Although Affinitive does a slew of work in the video game space, I am far from a "gamer girl." However, as I've grown with the company I have enjoyed getting to learn about this quickly growing industry and how influential it can be on both its loyalists and the mainstream consumers. I might not be a gamer, but I'm certainly impressed, inspired, and intrigued by this growing vertical.
I guess that is why I am not surprised at all by this blog post on GigaOm that verifies that the rumors are true, Obama's media placement team has in fact placed advertisements for him within Xbox games.
Last week they reported unconfirmed sightings of an “Obama for President” billboard in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise.This week they have confirmation from Obama's camp that those were placed as part of the overall strategy.
Interesting? Yes. Surprising? Not really.
No matter what your political affiliation, it is hard to deny that this Presidential campaign, like any other modern media campaign, has a mix of the traditional and the non-traditional.
John McCain's daughter, Meghan, has a very regularly updated and family driven blog (I'll admit, I love it!) that draws an impressive monthly readership. If you Google it you get over 1 million hits. Not too shabby.
Obama was going to announce his VP via SMS prior to the AP blowing it for him.
Both Obama and McCain have their own "official" YouTube channels.
Obama's site has a blog, a tv channel, various download and share tools, and a "My" section that allows people to aggregate in groups based on location and help him campaign. Political street teams, if you will.
Providing consumers with the tools to be your advocates is the same whether you are Pepsi, the Gap, or perhaps the future President.
Possibly inspired by some of the tactics employed in many of Affinitive's brand-based community-driven programs, McCain's site allows people to join the "team," "recruit" friends, and earn currency for donations and recruits.
What is the verdict? Companies (and candidates) who aren't deploying various non-traditional media outreach and tactics and involving "web 2.0" and social media into their mix are missing the boat.
I am only sad (talk about missing the boat?!) I didn't pitch a full-fledged Obama (or McCain) community a year ago, both have resulted in an insurmountable pile of User Generated Content, a very high Word of Mouth reach (I'd love to look at those graphs!), and would be millions strong...and counting.
Disclaimer: the point of this post was to simply address the level of influence certain personalities have over consumers and is not an endorsement of any particular party or candidate.
