The Future Of Consumer Generated Advertising?
August 13, 2007
The debate is still raging about consumer generated content. Is it still a good idea and what’s next? We asked Tori Winn, the Digital Executive Creative Director at StrawberryFrog, what she thought about the future of consumer generated content.
“Consumer generated content plays a huge part in shaping today’s cultural DNA. It’s practically impossible not to brush up against some form of content the average Joe or Jane has created on any given day. In fact, if we stopped to really think about how much time we spend wading through user generated content as we navigate our daily lives, I think we would be stunned by the amount of stuff we consume and work that we’ve authored (think blogging, pod casting, photo sharing, video sharing, music sharing, social networking, co-creating, content mashing, etcetera). It’s a democratic landscape that gives us online tools to create content that satisfies our desire to express ourselves.
But where’s this smorgasbord of consumer generated content and activity heading? Always hard to say but I think that we, as consumers, will always find ourselves at the center of the experience. As people get more actively involved in using technologies like the iPhone or Nike+, we are starting to see the online world spill out into the real world. And what about social networking sites like Facebook? I think social networking will change the dynamics of relationships and bring about new and unexpected ways for having? all sorts of relationships. For example, last month I decided to take the plunge and finally signed up for Facebook. An ex-boyfriend of mine who I haven’t heard from or seen in over 15 years looked at my profile and invited me to be his friend. It was an incredibly nice surprise, almost magical–and now we’re having drinks next week. Now what role did Facebook play in all this? It was a tool and an archive of all my relationships. If I allow it, Facebook could become so much more important in my life. It could become a chronicle for all of my life experiences and interactions.
In what now seems like an archaic time, we have used above the line messaging to drive people online. The new frontier involves our continued effort to find new and relevant ways to stimulate offline behaviors from an online starting point. Empowered by technology and fueled by consumer generated content, social networks like Facebook along with products like the iPhone and Nike+, are leading the way. The future is bright.”
Is Ms. Winn right or wrong? Let us know in the comments section.
August 13, 2007 at 6:00 pm
You might want to come over and see what we’ve got going on at XLNTads… we just a *very* young start-up looking to tap into the crowdsourcing model to create a whole new advertising medium. Okay, well, maybe that’s pushing it a bit far. But really, I think you might dig what we’re building.
August 13, 2007 at 8:58 pm
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August 13, 2007 at 9:00 pm
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August 13, 2007 at 11:13 pm
I think that as people become more and more aware of the amount of crap they have to wade through to get to the good stuff, they’ll start to value social editing more.
Digg is leading the way in this, but you have to be a certain type of person to feel that Digg has the right stories for you. The perfect thing would be to somehow mix your facebook \ myspace friends up and get the media recommendations from them. This would then allow things to be relevant.
Might be ideal.
August 13, 2007 at 11:30 pm
How not to write a thousand words? There’s no pictures of really complicated ideas.
I’m a big Cluetrain guy, so I’ve been watching as the wall between company and customer has grown semi-permeable. Communication is not and cannot be a one-way street. “Markets are conversations.”
For many companies, user-generated content is a HUGE part of their total customer interface. Support forums. Of a bunch of geeky companies, but the geeks tend to be ahead of the curve.
In these, the most knowledgeable and, especially, engaged customers become part of the company, solving simple problems and pointing people to known solutions.
There are already a zillion support forums for every kind of commercial enterprise on the planet, yet big companies that could use it are scared to death. Ford is completely clueless and Toyota has generated this lame approximation of Web 2.0. Click and Clack, the Tappet Bros. are eating Detroit’s lunch!
So into this mix we throw the “new” idea of user-generated ads. If the process plays true to form, The Client will insist on controlling the outcome, The Agency will pick the submission that most closely resembles their own [lame] ideas, The Spots will be bland, and the whole effect will be to alienate the very people most passionate about the brand. Their quirky, insightful stuff won’t even get close to the short list.
Meanwhile, somebody will be creating a Google to destroy the Yahoo! that is Mad Ave/User-Gen. It might be called YouTube.
August 14, 2007 at 11:57 pm
[...] consumer-generated content. Tori Winn, Digital Executive Creative Director at StrawberryFrog, gave her take on the future of consumer-generated content, concluding the future is bright. We agree. The [...]