AR&D Reinventing Local Media

CNN gave viewers and users a myriad of choices during the lone VP debate tonight.  You could make it as interactive, or inactive as you liked.  But one thing was clear - CNN did a masterful job of weaving coverage on both cable and the Internet.

They had a panel of viewers in Columbus, Ohio using dials similar to those we employ at AR&D to rate the Palin and Biden performances second by second.  That information, as well as live scoring from CNN's "political experts" ran on the cable channel throughout the debate (only visible if you had a high definition TV set).  Although I must say I missed the explanation of what the "experts" scores meant, and I found that confusing.

It was on the Internet that CNN really did a great job.  If you went to the specal politics page on the CNN website that's where your choices blossomed.  You could watch clean video of the debate without the dial ratings, you could watch a video feed with the dial ratings, and you could watch a feed that included two bloggers using their computers, but also commenting aloud on the debate as the candidates spoke.  You could click on a screen and just see the "experts" score cards.

But it didn't stop there.  You could choose to join a live chat, or if you wanted to be sure not to miss a word CNN provided a running transcript of all the words being spoken at the debate.

After the debate, CNN went live to Columbus to talk to the panel and get their reaction to the debate, as well as their voting positions.  Interestingly, while most of them raised their hands when asked if they thought Obama would win the election, only about half of the panel raised their hands when asked if they'd vote for Obama.

But the bottomline for me is that CNN put some real thought in how and what to offer as special content on the web during the VP debate - and I really enjoyed being able to choose what I wanted to see during the 90 minutes.

Have you met with your team to brainstorm ideas to create rich content for your website on election night?  If not, I suggest you do it tommorrow.

Jim