P O L I T I C S O N L I N E INTERVIEWER: PHIL NOBLE INTERVIEWEE: MIKE CONNELL SOURCE FILE: MIKE CONNELL.RM FILE LENGTH: 14 MINUTES PHIL NOBLE: Hi. We're talking with Mike Connell. Mike is the Republican operative Internet guru for, not only the Bush presidential campaign, but also the Republican Convention, and anybody else worth having on the Republican side. Are you having fun, Mike? MIKE CONNELL: Yeah, yeah, I am. Day four of the convention. So a little bit tired. But, you know, a lot of excitement leading up to the convention, a lot of excitement at the convention. And, you know, the finish line is in sight, coming - we're coming around the fourth term. PN: Oh, yeah. What's the most interesting technology thing that y'all are doing at the convention? MC: Oh, boy. A lot of different interesting things. I mean, you know, there are - as you know, Phil, there's - we move the bar up on a cycle-in, cycle-out basis in small increments. You know, but there's a lot of neat things going on at the convention. You know, it's neat to go and see what all the bloggers are doing, and how they're covering it, and how it's kind of given a new aspect to the coverage of the convention. You know, and just in overall production, you know, the convention, the first convention I attended was in 1988. And to see how far just the overall technical production quality of the convention is is incredible. I was on the floor last night, and it felt a little bit like I was in an MTV video. It's also, you know, one of the things we did on GOP.com, we worked with the folks over at Election Mall. They had a technology for animated characters. And we were looking for ways to kind of - a lot of the traffic during the convention gets driven to the main convention site. But there's also a lot of traffic that gets driven to the Bush-Cheney campaign site, as well as still to the GOP.com site. And we wanted a way to kind of cut through all the news coverage during the weekend and kind of help get Ed Gillespie, chairman of the RNC's messages out there. And what we did, what we've done is we've taken this kind of animated Ed, is what we've called it internally, animated blogging character. So not only do you get the audio feeds of the chairman, who does a regular blog on a regular basis; but you also - you get this animated character who basically, you know, talks to you through the audio streaming. So have you had a chance to check that out? PN: No, I hadn't seen that. I'll absolutely go look at that. MC: It's, you know, it's one of those things that it just - it's novel. It's kind of designed to help cut through the clutter. But it's not, you know, it's more than just cute. It also, you know, there's a body of - or there's studies out there that suggest that, you know, messages delivered through animated characters resonate better. So, you know, like I said, we're in a political environment where there's a lot of messages; and there's a lot being said, especially during convention week. And anything you can do to kind of give a new twist on things to cut through the clutter makes it more interesting. So... PN: Yeah. One of the things that I've been interested in for a long time is the use of humor in this. And I saw... MC: Oh, sure. PN: ...some statistics that said that JibJab, that it's getting, like, three times the traffic of both Bush and Kerry combined. Does that surprise you? MC: In a way it doesn't. We had a - I sat down with a working group in DC, and we were talking about the whole phenomenon, how, you know, what was it that it had driven so much traffic to it? And somebody came up with a really good point. And they said, you know, one of the things to keep in mind is is politics has - I don't know if you'd say "evolved" or "devolved" into entertainment here in the United States. And, you know, things like that are entertaining. You know, the person that I was talking to cited the fact that, you know, take the late-night talk, the monologue on "The Tonight Show" and other programs like that used to be, you know, only 10, 20 percent of the monologue was political content. Now it's, you know, as high as 75, 80 percent at times. It's, you know, there's a growing audience of people who like to sit back and watch politics for just the sheer entertainment value. And, you know, fact of the matter is, it can be quite entertaining at times. PN: No, I think that's right. And I think a lot of the online stuff is driving it that way. I mean, we assume that, because we're interested in politics in the traditional online ways, that we assume other people are, but they're not. I mean, they access it through lots of different other points. I thought that - one of the things - I also saw some statistics that - about the recent piece y'all did, the video that y'all did online on Kerry had something like - you mailed it to something like four times the opening weekend audience of Michael Moore's movie. MC: Right. PN: Did - you know what I'm talking about? MC: Yeah, you're talking about... PN: Let's talk about that a little bit. MC: You're talking about the Kerry on Iraq video, which the RNC is running at GOP.com. And again, what they've done is I think they've had now over 5 million people come and view this video online, which, you know, apparently exceeds the opening weekend ticket sales for Michael Moore's movie. But all of this, let's tie the two together because I think there's a more interesting point in here. You know, we're seeing a lot more video online this cycle, and we're also seeing interactive non-video, interactive animation like the JibJab and other things like that. And I think that, you know, we're moving towards something that's very large. In fact, I think we're circling it, but we haven't effectively penetrated it yet, you know. And a lot of it's being fueled by the post-(vicra?) environment. I mean, you're having more and more video produced that, you know, will not be used for broadcast. Some of it may use for cable. PN: Yeah. MC: Some of this is going to be used web-only. But it's still being shot. You know, it's still being shot like it's going to be used on TV. And, you know, I think the big opportunity is to move away from just, you know, video that was shot for broadcast and get into more, you know, really start to embrace the advantages that the Internet has over TV. I mean, it's still fine and great to have rich medium - media. But let, you know, let's make it interactive. And why does it have to be linear? Why does it have to take you from one beginning straight through to one end? Why not let people interact with the video and make it, you know, make them, you know, you can still bring out the points that you need to make and stay on message. But let the user be in command. Empower them to point and click and hop around and, you know, and still get the message you're trying to convey, still educate them on the issues or still, you know, make the points you're trying to see. But, you know, let's start to, you know, really embrace what the Internet and our computer technologies can do. PN: What is examples that you know of out there that come closest to what you've just described? MC: You know, that - that's an excellent question. And because we probably sat around a table for the better part of 45 minutes or an hour, you know, just kind of taking a look at things and, you know. And then bottom line came to is... PN: Nobody. MC: ...a lot of folks are circling it, but nobody really - nobody's really done it. We're, you know, we're looking for the first, and we're actually trying to, you know, think up good ideas that could be used for it. But, you know, it's one of these things where it's kind of tough to point to an example because I don't think anybody's nailed it yet. And it's not - it's no easy feat. I mean, it's easier to, you know, it's easy to do a nice, linear message. PN: Sure, yeah. MC: You've got a logical beginning and a logical end. But, you know, when you get into something that you can take users any number of places, then, you know, production costs go up considerably; creative costs go up considerably. And so, you know, sometimes with new technology and emerging technology, you've got to practically give it away to get somebody to do it the first time. But, you know, doing this sort of thing and doing it right, you know, is not a - is not a cheap endeavor. PN: Anybody in the commercial sector you've seen doing what you're - what we're talking about? MC: Again, you know, we've looked for it. And I have, you know, it's one of those things where I'll know it when I see it. I'll know it when I see it. I just haven't seen it yet. I mean, you've got people... PN: Yeah. MC: ...you know, you've got, like I said, we're here, you know, mounting our forces on the edge, but nobody has entered the breach yet. I mean, you know, you've got, you know, the BMW films, and you've got Amex using Superman and Seinfeld and things like that. And like I said, we're getting close. But, you know, it's even, for a lot of people, you know, it's, you know, I'm half reluctant to even go into it. I know, you know, your readership will understand it. But you sit there in meetings and try to explain people what, you know, where you want to go, and they sit there, and they look at you... PN: You know... MC: ...like you're crazy. PN: Yeah. MC: And you're, like, well, and they're like, well, you know, well, can you show us an example? And you're, like, no, you know. And so that makes it a little bit more difficult. So we're still - we're still actively looking for brave souls who are looking to boldly go. PN: Well, you know, it probably is - the best example comes to my mind is just the DVDs of where you go in and, you know, here's the episodes, here's the - here's the background... MC: Right. PN: ...here's the various endings, you know, the sort of DVD stuff that has, you know... MC: Right. PN: ...you can change Bart Simpson's hair color to green... MC: Right. PN: ...kind of stuff. Yeah. MC: Right. And that's kind of where - that's kind of where, you know, I think DVDs, you know, I think DVDs - and another element will probably be in some children's games, especially some pre-children's - pre... PN: Pre-literacy. MC: ...preschool and early grade software, where, you know, the kids can just - they can just go in and then play, and everything's animated, and everything, you know, comes to life. PN: Yeah. MC: You know, there's some qualities in the DVDs, you're absolutely right. I think the children's videos demonstrate some of the qualities, as well. PN: Well, we have very quickly taken this from the hardcore politics to what a bunch of - a handful of nerds like you and me and some other guys on the edge would be interested in. Let's take it back to... MC: You want to get to the mainstream stuff? PN: Yeah, let's go back to the - to ground zero and the floor... MC: Sure. PN: ...of the convention. Tell me, tell me what y'all are doing with the con- in terms of, for example, with Bush tonight. What are you doing with Bush's speech, and ways to engage people and harvest them and connect them and collect them around tonight? I am a - I'm a undecided voter who, based on something, is going to go to your website tonight, just about the time George Bush is coming on television. What am I going to see? How are you going to hook me? What are you going to do to me? MC: Well, and again, you know this as well as anyone, is there's two aspects to the - to applied politics. One is the technology, coming up with new stuff and using that to create an edge in politics. But the other part is just good execution. You know, we see this in tried-and-true politics. There's all kinds of candidates who write a good campaign plan, but so few actually execute it. And the ones that do execute it are usually the ones that win. Likewise, you know, a lot of the challenges in the day-to-day operation is just getting the content out there quickly, getting, you know, getting the speech material, getting the video, getting the talking points all up, and up in a timely manner so that the people who are going to the website have it available to them, so that, you know, they can - they, you know, they didn't watch the speech last night that everybody's talking about this morning. So they can go out, and they can take a look at it, and they can, you know, drill down. They can see talking points. They can see interesting things about, you know, the different (currible?) things going on, you know, within the delegations and on the floor, and all around that, you know, again playing into the meaty substance of the convention. But also you've got to play a little bit on the entertainment aspects of it, as well. PN: Well, listen, I know you're a busy man. And we appreciate your taking the time to talk with us. And good luck, and I hope your servers don't crash. MC: Well, I appreciate that. No, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about all this. So... PN: Good. MC: ...you know. You want to stay on for a second? PN: We'll - we'll do it again after the election. MC: Yeah. You want to stay on for a second? PN: Sure. Hang on just a sec. All right. End and save. END INTERVIEW WITH MIKE CONNELL