Going viral

The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers is experimenting with viral marketing this week, as part of an abbreviated, low-dollar campaign for the CPS school board and Issue 22, the CPS tax levy.

On Wednesday morning, the CFT -- helped out by Jamie Horowitz, a media consultant for the American Federation of Teachers -- sent an e-mail to roughly 10,000 addresses culled from the membership rolls of labor unions and community groups.

The e-mail includes this link , a 2 minute, 48 second video. In the video, union honcho Tim Kraus pleads for two things: A "yes" vote on the levy, and support for the CFT's three endorsed candidates for school board.

The total cost of the video production was under $2,000, Kraus said - compared to tens of thousands for a much shorter, less effective TV campaign, he said.

"We're hoping what this does is spread, where (recepients) will forward it on to other family and friends," Kraus said. "...Obviously, we're experimenting with this."

While acknowledging the high stakes of the CPS issues on the November ballot, the CFT does not plan any traditional paid media advertising before Election Day.

The video might have been a little too viral. Kraus and Horowitz both say they were surprised to learn that the Enquirer had quoted the video in an article published Wednesday morning, before the e-mail blast.