1/16/2007 Barack Obama: My Plans for 2008
Significance: Obama becomes one of seven candidates who announce their presidential campaign plans on YouTube.
3/5/2007 Vote Different
Significance: The first user-generated political commercial to go viral in the presidential campaign. “Vote Different” starts a trend by people who create ads in support of Obama outside the control of the campaign.
6/13/2007 I Got a Crush on…Obama
Significance: Obama Girl becomes one of the most-viewed political videos of the season, kicking off the pop-culture edition of the election.
2/2/2008 Yes We Can
Significance: The most popular mash-up of the 2008 election is born. Although it was created of the Obama camp, it’s featured on the camp homepage for several weeks—showing that a campaign can benefit from the best of supporter-generated content.
3/14/2008 Obama Denounces Controversial Remarks
Significance: Determined not to be swift-boated, Obama uploads this made-for-YouTube response to the Rev. Wright controversy four days before his larger speech on race. He tells his online supporters to "forward this video on."
3/18/2008 Obama Speech: ‘A More Perfect Union’
Significance: The most-viewed video ever uploaded by a presidential campaign to YouTube. This clips demonstrates there's an audience for longer content on YouTube, and that more people can see events at a time of their choosing than ever before.
5/11/2008 Obamacan—Winner, Obama in 30 seconds
Significance: A political commercial contest by Moveon.org, generates significant mainstream media attention for the Obama campaign.
6/7/2008 Barack Speaks To HQ Staff & Volunteers
Significance: The camp offers YouTubers a behind the scenes look shortly after the primary. A staple of videos like these made viewers at home feel like they had an all-access pass to the campaign.
6/19/2008 An Important Campaign Announcement from Barack Obama
Significance: Obama announces via a YouTube video that he plans to
forgo public financing for the general election, continuing his trend of speaking to his core online audience first.
11/04/2008 President-Elect Barack Obama in Chicago
Significance: Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States. His speech is uploaded to his YouTube channel. The Obama Channel is YouTube's most popular channel that week.