It is presented as “the search engine to find out what Eric Zemmour really thinks”. Already very active on social networks, the candidate’s campaign team has just launched a brand new tool, which could prove to be extremely effective: the “Zemmour pour tous” search engine. This interface, very easy to use, allows access to all the televised interventions of the far right polemicist.
The principle is simple: by entering a keyword (education, health, etc.), the Internet user immediately has access to all the videos in which the candidate has spoken this word. Even if the video sequence is long, the engine guides the Internet user to the precise extract where the chosen theme was discussed, without having to view it in its entirety. For each theme, there are a dozen video extracts, and even many more for certain subjects that the candidate particularly likes, such as the theme of “immigration”, which offers for example no less than 80 videos, all hosted on the YouTube platform.
Eric Zemmour’s campaign team has launched an incredibly powerful tool.
A search engine that finds the candidate’s video extracts, whatever the theme. 🔍
It’s a formidable campaign weapon, and I’ll explain why. 👇 pic.twitter.com/PlXXSKwM2g
– François d’Estais (@fdestais) December 15, 2021
“Referencing” any statement from Eric Zemmour
In the presidential race led by the various candidates on social networks, “it is an additional digital weapon in Eric Zemmour’s arsenal (…) Already because no candidate can compete with such a wealth of content on Youtube. Zemmour having 20 years of televised debates and an unprecedented media tour before the announcement of his candidacy ”, explains
on Twitter François d’Estais, communication specialist at Havas. With this tool, “the video automatically launches on the relevant passage, without having to listen to it in its entirety, thanks to YouTube subtitles, which allows ultra-precise referencing”, he adds.
For the far-right candidate’s campaign team, it’s also a way to efficiently index a large amount of content. “The uses are multiple, such as capturing the curious who after research will watch the video until the end … before finding other videos of Eric Zemmour in their YouTube suggestions”, confirms Francois d’Estais. As this is a YouTube video, each viewing feeds the recommendation algorithm, which allows the user to find other Eric Zemmour videos in his YouTube suggestions.
Playing on the “virality” of political discourse in video
This search engine can also be very effective for any activist who wishes to defend the candidate’s ideas. “It is also the dream weapon of activists for digital response strategies: they will quickly find the extract to hit the mark on social networks (…) Not to mention WhatsApp loops, a means of propagating political ideas much more powerful than one thinks, specifies the specialist of the communication at Havas.
With this tool, the campaign teams of the far-right polemicist have also bet on the virality of the video discourse. “The incarnation facilitates persuasion, and a video is certainly more powerful than the pages of a program”, still estimates François d’Estais. According to him, this tool alone will not change this presidential election. But it ticks a lot of the boxes for a well-conducted strategic and political operation.