You’d expect us to say it. After all we are first and foremost a video production company. But frankly we’ve been surprised and disappointed at the relatively modest part played in the general election campaign so far by internet video.
This, we were told, would be the first YouTube election. The major parties, apparently, had learned from the Barack Obama campaign, which relied heavily on video and social networking. Facebook’s Director of Policy Richard Allan called it a “transformative moment for democracy in Britain”.
And yet the parties – and individual candidates – have generally been reluctant to seize the opportunities afforded by digital media.
We’ve made a promotional film for one candidate – and he was thrilled with the result. After all, no candidate has the time to knock on every door in the constituency, and if you can’t look every single voter in the eye, addressing them in a video is surely the next best thing?
With Britain heading for one of the tightest and most intriguing election results in living memory, something tells us our politicians are missing a trick.
