I recently subscribed to B&T Magazine and found interesting the “advice column”. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to respond to the magazine in time, so I thought I’d do it here instead.
Here was their question…
One of my clients, who is marketing director at a big name brand, wants to hold a competition inviting the public to come up with an advertisement to launch a new product to the market. I think user generated campaigns hardly ever end well, and given that the brand’s demographic is 14 year old males, I’m convinced this will go down badly. How do I tell my client I think it’s a terrible idea?
And my response…
UGC is not about free content. If you ran a high involvement campaign, you might receive 1 out of 100 entries that you would find useful. In this case it would be a commercial that could pass as a legitimate idea in the boardroom. The other 99 would not. Chances are, majority of those would be legally unusable mash ups or reflect your brand in a negative light.
It takes a lot of pressure and heat to make a diamond. Yet the best diamond is the one you find accidentally and for free, usually nothing to do with a campaign of yours.
Now on a very different, yet similar, tangent, there has been a lot of talk lately around the blogosphere regarding social objects. These sharing devices provide value to consumers through social currency.
A UGC campaign should look to build social objects with consumers. Much like Scott Drummond’s afro or David Gillespie’s hat this becomes something people will talk about. Even better, this is something the consumer will actively spread onto friends and family, encouraging people to talk about it.
But what differs this from any other social object is the strong brand connection, and like Julian Cole’s necklace, the brand is a part of its creation. So while the brand is weaved into the object itself, it is also part of its story, creating a higher level of social currency.
UGC is about building social objects that have a strong connection to the brand and as a result provide value to consumers with social currency. With this social currency, consumers can build their own relationships stemmed from a relationship with the brand. Above all, UGC is not about free content.
With that said, I’ll be the first one to say blogging is an amazing platform to be heard and voice your opinion. I do it all the time. I also agree that we should be encouraging these companies to join the conversation and calling them out when make mistakes. I do that all the time too.
But that’s not really the point of this post. His response to the incident and Julian Cole‘s interesting post on the Rules of Engagement for Companies and Bloggers got me thinking about my blog. I was criticised recently for slamming the Pimp My Kettle campaign and I’ve only now just realised the importance of the way bloggers engage and respond, not just marketers.
So from here on out, when I see a campaign I don’t like I will still join the conversation. But only if it adds value.
And Joseph, if you’re reading this, get in touch with me about that position at Crayon. ;]
Well six months later The Long Tail kicks in. Boing Boing ran an article on it a couple of days ago with one of the videos spiking in hits. And while buzz around this campaign increased significantly, Sprite didn’t respond in any way. Imagine if they released another video. Or updated the website. Or ran another contest.
Social Media doesn’t have a short term option.
As of Friday night I was in the middle of constructing a six foot high pencil made of wood with the text “www.iwanttoworkatleoburnett.com” inscribed on the side. I had big plans to get this couriered to the Managing Director at Leo Burnett Melbourne and earn myself an interview. My plan was to go in as the naive student and learn, then ideally leverage social media and build a name for myself.
But things change. I’ve decided that these guys aren’t going to give me the experience I want. So before I make my next move someone suggested I throw this out to my small, but hopefully passion, audience. I honestly don’t expect a response but I hope there’s no harm in trying.
Can you help me get experience in new or social media?
And if anyone wants six planks of wood shaped like a pencil let me know.
Well here is some justification on what a successful social media campaign should look like. Check out Julian’s post on The Body Shop.
So not only have they established a blog that actually works quite well, they are slowly looking to build up an authentic community. The best part of this, was that after Julian posted that, the author behind the blog commented. Simply using Google alerts this author has created a relationship that has since grown.
But it goes one step further. If you were to check out Julian’s post on the Pimp My Kettle campaign there is again a comment from The Body Shop. It was actually rather insightful, fits well with the brand and most importantly wouldn’t have shown up in Google Alerts. This means that the author is regularly checking out Julian’s blog, continuing to build this relationship.
And that’s how social media campaigns should work. Building relationships by providing value. Not creating false communities around passions that don’t exist that will die in three months anyway. So while this is all new and we are still learning our way around, some rules and guidelines have already been set. Ignoring them does hurt my career and gives me every right to bag your shitty campaign if it deserves it.
Of all my friends and Friends, only a few questioned the date. Would things have been different a few years ago?
Case in point is Fantastic Noodles Pimp My Kettle. I made a conscious decision last year to ensure my blog refrained from slamming campaigns as much as possible. But this is worth an exception.
The official page comes up fourth on a Google search. Furthermore, the page is a Ning. Oh dear.
Interestingly, of their 276 “members” the majority of them are from Adelaide. As Julian Cole pointed out to me, Clemenger BBDO, the agency behind this atrocity, is from Adelaide too.
I hope these guys can sleep with themselves at night. Not only are there ethical issues here but you’re really fucking up my career.
But blogging has changed this rather naive view of mine. Brands don’t always make logical decisions.
The question I feel most important here; What is the purpose of user generated content? I’m going to go ahead and suggest the answer would be the interaction with the brand. Or at least should be. If you’re going in looking for free advertising you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.
The user generated content on The Gruen Transfer’s website follows a template. This template allows users to easily make an advertisement in five minutes or so. This is great because it allows the low involvement users to get involved and also means 10,000 entries. A similar concept has been used for Design A Coke.
But this limits the user’s creativity. As a result you have 10,000 entries that all look the same and because of that most of them are only viewed a couple of times at most. Most importantly the interaction with the brand is limited. Whilst I understand you need different levels of entry for interaction, I’d much prefer a passionate user who spends two hours interacting with my brand than fifty people who spent five minutes.
A passionate user is likely to then upload it to YouTube. Then they’re more likely to send it to their friends. Then they’re more likely to check back on it regularly. They’re also more likely to create something remarkable not restricted to a template.
Essentially, as with most things, it comes back to Seth Godin‘s idea of “who” instead of “how many”.