"There is an 80% increase in the time spent on watching videos ... 45% of the people surveyed in North America said they expect to watch even more videos on their phones", reports Facebook.
Candidates on tight budgets often skip video campaigns due to high production costs. New apps have leveled the playing field. Challengers can now create their own campaign videos against well funded incumbents.
In Virginia
Morgan Goodman, Amy Laufer and Annette Hyde are three amazing candidates running for office in Virginia. They are piloting a new approach with help from DemLabs to create issue-specific campaign videos with Lumen5. Video creation made as simple as building with Legos.
A laptop and the free Lumen5 app is all that's needed to create a quality video. The campaign manager first defines the issue and the candidate's position on it. Next, video and music clips corresponding to that issue are picked from a built-in, royalty-free library of clips. Amy's video below, for instance uses a video of a classroom scene.
Videos are created with a simple 'cut-and-paste' approach without any special video skills. Videos are shared on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or added to the campaign's website.
Amy Laufer's video on More funding for schools and teachers.
Annette Hyde on the need for Rural Internet Access.
Morgan Goodman on the need for More Education Funding.
Benefits:
1. Simplicity. Lumen5 is easy to use and creates videos within minutes.
2. Speed. A huge library of professional videos slashes the time to create a new video.
3. Affordable. The app is free and requires just a laptop to create videos.
4. Flexible. Videos created can be exported and shared through different channels like Facebook.
5. Specialized. Advocacy groups provide clips that candidates can incorporate in their own videos.
6. Amplification. Multiple campaign videos emphasizing the same issue reinforce each other.
Win Virginia
“Win Virginia was founded by a small group of community leaders in Northern Virginia to help Democrats take the majority in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. It is committed to promoting innovative technologies to give Democrats an edge in 2019, said Shashi Gupta, co-founder of Win Virginia. "Our candidates will win by embracing innovative technology and we're excited to see passionate groups like DemLabs pitching in to help our candidates’ produce impactful videos at very low cost and get them out on social media.”
Take away
"Citizens and their elected representatives must have the right to limit the influence of money on candidates and elections in order to protect the integrity of elections and government", Reclaim Democracy!
Technology is an equalizer. Free apps, like Lumen5 enable more good candidates to reach more voters, regardless of how much money they have raised. Contact DemLabs here to learn about creating videos with Lumen5.
Deepak
Co-Founder, DemLabs
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