The short videos of all 56 candidates for the Dunedin mayoralty or city councillor positions were a new Dunedin City Council initiative to help inform voters.
They were all uploaded to YouTube at the start of the month, and it has been reported they cost the council $6153 to produce.
As of mid-afternoon yesterday, the most viewed candidate on the platform was Mandy Mayhem, followed by Andrew Simms, Lee Vandervis and Pamela Taylor.
Incumbent mayor Jules Radich said viewer numbers when he looked were between 400 and 900.
"So all in the same order of magnitude and relatively low, which does not bode well for voter turnout.
"Based on the few I looked at, people were watching the videos for entertainment rather than election research."
Sophie Barker said most videos had a fairly similar viewership, between 300 and 500.
"With a population of 134,000 it would be great if the viewership was a lot higher, as that’s a tiny percent of the population watching them so far."
She did not think the views necessarily related to a candidate’s popularity, but perhaps partly to the effort they put in to share the video.
Mr Simms said while he was pleased his video had received "one of the highest view counts", it might or might not translate into votes.
"I notice that the vampire is doing very well also.
"I am pleased that people are showing an interest in the local body elections and the issues confronting Dunedin."
Jett Groshinski said his video received "far more" views when shared across other platforms, which showed people were engaging across different spaces.
Flynn "Nisvett" Nisbett said his video had been going "very well" as he had shared it on social media.
Other candidates had not been as successful and he was interested in whether this was due to a lack of engagement with young people, who were more aware of social media campaigns, he said.
"A lot of the candidate videos are very monotonous and catch-phrasey, which puts people off immediately.
"I feel mine was engaging, whereas many others — even the ones who are inspiring really — were standard, bland politician."
Evelyn Robertson said her video had more views than other candidates who she saw as "more established".
Popularity or controversy could account for the disparity between some candidates.
Bex Twemlow said those who had built visibility over time would naturally draw higher views.
Viewership of the videos was at best a "rough signal" as to candidates’ popularity, and she was "stoked to have scraped into the top 15".
"It shows I am in the race, but at the end of the day, it is actual votes that count, not view counts."
Ms Mayhem said there had been an "excellent response" to her video.
She had shared it to multiple Facebook pages.
"In fact, if it translates to votes, I’m doing really well."
Russell Lund said the number of views in general seemed very low.
There were a large number of other, more in-depth, online platforms to compare candidates, and he was "not at all concerned" about the viewership of his video.
"It’s very revealing that existing councillors often have higher views — that says to me after years on council, people still don’t know what many of them stand for."
