Alec

McNayr

Presentation Zen design master Garr Reynolds has an extensive breakdown on John McCain’s background visuals during his speech at the Republican Convention last week. His comments are mostly non-partisan, and a good read.

I am really impressed by the size and brightness of that screen, and was overall impressed with the visuals that went behind it.  At times, they seemed out of sync with what he was saying, and other times, added to the moment.  The biggest problem with the setup was that they didn’t make sense to the TV audience during the close-ups (Garr goes into details about this).  He should make available a wide shot photo of each and every slide with him in front of it.  It would give bloggers something to talk about, rather than just the missteps.  My visuals grade: A for Effort, B+ for Execution.

Conversely, Barack Obama painted a different backdrop at his speech at the DNC.  His staging wasn’t that fancy: what seemed like a bunch of American flags in front of a building (looked like a ranch-style house, or stable?).  But the true backdrop was the crowded Denver stadium.  The TV cameras were able to cut away to thousands of average, seemingly middle-class people listening to the speech.  It was a different way to generating and furthering a message.  My visuals grade: B for Effort, B for Execution.

• David Hasselhoff
• Ask A Ninja
• Good Charlotte
• Spill.com Movie Reviews
• Independent Comedy Network

What do they have in common?

They all use Ning.com to host a private social network on their sites.  They give their fans an opportunity to upload photos, make comments, and engage as a part of the brand experience.

The best part?  Ning is free.

Why wouldn’t you create a ning social network?  Barack Obama and my University want to keep their social networks close, so as to tie data back to their main databases, which makes sense.

In any case, shouldn’t you be creating a social experience for your customers or prospects?  Aren’t they expecting it?  I mean, if The ‘Hoff is doing it…

Regardless of your leanings, you have to agree that American politics has been taking it on the chin of late; we’ve seen politicians more out of touch with the needs of “everyday people” than ever.

Enter the 2008 Presidential race, which has been chock-full of punditry, viral videos, crying, arguing, dark horses, and videos made to connect the candidate with the audience. The media coverage is endless, and it takes all kinds of tactics to stand out.

The Obama campaign recently uploaded a video of him playing a game of pickup basketball. Of course his highlights are edited together, but it’s a nice little moment.

“Hey, he plays basketball just like me!” No, junior. Did you see that pass? He’s better than you.