Quite simply… Obama’s marketing team is kicking McCain’s marketing team’s arse. Don’t think so? Please point me to some huge wins by McCain’s marketing gurus. Now, I’m not getting political here. I’m talking about marketing. Politics is about marketing. Hint of proof: When was the last time one of these candidates talked about some real issues? They don’t.

Why? Because nobody wants to hear about boring issues really. You give the audience what they want to hear. That’s how you market successfully. So Obama’s team strikes yet another blow by announcing the party nomination is going to be an “open event“. Watch the video below where I explain why this is so smart.

A LOT can be learned from watching how smart politician market themselves. Keep your eyes open.

I live in Ohio, and that means that the big Ohio primary election between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is on Tuesday, March 4, 2008. That also means that since I’m an Ohio voter, I get tons of phone calls asking for my support days before the vote. The video below talks about all of those wonderful phone calls I got over the weekend. Ahh, politics…

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Have you been following the Presidential election race here in the USA? There’s some amazing marketing going on on both sides. This video talks about how you should watch these campaigns closely for marketing tips and tricks that you can use yourself.

The future of politics is going to rest on which candidate can hire the best marketing, PR and creative teams to produce non-traditional content… ie… the Internet.

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Loren doesn’t like the Hillary Clinton spoof on the Soprano’s movie. He thinks it’s a disgrace.

Let me just say this. I also think it’s a disgrace that our politics have turned into who can entertain the most. However, that makes me more disgusted for our country and our future as opposed to just being disgusted about Hillary. She’s just playing the game. Wait until the Obama team finally hires a good video company.

Look, this next presidential election is going to really open the doors for the next level of political fame, and I don’t think it’s necessarily a good thing. On one hand it’s great to see the candidates up-close and personal, but on the other hand, it’s scary to think that perhaps the person to be elected will be the person with the best video on YouTube.

Scared? I am.

Hillary Video.

Loren’s Response.

YouTube is once again helping change the face of politics as we know it. Thank God!

In this piece at the NYTimes…

The presidential debates are about to enter the world of YouTube, the anything-goes home-video-sharing Web site that puts the power in the hands of the camera holder. YouTube, which is owned by Google, and CNN are co-sponsoring a debate among the eight Democratic presidential candidates on July 23 in South Carolina, an event that could define the next phase of what has already been called the YouTube election, a visual realm beyond Web sites and blogs.

The candidates are to assemble on a stage in Charleston, S.C., at the Citadel (yes, the Citadel, the military school criticized by some Democrats a decade ago before it began admitting women). The questions will come via video submitted by ordinary people through YouTube. Moderating between the viewer and the candidates will be Anderson Cooper, the CNN anchor.

The video format opens the door for originality and spontaneity — elements usually foreign to the controlled environment of presidential image-making. Because visual images can be more powerful than words, the videos have the potential to elicit emotional responses from the candidates and frame the election in new ways.

Right on. Change in this system is not just good, it’s GREAT.

“It’s one of the biggest innovations we’ve seen in politics,” said Mike Gehrke, director of research for the Democratic National Committee, which has sanctioned the YouTube/CNN event as the first of six official Democratic debates this year (which means the party has coordinated them).

User-generated video, he said, is changing the balance in campaigns. “It used to be a one-way street,” he said. “It would cost a lot of money for a campaign to put together a good TV ad, then you had to buy time, put it on the air and later on Web sites. Now it goes the other way too, and you have people talking to each other and to the campaigns.”

Another GREAT sign. The balance is shifting back to the people in control of the information. I’m really looking forward to politics in the USA in the future.

I’m not so sure the old-school politicians are though.

Oh yeah, here’s the best part about all of this.

The footage will be available on the Web for anyone to mash up and create new videos.

Think about that? Users, regular people, will be able to take this footage and do with it what they want. Mashing up new videos and ideas and memes, etc… Powerful.

Personally, I’m afraid that this will backfire and a politician will get burned and then they’ll all refuse to participate in this type of thing. But we’ll see.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign team gets it. This video/contest is everything it should be. It’s funny, smart and generally entertaining.

But most of all, it’s a fresh approach to politics and it shows us a side of the candidate that we don’t see… the human side. This is what YouTube and online video is for, and this video is a great example of how to do it right.

Like Hillary or not, you’re looking at the future of politics in the United States. No longer will we be ok with seeing our candidates on TV only. We’re going to EXPECT them to be online, in our face, talking to us… asking us to talk back to them via our own videos, forums and blogs.

Future political decisions will be won online, by the candidate with the best creative team, and the candidate who can actually pull it off without it looking fake/genuine. Stake your bets on which candidate of yours you think could pull something like this off without looking fake. Can they? See them running scared?

Yet another reason why politicians are becoming more and more like rockstars. You MUST be able to perform if you want the job.

Disclaimer: I’m not so sure Hillary does pull it off.