. Obama's was 12M for a 3 minute video and Edward's was 5.2M for a 2 minute video. Edward's wins on bandwidth alone.

Posted by: ed h | Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at 06:06 PM

While I agree with Robert Scoble and Robert P. that Edwards is way ahead so far, I would encourage people to check out Vilsack's use of online video as well:
http://blip.tv/users/view/TomVilsack

While he isn't doing as good as Edwards, I'd put him ahead of both Obama and Clinton.

And, I'd encourage people to remember HowardDean.TV and Iswitch2dean back in the 2004 cycle.

Posted by: Aldon Hynes | Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 05:42 PM

Not only that, but he had a phone conversation with bloggers from around the country the night before the announcement to tell them what was happening.

Posted by: Robert P. | Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 03:43 PM

Um, Andy, Obama hasn't announced for president yet.

John Edwards won this battle so far. He not only put his announcement up on YouTube (using a real videoblogger, Rocketboom, who filmed it) but he also met with dozens of bloggers, podcasters, and video bloggers in the first 48 hours of his candidacy.

No other candidate has come close yet to doing as much with online media.

Oh, and your books will go out on Monday. Sorry for the delay.

Posted by: Robert Scoble | Saturday, January 20, 2007 at 12:52 PM