Do You Really Want Your Consumers Creating Your Ads?

My sister is making a short film about how she tries to deal with her grief over the death of her dog by transferring her affections to a duo of wooden deer.   (go with me here)

In her film, she features Snausages - they were Coco's favorite.  For those of you who aren't dog owners - Snausages are soft little treats that look like pigs in a blanket.

Now - several of the scenes in her movie featuring these Snausages would probably make a great commercial for this popular little doggie treat.   Who knows, perhaps the makers of Snausages will see the film and contact her to use some of her material.

BUT - this is really different than the makers of Snausages saying to consumers - "Hey - make a commercial about our product and send it in to us."

Yet that is exactly what many advertisers are doing.  For example - Dove.

Go to www.dove.com and you will be met by this message - "Create Our Next TV Ad"

The Dove brand makes products for real women like you. So who better to produce our NEW Dove Cream Oil Body Wash commercial which will air during a commercial break on the 79th Annual Academy Awards.

(thanks to Bryan Eisenberg for giving me the heads up - he is a virtual encyclopedia of cool articles)

The Dove phenomenon was not due to the product, but the approach to the product.  What resonated with women was Dove's deeper understanding of how women feel real bodies are not reflected back to them in beauty advertising.   

If Dove did a contest where they said - Do a video telling us what you think makes women beautiful - now THAT would cool.   

News Flash......consumers don't care about making commercials (unless they are a budding marketer hoping to get attention).   Consumers care about sharing their story.

These may sound similar, but they are actually quite different.    

In the Dove commercial contest - Dove provides flashy editing techniques, product images - all sorts of things you would need for a typical commercial.  Why?  Why not just let consumers create whatever they want, then let your ad agency add in the typical product images, flashy editing, etc. ?

A recent Ad Age article discusses consumer generated content - it's a great article and worth the full read.   They mention the Diet Coke Mentos video clip as one of the most important pieces of consumer generated content.

I don't know the actual reason why these two guys filmed this experiment.  Perhaps they got out of bed one morning and said  - "I've got a great idea - let's create a commercial for Diet Coke - no, let's create a commercial for Mentos - Gosh I love those quirky little mints."    

Or - perhaps they said - "Is it urban myth or is it true that if you drop a Mentos in a Diet Coke it explodes?    Hey - how cool would it be to do a whole experiment and film it?"

I don't know which way it went down, but my guess is, it's closer to the second scenario.  (unless the whole thing is a complete farce) Mentos sales increased 15% thanks to all the free publicity.  (not sure how it affected Diet Coke sales)

If you look at the clip - you'll see Coke has gotten into the act at the end with  - yes - a contest to create more content.   

There is a theory in Quantum Physics that the very act of observing can alter the outcome of the experiment.  When a person creates content - a product may be included, but often it's more subliminal.   It is a person, not a "consumer" who is telling their story - not the product's story. 

Consumer generated content where someone just wants to share their story - that is powerful - that is authentic.

When companies specifically ask consumers to create content about their products - that means the person is no longer a person but "consumer" and must actively think about the product.  They may still tell a story - but now there is pressure to consciously promote the product.   This is much less authentic.

Can consumers still come up with more compelling commercials than ad agencies even in this second scenario?  Sure they can.   Why?  Because they are the consumer!   They have insight into the product.  Think this sounds a bit crazy?  Look at this snippet from the same Ad Age article:

'Inexpensive rapid prototyping'
"We are forced to work faster and to try to spend less money, and that's a positive thing," he says. "It changes the way we validate certain kinds of ideas, and it allows for a lot of inexpensive rapid prototyping."

As evidence, he points to JWT's recent JetBlue campaign, which was based on customer feelings and insight about the brand.

And, of course, marketers are intensely interested. "They perk up when you talk about this stuff," says Mr. Montague.

Ok - ad agencies call it "inexpensive rapid prototyping" - I call it "promote the product from the customer's point of view".    Is it really newsworthy that the JetBlue campaign was based on customer feelings and insight about the brand?  Is this really something new and unusual in Adland?     That's frightening.

There are lots of ways to get your customers engaged with your brand.  There are lots of ways your customers can share their stories with you.   But I caution you - instead of "make a commercial about our product" - find out what your true brand attribute is - in the case of Dove "What is real beauty" and ask your customers to share their feelings about that. 

For Harley Davidson - instead of "make a commercial about your bike"  why not try "tell us what freedom means to you" or "tell us what adventure means to you". 

I think you'll end up with better stories - more authentic stories - and those will be more powerful than any canned commercial you or your customers try to create.

   

Comments

[C. B. Whittemore]

Your post is right on target, with great examples. Thanks and I look forward to meeting you tomorrow at Future NOW!

[Carrie]

yes, i agree with you, however it is difficult to run a really authentic campaign, it should have a loyalty base

[Carrie]

yes, i agree with you, however it is difficult to run a really authentic campaign, it should have a loyalty base