Campaign Tech: Who rules YouTube?

Minnesota’s Senate campaign is likely to get a lot of advertising industry attention as one of the few states that can currently boast about having both a competitive Senate race and a top 15 media market.

A recent evaluation of campaign commercials found political ads from Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken to be more effective than those of incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. Wilson Research Strategies found that Coleman’s ad featuring three men in a bowling ally did not resonate with voters (although it did earn a quick comeback by Franken) as much as Franken’s ad in which he addresses his past writings as a satirist.

The report also found the Franken ad to be more effective than both John McCain’s ad about a media love affair with Barack Obama and an Obama ad focusing on nuclear security.

In the much less scientific realm of YouTube, Franken is also clearly more effective than his competition, and the national prominence remains. In the “Politicians” channel on YouTube, Franken is listed as the fourth most-viewed candidate, behind John McCain, Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich and Libertarian candidate Bob Barr during this month.

While Coleman is only separated from his opponent by Ralph Nader, Franken’s nearly 115,000 views this month dwarves Coleman’s 30,000. Ratings of Coleman’s videos suggest that many of his viewers are Franken supporters who are curious about — and give low ratings to — his videos. While most Franken videos have a viewer rating of 4 or 5 stars out of a possible 5, most of Coleman’s videos are ranked between 2 and 3 stars.  Franken also boasts 924 subscribers to his channel over Coleman’s 104.

Coleman and Franken aren’t the only Minnesota politicians ranking high on YouTube this month. Rep. Michele Bachmann is the fifteenth most-viewed politician.

Another surprise comes with McCain currently beating Obama in views, once again revealing the true power of the Internet force that is Paris Hilton.