Taking Control Of Your Election. Empowering Yourself On Election Day.

Like most people around the world, on November 4, 2008 I was eagerly awaiting the results of the US Presidential Election. Like most people around the world I am extremely happy at the sheer number of people who turned out to vote, that the youth showed that they are not apathetic about the electoral process and that a change is going to come to America. While watching the election results roll in across the country on CNN.com something other than the number caught my interest, the analysts were discussing Twittervotereport.com and the impact that it is having on Election Day. Twitter is a social networking site, which is known for its short, quick communications. For the Election Day a group of volunteers got together and gave people the means of communicating across the country anything to do with election coverage. There were updates on wait times for voting, mechanical malfunctions, stations that were running out of paper ballots, citizens helping citizens find the correct voting location, and any irregularities that occurred on Election Day including an instance in North Carolina that McCain supporters were yelling at Obama supporters to go home. Voter advocacy groups and news organizations used this, and other forms of high-tech tools that were used for election coverage to help find their stories and further ensure that they too could report on any irregularities and try to fix them. This was a way of empowering the citizen again and giving them the opportunity to control their own destiny.
Obama’s campaign and the actual use of new media on Election Day shows the impact that a well organized interactive campaign can have on a brand. Obama, during his 21-month sojourn to the White House, branded himself and used interactive ways of communicating in order to increase his support and increase his awareness. In the coming months there will be analysis done on how he was able to use media to his advantage. His campaign can be a great case study how to harness media for your own brands. It shows the power of social media, how it can truly get people motivated, get people involved, motivate and encourage them. His campaign shows that SMS and social networks, used properly, do have the means today to mobilize people behind an idea. Interactive communications isn’t the future of advertising it is the today. Clients and agencies need to be looking now at how interactive communication channels can be used today to get the message out to consumers. Further, twittervotereport.com shows how, positively or negatively, consumers can take up their own movement. We are reaching a time grassroots social media is growing, people are taking it upon themselves to control their own destiny and what brands will receive the most attention. It is important to do something that will motivate these groups to take on your cause and pass it through different media.
The 2008 election was a picture of the future, using social media, text messaging and the various interactive means of communicating to truly make an election democratic, giving to power back to the voters to control their own destiny. It made the election constantly on the forefront of people’s minds, with constant updates and news delivered direction to the people. It made them whistle-blowers and journalists making sure that down to the last ballot was filled out, everyone citizen who wanted the chance, got to vote in this historical election, weren’t turned away from their right to vote, and were made aware of wait times and technological malfunctions. It gave the idea of democracy a fresh start at a time when a change is needed for the world, hope was restored that the system can work and new, interactive forms of communication were harnessed in the right way to create huge awareness and impact.

The Beginning of the End of the Print Newspaper

This week the headline that caught my attention was Christian Science Monitor to End Daily Print Edition, which was in the Globe and Mail on October 28, 2008. The article discusses the fact that the Christian Science Monitor will stop producing its daily print edition and focus on publishing all its information online. From now on it will just publish a weekend edition. The Monitor was one of the first newspapers in the country to put content online and is now the first national newspaper to drop its daily print edition. The paper has been forced to do this due to financial pressure that has been plaguing the entire industry for the last little while. More and more consumers are getting their information from online sources, which offer newspapers much less revenue even when it brings in more readers. While the Monitor is not the first paper to scale back on printing it is the most prominent however, it is pointed out that a paper like the Monitor are generally second or third papers that people go to for more in depth articles which are more readily available from more sources online. The article further point out that the Monitor is unusual, the church owns it, its national circulation is small and it sells relatively little advertising.
Despite these aspects the fact that a newspaper that is the size of the Christian Science Monitor is ceasing daily print does still have the industry taking notice and will have an impact on all of us as we are entering the industry. If a paper like the Monitor, which has the support of the Church, is unable to survive what is the likelihood that a traditional national daily will be able to survive into the future? It will be important to keep an eye on the circulation and readership of printed newspapers to make sure that your client is still receiving the benefit of advertising there. With the end of newspapers comes the end of print advertising, which removes a traditional form of media that many clients would be use to purchasing and using. They would understand the reach and target of the papers. For planners and buyers into the future it will be important to start integrating more and more online and interactive content into their advertising. It will be important to help ease the transition from print to online advertising by incorporating it slowly into their communication plans. This trend will start having an affect on clients that have very specific targets, as publications that have a more limited consumer base will be the first to stop print production. We are always told that the future of advertising is in new media and with the trend of newspapers going online the future may be sooner than we think.

I believe, that one of the funniest things that occurred this week was Sarah Palin’s appearance on Saturday Night Live. I have been following the American election closely and the thought of Sarah Palin in the White House terrifies me to no end however, I have been very amused by Tina Fey’s portrayal of Palin and will be sad to see it end after November 4th. The article from Advertising Age titled Sarah Palin 'SNL' Online Clips Soon to Eclipse TV recently caught my interest. Sarah Palin is the first candidate to actually appear this election on the sketch comedy show even after Obama and Clinton have both had rumors about their appearances that have never happened for one reason or another. The article talks about how her appearance had garnered huge ratings for the show but those ratings are meager to the number of people who have viewed the Palin skits online. NBC.com alone has had 6.1 million views at press time. In four days, all viewing that have been registered have totaled 8.85 million and there are many sites that have the cold open and “Weekend Update” that do not count views so the number is obviously even bigger.
What does this mean for advertising? Quiet simply, viewers. Having someone as controversial and who is such a big draw in the media on a program that you brought allows your ad the chance to be seen be many more people. Further, advertising on sites that are bring in millions of new people because they want to see either the skit for the first time or over and over again allows your reach to be expanded even more. The reality of people changing channels during commercials, muting both the television and their computer while watching but the fact remains that the more people who watch the content the higher your chance that people will see your ad, retain it and be influenced by it. Advertisers need to not only know what consumer’s media habits are but keep on top news and pop culture, good planners and buyers knew the election was coming up and knew that SNL has very good ratings during times of high political interest and yes they may have gotten lucky with the exact date of Palin’s visit but the ratings will continue to be high and have been high since the election really kicked into high gear. To get the most for your client it is important to not only take the statistics and runs into accounts but the world around you too.

ETA: I wanted to post the actual Cold Open from SNL the night Sarah Palin was on however, because we are in Canada this is much more difficult to do so here is a link I found that we can watch up here in the north. Enjoy!

The Future of Online Broadcasting

Although short, this article has huge implications for the future of online broadcasting and what we, as advertisers may be faced with. Up until now the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has taken a hands off approach to the newer types of media distributions that are now being widely used. In short the CRTC governs all broadcasting laws including; Advertising Standards Canada, which administers regulations based on codes of practices. They have been strictly regulating television and radio, as is their history. The CRTC was simply not regulating Internet and mobile devices and how companies were distributing and broadcasting media content. They announced this week that they want to re-examine this policy while noting “Canadians are spending more time accessing high-quality content over the Internet and mobile devices”.

Since, up until now, there has been very little regulation on what is put up on the Internet or sent through mobile telecommunication devices but with these new talks everything could suddenly change. The CRTC tries to ensure a delicate balance, in the public interest, between the cultural, social, and economic goals of the legislations on broadcasting and telecommunications. It is there to make sure that Canadian media serves a public interest. When there is more regulation upon the Internet and mobile channels it suddenly limits what advertisers and clients can put up. What shows are broadcast and what the content of the ads can be will suddenly be limited. Up until now there has been relatively little say from the CRTC which means almost anything goes with more regulation clients and advertisers will be more limited. There is a silver lining to this however; with more CRTC control prices could become more affordable for mobile and Internet advertising as the CRTC does help regulate prices.

The CRTC will allow interested parties to submit their comments by December 5th with public hearings on the matter beginning February 17th. This will be a story that will be very interesting to follow the development of going forward.

Remembering a Simpler Time

Sorry this post has been delayed but with the Thanksgiving weekend and the loss of stolen Internet at my apartment it has been difficult to post on a blog.

The article titles The Ballot Question: Paper or Not? does not directly related to the idea of interactive advertising but does show the attitudes of Canadians towards new technology and how this differs to Americans attitudes. It further compares our electoral system to different ways of voting around the world. It discusses how the way we vote is hand’s on simple and easy to understand. The writer states that the fact that we all have technology filling up our homes and sometimes something like voting reminds us of a simpler time. The Internet has taken away a lot of human-to-human contact that we use to have and made everything about online research, email communication and hading our lives over to a stranger who knows how to write some fancy codes.

For my future in the industry the article shows that while for some things show that new technology is the right idea. Through SMS advertising or through new interactive ways of getting people engaged in your television program like CTV is doing the new wave of technology is expanding the ways that companies do business. However, traditional methods sometimes work the best. The tried and true may be boring but may not be the best way of reaching your consumer or getting them engaged in your advertisement or even getting them interested and excited. Sometimes people like the human aspect of a situations, they like it clean, simple and quaint and with the Internet you can sometimes lost that feeling. Further, technology isn’t always perfect, as the article points out “the possibility of hackers making mischief, power failures and regular computer problems that plague us all” can drastically affect who sees your ad and when they do. Computers and the Internet are not perfect and this needs to be taken into account.

ETA: With the super low voter turnout that did occur during this election it is interesting to wonder what would have happened had there been another form of voting, other than the paper voting, how many more people would have turned out. Obviously, much of it can be contributed to the fact that we as a country have had many elections in the last few years and that most of the country has been distracted by the economy and the American election, which is much more interesting than ours was.

Youth, Politics and The Media

In searching for my "Interactive Headline of the Week" I was in full out election mode, attempting to get my proof of residence in order to vote in my new riding, trying to find time to watch three different debates in two different counties (two of which were on at the same time), and get rid of all the unwanted party documents in my house so when I saw the headline from Media in Canada titled MuchMusic and MTV Canada Get Political it caught my interest. Written by Jonathan Paul the article summarizes how MuchMusic and MTV Canada are trying to get the youth out to vote in the election that is coming up on October 14. The ads on MuchMusic actually challenge the youth to think about who they want making their decisions for them and are slightly more tame than the ones airing on MTV Canada. The more controversial ads encourage them to mark their territory by having their voice heard. 

I think that these ads show a big problem that a lot of advertisers and clients have which is consumer engagement. Sometime it takes a little "shock and aw" to grab someone's attention so agencies and clients have to be more open to using these techniques to get your message across. This is especially true if you are marking your product to youth who tend to be more disengaged and more difficult to reach. It is also important to know your target in order and speak directly to them. Show them their fears and in this case show how their inaction can truly affect them. Many people, particularly youth, don't vote because they don't truly understand how it will affect them or they don't see it as cool but I think these ads do that and hopefully we can see an increase in the youth vote from this.

I believe that after I graduate this problem will still be here. The difficulty it will be to engage the consumer and have your message reach them. From this article I did try to find all the ads that it was discussing and although I couldn't find the MTV ads, on MuchMusic I found their full election page and I think that this is something that I can take with me into the agency world. Advertisements are no longer entities unto themselves but are becoming experiences. When you make a commercial you have website, and newspapers and blogs all about it and it allows consumers to become more engaged and create a world for the consumer to learn more. In the future, bringing this idea to mobile and really trying all avenues to reach the consumer is how to truly engage people, especially youth.

If you are interested in viewing the website the MuchMusic has started for the election please click here. And i will attempt to provide a link to the one commercial I can find on the subject here. I apologize if this link does not work as I am not that tech savy. However, you can find the video on the website under video and it is call "Be Loud".

So as the Canadian election debate is winding down and as I get ready to see how the American one is progressing I leave you all with one of my favourite quotes from this evening from Mr. Jack Layton: "Where is your platform Mr. Harper? Are you hiding it under your sweater vest?"

All About Me!

I have spent all my life in small towns; coming from Baltimore to Toronto has been a change, as has starting out on my new future. I completed my undergrad at Acadia University located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. While there I majored in Political Science while completing a double minor in English and History. While at Acadia I continued to follow my love of dance, which began at the age of four. Having been a competitive dancer since the age of twelve, winning a provincial championship with my team, and taking ballet classes at a professional ballet school being able to continue dancing, even at a recreational level. I was able to become very involved in the dance community at school through taking and teaching classes for three different organizations, becoming a member of Dance Acadia, the competitive dance team that performed at banquets and sporting events (which came with front row seats to all my favourite sports), and becoming VP of Marketing, Promotions and Advertising of the large dance club. After taking some time off after graduation I took a job as a Management Trainee at the local GoodLife Fitness Club where I eventually became a top five sales person in our division.

All of this led me to where I am today, and why I am blogging. I am currently enrolled in the Advertising Media Management graduate program at Centennial College. As I learn more about the advertising, its goals and its place in our society, I am starting to understand its importance in our lives. My main areas of interests in the world of advertising are in broadcast and the changing nature of the television landscape, the new world of social media and how advertisers are using this growing trend to engage consumers, and politics and the media and how with advertising’s changing faces how our politicians and government are taking advantage of it.

I welcome your feedback, positive or negative, in the comments section or through email (meghan_latta@hotmail.com), about anything that I have posted so that we can engage in discussions about advertising, eventually focusing on interactive media. Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from you!