In his post, Zeigler walks us through their implementation of the red truck promotion for Fred Thompson's campaign.
His conclusion is worth noting:
Both versions of the truck worked equally well, as the Fredheads surpassed every online fundraising goal the Thompson campaign set. The simple truck did just as well as the fancier one. And while the simple version was homely, it was very usable and got the idea across well. The power was in the idea and the timing (which is always vital with these things), not in how professionally it was implemented. This was definitely a case that proves the old George Patton quote: “A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
The Politico is reporting that if Fred doesn't finish in third place tonight in Iowa, he's out.
I just received a (final?) note from Fred's campaign manager, William B. Lacy, urging people to take up the Fred banner and contact everyone they know in Iowa to help Fred finish strong. Distributed campaign effort perhaps?
Excerpt of the note:
Dear David,
Today is the big day--Iowa Caucus Day!
And--once again--we need your help.
Fred is poised for a strong finish.
Pollster John Zogby reports a late Fred surge.
But Fred needs your help.
Get out your Christmas card list, your PDA, your Rolodex--any list you might have of families and friends in Iowa. If you don't know anyone in Iowa, you can visit our website and make calls today on Fred's behalf.
Call them. Now.
Tell them you believe in Fred and why.
Ask them to caucus for Fred tonight. If they need information have them call our Iowa State Headquarters at 515-276-9427.
[redacted content]
Sincerely,
William B. Lacy
Campaign Manager
Will this final push prove to be too little too late? We'll know tonight.
One of the oddest moments of the YouTube CNN debate was when Fred Thompson had his opportunity to air this 30-second spot:
Odd because this was the first and only time a candidate - Republican or Democrat - had used their 30-second opportunity to take a swing at their opponents.
In an interview posted today by John Hawkins at Right Wing News, Fred Thompson's campaign manager, Bill Lacy, discusses their YouTube debate commercial strategy.
Now, tell us a little bit about the decision to go negative with Fred's ad in the debate. That was a bold choice. Why did you decide to do that instead of going with a positive Thompson ad?
First of all, people in the mainstream media would never buy this, but I find bloggers, in this respect, are more subtle sometimes...
Are you getting ready to say that it's not really a negative ad because...
That's exactly what I'm getting ready to say.
(Laughing) That's true.
I'm gonna say that if they said in the past and they said it on tape...it's not negative. We're just literally taking something they've said and they've done (and putting it out there). I just don't personally view that as being negative.
You're right. ...Technically, it's not negative...but, why you decide to go with an ad to push the other candidates down instead of pushing Fred up?
I think the idea was to start to get people to think about, in this case, ...the two governors, their past records, and what they've done, and to understand that one of Fred's big advantages is that he's a consistent conservative, that everybody in the race has been in different positions in the past.
...The other piece of it was that we wanted to try to get some people to go take a look at the two minute version of it on our website, which I think is a very strong piece that I think completes the trilogy by adding mayor Giuliani and a couple of his comments and then finishes with a strong, very positive 30 seconds on Fred. We thought that was more likely to catch people's attention and drive them to the website...
Well, you know it worked. I don't even remember what any of the other ads were at this point. Yours did stick out at least.
It did get some attention.
Looking back on the video, I would argue that it was one of the largest missed opportunities of the campaign. After all, 4.5 million viewers were tuned in and paying attention. This would have been a great time to get the momentum shifting back in Fred's direction.
Let me explain...
The reason this video missed its mark was not because it pulled down unsavory YouTube clips of Fred's opponents -- that is fair game, a smart use of the medium, and was pretty darn clever. It effectively put those opponents on defense with their own words which they had to try and explain. Bravo. Snaps. But the video did not put Fred on offense.
The reason it failed to make any real impact was because Fred had no starring role.
Instead of relying on their best (only?) asset - Fred Thompson - they relied on floating text and conga drums to drive their message that he is the only conservative in the race.
Those words likely poll well, but I was sitting in the audience and I could hardly read what the words said on the 25-foot screen in front of me. 4.5 million viewers tuned in - I doubt I was alone.
Look, if you need a sale, who on that stage is a better salesman than Fred Thompson?
Instead, I would have argued my case to Bill Lacy and the highly-paid media consultant that Fred needed to remind folks why they started liking him in the first place. It wasn't a flashy piece of direct mail or a phone call.
Quite simply, it was this video and a belief that Fred was a different kind of politician:
Yup, I would have asked Fred to sit in that chair again, turn around to the camera with a cigar in hand and say that he was looking up some of his opponents on YouTube to prepare for the debate, and then literally show him watching the unsavory clips on YouTube. After the clips, Fred could have simply cocked his head with a "huh?" expression, told viewers to look at YouTube themselves for his opponents names, and then asked people to go to his website to see why he's the only consistent conservative in the race.
That would have put the ball squarely in Fred's court and would have shined a brighter light on several YouTube clips that millions of Americans have never seen.
The Fred Thompson recipe for YouTube success calls for one-part charisma, one-part Hollywood, two-parts red meat conservative rhetoric, and a dash of comedy relief.
A note from Fred Thompson's modern media guru, Sean Hackbarth, alerts us to their latest UGC campaign, Be A Star.
From Sean's note explaining the program:
Fred is a bona fide star. But he's not the only star on this campaign. Each one of you is a star who believes a consistent conservative like Fred needs to be elected in 2008. In the age of YouTube anyone has the power to make a video, get people to watch it, and become a star.
We need some of your star power to spread the word about why Fred will  make a great, conservative President. That's why we've launched Be a Star. Make a video telling America why you support Fred Thompson for President. Talk about how he wants to keep America strong, fight Islamist fascism, secure our borders, keep taxes low, and reform government. Tell America why Fred is a good man and a great, conservative leader. Tell everyone why they should donate to the Fred Thompson campaign.
Upload your videos. We will pick out our favorites and put them on Fred08.com. Then you can vote for your favorites.
It's easy to tear down other candidates. What we're looking for are positive videos showing why Fred should be the next President of the United States. Mention Fred's character shaped by his life experiences, his quest to end sanctuary cities, and how he has the guts to tackle the impending entitlements crisis.
Be creative. Use animation or props. Be extravagant or be simple. Sometimes a simple video full of sincerity can say as much as one filled with fancy special effects.
The only real restriction, besides telling us why you're for Fred, is your videos should be under 25 MB.
Sounds neat.
UPDATE 8:25 PM: Woops, I should have noted a similar UGC campaign launched by Rudy Giuliani last week, Why Rudy. Rudy's effort even has a nice Google maps mash-up indicating where the supporter lives.
Tell us why you support Rudy! Send us pictures, video or text of why you think Rudy should be the next president and how you show your support from the mayor. We want to see where you’re displaying your Rudy signs, bumper stickers or gear.
The Telegraph.co.uk recently released a list of the top 100 conservatives and liberals. Here are the Republican presidential candidates along with some other name of note that made the list.
The Candidates:
#1 Rudy Giuliani
#9 John McCain
#10 Mitt Romney
#11 Mike Huckabee
#58 Fred Thompson
#97 Ron Paul
Names of Note:
#3 Matt Drudge (props to internet journalism)
# 21 George Bush
#26 James Dobson
#47 Joe Liberman (also made #47 on the liberal list)
#71 Chuck Norris
#85 Clarence Thomas (why so low?)
Liberal Listings of note:
#8 Arnold Schwarzenegger
#23 Colin Powell
#62 Jerome Armstrong (co host of the poplar DomeNation with our own David All)
Some thoughts:
The liberal side had more actors and musicians than the conservative side
Barack Obama, his wife and his media strategist all made the cut
A lot of Bloggers made the cut on both sides of the proverbial aisle
Quite a few news anchors are on each list
From all this I gather that in order to be influential one needs to... run for public office, be a news anchor, be an actor or become a blogging phenom :-)
Founder and CEO of the conservative website redstate.com who also blogs on his personal site erickerickson.org, entitled Confessions of a Political Junkie, and on Georgia politics at peachpundit.com. A Republican political consultant and self-described “recovering lawyerâ€.
At just 32, Erickson epitomises the new power of the internet. A small-government fiscal and social conservative based in the south, he taps into and influences the Republican “base†that the GOP’s 2008 candidates are courting. Only started blogging in 2003.
What is the memeorandum Leaderboard? Pulled straight from the source:
The memeorandum Leaderboard lists the sources most frequently posted to memeorandum.
This particular version corresponds to the 30-day period ending October 25, 2007.
Sources are ranked by Presence, the percentage of headline space a source occupies over the 30-day period. "Discussion" links are not taken in to consideration here — only full headlines are counted.
In other words, when they post a blog entry, other bloggers read, link, and discuss the content of that post.
Of interest, the only Presidential candidate to make the LB's top 100 is Fred Thompson's blog, the Fred File. In fact, the Fred File is the only "candidate blog" to make the list.
Most of the credit clearly falls to Fred Thompson, the candidate, whose late entry to the race sparked tremendous interest on the Right (and Left) which likely contributed to this ranking.
Regarding the Fred File's placement on the LB, NMS' William Beutler said, "Of all the presidential campaigns, this one is doing the best job not just in using its campaign blog effectively, but also working with the larger conservative blogosphere, as an important element of the campaign."
It'll be interesting to see how current events and candidate gaffes or cheers help influence this latest metric over time.
We had Don Means from National Presidential Caucus call-in to talk to us about the good work NPC is doing to allow everyone in the nation, not just those people who live in a early primary state, to participate in the primary process.
Don said that NPC wants to, “Reward those people who are looking to do more then just vote.†And that's why they came up with the idea for a national caucus.
*College Seniors Failed a Basic Test on America's History and Institutions.
*Colleges Stall Student Learning about America.
*America's Most Prestigious Universities Performed the Worst.
*Inadequate College Curriculum Contributes to Failure.
*Greater Learning about America Goes Hand-in-Hand with More Active Citizenship.
USA Today has a great story out today on the topic which mentions the report prominently.
Ken Timmerman had a pithy comment on why we should be concerned that our college graduates don't know basic economics or political science.
You get the physics wrong, and the bridge falls down. You get the political science wrong, and our society falls down.
Myron Ebell and Cord Blomquist showed off the the newly relaunched GlobalWarming.org (what a great URL). They said they hope the site will focus global warming skepticism in one place, and serve as a resource for people who want to see another side of the debate. Check it out, and if you'd like to contribute to their blog, shoot them an email.
British MP Owen Paterson crossed the pond this week and joined us for a really engaging talk about Conservative Politics in Britain. He also shared his thoughts on US politics and world affairs. The conversation was off-the-record but I will say that I feel pretty optimistic about the future of the Tories with leadership like Owen Paterson and David Cameron at the helm.
Other Republican campaigns and their supporters are trying to make an issue out of Fred Thompson's innovative use of Web video to communicate his message. See the snark in New Hampshire GOP chairman Fergus Cullen's color commentary:
"Maybe the times have changed, and the Webcast and his celebrity are enough. Maybe he and his tactics are the wave of the future," Cullen said, adding a stinging comparison between Thompson and the failed 1985 launch of a new Coca-Cola formula. "Or maybe he's the New Coke."
My Man Mitt called it the "Max Headroom" campaign back in June:
However, this is one of the critical questions in political campaign history. Will a predominately virtual campaign make the same impact as pressing the flesh?
I remain convinced that it will not and cannot.
And even John McCain got in a subtle dig at Thompson's supposedly absent, "virtual" campaign in the last debate:
SEN. MCCAIN: Well, I think that’s a decision that Fred should make. Maybe we’re up past his bedtime, but the point is -- (interrupted by laughter). You know, one thing I know about New Hampshire and I know well is that the people of New Hampshire expect to see you. They expect to see you a lot, and they expect to see you at townhall meetings and at places all over this great state of New Hampshire. And they expect to see you before they make up their mind.
Now, maybe this has more to do with the privileged position of the early states, but it comes across as hostile indifference towards the medium of the kind we saw during the YouTube debate fight. Nobody had a problem when Hillary and Obama announced online, so why is it an issue when a Republican does the same? Regardless of which candidate you support, we should not be creating incentives against running outside-the-box campaigns -- especially with all that we are up against next year.
These critics rely on the straw man argument that Thompson plans to run the majority of his campaign through Web-based contacts, something Fred's folks have labored pretty hard to knock down. Look at Fred's rollout this last week. A 15 minute Web video followed by five days of retail campaigning in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Fifteen minutes versus five days. That's an out-of-touch Web-based campaign?
Presidential candidates need to be on the road constantly. What's wrong with giving them a chance to talk with the rest of us in between stops, or using live video to bring the early state action into February 5th computer rooms? Technology shouldn't necessarily mean the demise of the early primaries, but it does enable the candidates to market themselves in a national primary situation, something they just won't have the money to do on TV.
Fred's critics are scapegoating his use of the Internet, and making the Republican Party look technophobic in the process. As we showed recently, that kind of message is no longer appreciated, and all the incentives are now on the side of an aggressive Internet strategy. I mean, does anyone seriously think someone is going to vote against a guy in 2008 because he makes aggressive use of the Internet?
Hillary Clinton will be able to raise at least $150 million on the Internet to drown us in the General. We should give Fred credit for trying. We're going to need the thousands of new online donors and volunteers he's recruited through this, even if he's not the nominee.
This seems to be what a lot of so-called "Fred Heads" have been waiting for. Fred's latest web ad mashes up his role in the Hunt for Red October with his presidential run. I'll reserve my thoughts for the comment thread; I'm eager to hear what others think.
