What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?

The First Pillar: Frequency

The first of the five pillars holds its own benefits, while providing a foundation for the others.

Frequency refers not only to releasing often, but also to shooting often. An effective web video program requires a lot of footage. Shooting all the time allows you to build a library, which you can go back to over the course of the campaign. It also protects you from missing something.

Every day on the campaign trail – or in the office, or with supporters, or with strangers on the street…you get the picture – every day on the campaign trail there are numerous magic moments. They are those interactions between candidates and the public that will never be repeated. They are the nuances in a stump speech that come from the little differences each day brings. They are the honest, unguarded reactions to seeing the country up close – from one end to the other – over the course of months.

If you are not rolling, no one will ever see these magic moments again.

Tape is cheap. Keep it moving across the record head!

Having a usefully large library allows you to partake of the other half of frequency; maintaining a plentiful and predictable release schedule.

I was late to the game, but about halfway through its one-year run I became a devotee of The Show, with Ze Frank. Each week day afternoon, Ze would post a new webisode. I knew to truck over there and look for it. If it wasn’t up yet, I’d click around; maybe watching old episodes, maybe exploring the other offerings of his site.

This is a successful model, and one to follow. A TV show will die if it moves from time slot to time slot. People need to know when and where to find it. Campaign videos should be no different.

Campaigns should post videos every day. Yes. Every day. That is what all that footage you’re shooting is for.

It doesn’t need to be much. It can be just a little something. Haven’t had events lately, or they aren’t edited yet? Throw up a little something from HQ, or a private moment from backstage, or a supporter testimonial. Whatever it is, just put up something!

Viewers need to know that when they come back, there will be something new – and hopefully good! – to watch. For the same reason you wouldn’t let your blog have only one post a week, it is unacceptable to post a video once a week.

If people come back and there’s nothing new, they’ll eventually stop coming back. If people know there will be something to look at, they’ll come back…and maybe explore a little.

These two simple steps – shooting everything and releasing constantly and consistently – will provide you with what your program needs to succeed; plenty of footage and well-trained regular viewers.

As simple as it seems, make a little calendar of when the Presidential contenders are releasing clips…do they make the grade?

Now, of course there is much more to this than just burning through tape stock and posting all the time. In the next pillars, I’ll delve into what makes a good video. First up? Interactivity. Leveraging the nature of the web to hold a real conversation (you know who you are!).