In what is a very under-reported national story, the Sarah Silverman-led Great Schlep may have achieved moving votes over to Obama in highly contested Florida. This election is going to be very close. Florida, like in 2000, will be key. Here’s the updated poll numbers of the Jewish vote by Quinnipiac University:
Florida
Among those who say they already have voted in Florida, Obama gets 48 percent to McCain’s 44 percent, a statistical tie in this smaller subgroup. .
Looking at all Florida likely voters, men split with 46 percent for Obama and 45 percent for McCain. Women back Obama 51 – 42 percent. The Republican leads 52 – 41 percent among white voters, 71 – 23 percent among evangelical Christians and 51 – 40 percent among Catholics. Obama leads 49 – 39 percent among Hispanics and 77 – 20 percent among Jews.
If Obama wins Florida, he’ll have a lot of Jewish grandchildren to thank.
I recently posted about the difficulty in planning for a video to go viral. Sarah Silverman’s the Great Schlep is possibly one of the best viral efforts in recent public affairs memory NOT just because the video has been seen over 925,000 in three weeks, but because the video was part of a call to action that resulted in actually moving people to act.
Cute and comical…yes. But this effort is also a great example of how mixing Web 2.0 tools (web video, blogging and social network sites) and “boots on the ground” can play out in a major battleground state.
Let’s not forgot the slim 500+ vote margin of victory that propelled George W. Bush to victory over Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. That vote margin again could be the difference in 2008. And, the effort made possible by the Web 2.0 tools could actually be the difference for Obama in Florida.
The lesson here is the formula. Web 2.0 is best when coupled with a way to connect ideas to people and then people to people. Most importantly, if the people to people connection can be brought to real life, then the public affairs effort is a winner. It’s worked in local campaigns and now in this subset of the presidential campaign.
Silverman’s video was financed by the Jewish Council for Education and Research, a PAC. But I have to believe the content was Sarah’s genuine feelings about the election put in her very own special way. I say that because I would bet that Silverman would not agree to be scripted by an outside institution.
What was so good about it? I think above all else, it’s authenticity. Sarah put her own style, career and personality out on the line to make a point. Some could argue that they don’t agree with her style, but that’s not the point I’m making. The fact that she was so authentic made her viewers feel like she was talking directly to them. So many younger Jews have grandparents in Florida, and even though she pushes the envelope on acceptability, many can relate to her.
Not to be outdone, two days later I get the response to Silverman’s call for convincing Jews’ elders residing in Florida to vote for Obama that voting for Obama is not in American Jews’ best interest. The messenger?…Jackie Mason.
Now, I like Jackie Mason, just like I like Sarah Silverman. Mason’s video was sponsorsed by Republican Jewish Coalition. But Jackie wasn’t able to pull off Sarah’s viral effort that has been over 7 million times in two weeks.
Why? I believe that trying to plan a viral video response to an already viral video has fallen flat time and time again. Look at all the McCain supporters’ answers to the Obama supporters’ viral successes, like Obama Girl and the “Yes we Can” video. None of those attempts at a viral response went anywhere.
Let’s return to the Jackie Mason video. The result? A very bland and not very memorable video. Let’s put it this way, people in my office were talking about Sarah Silverman this morning, not Jackie Mason.
The lesson here is authenticity is key. Things take off because the message is real and it resonates with people. Video response that hope to go viral don’t have that authenticity and they don’t have a voice of their own.
You can’t plan to have your marketing be viral. You can do the best you can to ensure it is easily shareable. But, we can’t lose track that good content and speaking directly to your audience in a way they understand is a key public affairs and communications strategy to success.
