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According to our latest research, Oprah Winfrey’s support of Barack Obama gave him as much if not more of a lift
on YouTube as it did in the polls, 
with almost twice as many videos posted in
December about his efforts in the first in the nation primary state. Obama captured the lead from Republican hopeful Ron Paul, who
had led since August.
We've been tracking the candidates since January in YouTube
videos that mentions home state and host of the first in the nation primary.
YouTube users watched videos
about Paul more often, though, with more than 600,000 views of his videos
within seven days of being added to the site, compared to Obama's 389,000. Ron Paul’s popularity online
doesn’t come from one source, but instead from many supporters who seem very
video savvy. Oprah gave Obama the boost he needed. That one event brought him more videos
than October and September put together.
What's really amazing is the number of people who aren't getting enough political ads on television.While more than 100 videos
were posted about the December 9 rally in Manchester, NH, Obama’s most-watched video was not related to the daytime television host. His
holiday advertisement, run on television in the state, was viewed 157,000 times
in seven days online, making it the seventh most-watched video in the study.
Viewers gave the video an average rating of 4.3, out of a possible 5.0.Despite a sharp decrease
during the week of Christmas, more YouTube users watched videos from the Primary
campaigns in December. Of the top five most-watched clips, four were
advertisements. The fifth was a broadcast news report about Giuliani that
featured Paul supporters in the background.
The number
of times a candidate’s video is watched is likely a better sign than the number
of videos posted to any site. In December, Paul’s videos were watched three
times as often as clips of Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee
combined. Hillary Clinton was the next most-watched Democrat after Obama, with
her videos watched almost 192,000 times.All the hoopla about Huckabee did not translate into greater popularity on YouTube.
Readers can access the data
behind the study at http://www.diydashboard.com,
with user name youtube and password kdpaine.
Yes, Mark, I'll stick my neck out and say that it will be Obama and McCain. Ron Paul will beat Thompson if not Romney. Clinton will beat Edwards. Haven't a clue as to where Huckabee will end up.
Posted by: KD Paine | January 05, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Very interesting. So you going to make a call in your home state as you did for Iowa? Or you going to rest on your laurels?
Posted by: Mark Rose | January 04, 2008 at 04:02 PM
woow, excellent job! congratulations from italy ;-)
Posted by: sacha monotti | January 04, 2008 at 05:37 AM
woow, excellent job! congratulations from italy ;-)
Posted by: sacha monotti | January 04, 2008 at 05:36 AM