Getting consumers on board to help your company produce your next ad campaign is nothing new. Look no further than Dorito’s “Crash The Super Bowl” campaign (below) -- which asked US consumers to create and ad, the best of which was actually screened during the Super Bowl -- for an example of a highly successful consumer-generated media strategy.
A couple of recent efforts indicate that tapping the wisdom of crowds -- or crowdsourcing -- for creative advertising ideas is gathering pace.
The first is Dorito’s again. In an effort to repeat the success of the first “Crash The Super Bowl” campaign -- and no doubt latch on again to the masses of PR it generated -- Dorito’s is repeating the campaign, but with a twist. In addition to the winner being screened during the Super Bowl, they will also take home $1m if their ad rates the highest of all Super Bowl ads. Not a bad reward for someone with a bit of creativity and drive.
The second example of crowdsourcing in action comes from the California Milk Processor Board, creators of the famous ‘Got Milk‘ campaign, and more recently ,’White Gold‘. In an attempt to better target a lucrative demographic -- teens -- the California Milk Processor Board is running a competition at California schools to come up with their next campaign. Students will ultimately present their ideas to the milk board and the San Francisco advertising agency behind the crowdsourcing initiative:
“It kind of gets us out of having to create the advertising,” said a jocular Jeff Goodby, co-chairman at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners [advertising agency].
He continued, more seriously: “The idea is that it’s fine to involve people in the solution of problems. And people love to see if they can do as good a job as the professionals.” [link]
Involving the crowd to come up with fresh ideas or hone existing ones is clearly here to stay. It hasn’t taken off too much in Australia yet -- unless, of course, you’re aware of any examples? Do let us know in the comments.
A local example is Nova offering $10,000 for listeners to create their new TVC. Listeners go into Nova and pick up facemasks of the crew and away they go! Cheap ad for the radio station….big $ in the back pocket of some young talent….