Get up! for gay marriage

Australian grassroots campaign organisation GetUp! has launched a film called “It’s Time” which in 3 days has racked up over a million views on YouTube. Nicely shot in beautiful Sydney it plays with your preconceptions of romance and partnership.

The background information for this film is that Australia’s ruling Labour Party is having their national conference soon. GetUp! wants to influence the debate in regards to gay marriage Down Under. You can click through and donate in order to fund a TV run of this clip.

I wonder why putting the film on TV is GetUp!’s (costly) goal. In its length the film is entirely suited for online, it has a nice twist towards the end and anyone in favour of the cause can easily spread the word by embedding and sharing the clip. Any TV news department worth their salt will run this clip as part of their coverage of the current debate. And influential politician will surely be briefed on it.
What does GetUp! gain from a national TV flight where people would a) not have the attention span to sit through the full story b) a twist at the very end is rarely effective in terms of recall and c) no forwarding or social sharing will take place? I personally would advocate for using the money to buy more targeted online video placements, e.g. a cut down pre-roll version with an intriguing cliffhanger to see the romance blossom.

Or is this still a case of “If it isn’t on TV, it isn’t really part of the mainstream”?
What do you think?

Director Stephen McCallum / Maven