Roberts has come up with an innovative, and long overdue, use of the video medium, and YouTube, to create a video press release. 

 

This is not a campaign video - it doesn’t appear that Roberts is running for election this year. What it is a successful attempt to bring press releases into the 21st Century. How is this different than a traditional press release?

 

Let’s start with the some of the most important points — it is much more personal and considerably more authentic. It allows viewers to watch your movement, read your body language, your eyes, and the inner dialogue that is often visible but rarely written about. Accountability - it requires you to directly own what you say — no more blaming an aide or a journalist for a misstatement.

 

You have to interact with another medium, the camera, as well as the person operating it.   If forces you to focus your message — appearing scattered or too detailed in this medium is a guarantee that viewers will tune you out.

 

What are the risks in doing this as opposed to issuing another press release? It makes messaging and presentation more important than ever. What are some of the benefits? People are more likely to listen and pay attention. Your delivery and message give you a real opportunity to stand out from the information blast that comes at us every day — not to mention that your release won’t be removed from the fax and thrown in the garbage (the reality for the vast majority of press releases).

 

Political leaders should take heed — if you want to be effective, if you want to get your message across, this is what the future looks like.

 

Kudos to Joe Roberts for having foresight, the initiative to take a dying medium and breathing new and creative life into it, and for having the guts to take a risk. It worked.