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RSSWell-known examples of CGM ads are big splashy contests like the Superbowl Doritos spot, or failures like the Chevy Tahoe mix-your-own ad ploy. But many smart marketers today are managing (or having managed for them) communities of citizen marketers and brand loyalists, people who are interested in helping out the brands they love -- and these communities are slowly being empowered with video sharing tools. Some of this activity is behind firewalls, some is in the open, and whether you want to call it "advertising" or not, it's often enthusiastic brand content that communicates well to others.
On platforms like Ning and Kickapps, marketers are building spaces where niche audiences of brand lovers share video content about their lives, their creative endeavors, and their brands. And marketers are sharing back, releasing professionally produced insider video, setting up private events, joining the conversation and creating excitement as well as excuses for community members to post more CGM video. And unlike YouTube, marketers have control over what gets posted; though as with blogging, marketers have to have the right voice and tread lightly when it comes to censorship.
But, wait! you say. Who wants to watch a bunch of crappy home videos? Here's where mixing CGM and pro ad content and packaging comes in. Many managed communities give marketers access to the source CGM material. Are you an auto marketer with a new model on tour? Show it off first to community members in your major markets. Encourage them to shoot video and upload it to your site. Pull out the good stuff and edit it together with a clip from the lead engineer or head designer. Do this in each market, and voila! A number of different, low-budget executions you can place wherever video advertising lives. Play the San Francisco clip in San Francisco. Play the design clip for design audiences, the engineer clip for gear-heads. Maybe you luck out and something funny happened during the tour: there's your YouTube viral. This is do-able now.
I don't own a TV. I couldn't care less about the demise of high-dollar :30 spots. If I'm watching short vids on a site like BeBo or Blip.tv, I want to see relevant ads (brand content) that have a similar look and feel to what I'm watching. I want them to be made by people like me, in my city. I want those ads to be user-activated ("bugs" or "tickers") because I want an experience that I can either skip entirely or that draws me in, shows me something I didn't know about a brand. I want an invitation to go deeper, to hear from my peers, and to join the community myself. And I don't think I'm alone.
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I would greatly appreciate it if you all could just take a quick visit and tell me your thoughts on the Pre-Roll Car Ad...it's supposed to be entertaining, quick and makes the viewer want to watch it again and pass it on...please let me know! I am also looking to see if the video player is visually pleasing and works well
Thank you!
Deanna Cross CEO - Founder The Spirited Maverick Media Company, LLC www.WomensAutomotiveNetwork.TV www.WomensAutomotiveNetwork.com 888-270-3433 main dcross@WomensAutomotiveNetwork.TV
I watched Nike run a campaign where people taped themselves doing things with a soccer ball - it came in from one side - and then kicked it out the other side of the screen - a soccer chain, brilliant idea.
But you have to be on more than one screen today, and they know that.
"Relevance" is ultimately what matters. Marketers need to stop "interrupting" and start "engaging". My generation - Gen Y - is not immune to advertising, just advertising we don't care about. When an ad for Madden NFL 08 pops up in the middle of my CNN video on Joost - I actually pay attention, but when an ad for "Activon" or one of those annoying ads comes on - I tune out and mark that product down as a "don't use".
I don't think I am in a minority (except for watching Joost)
I'm in the business of marketing my client's goods and services to real people, who own tv's, and watch sports, people that want huge HD TV's conected to their Xbox, etc... People who live and work in a diverse community, not some elite happy-ville where the internet is easy to understand navigate and experince.
I agree new content formats, and creative campaigns that draw a viewer/ reader into a brand experince are important, but I'm working to see short term rich content, drive long form exposure to previoussly uninterested buyers-which will increase NEW busines for my advertisers. Expecting users to embrace their brands enough to make content about the brand itself just doesn't sound like a mass marketing principle that can be scaled, but it does sound like a great way to create niche campaigns. All in all interesting thoughts...it has me thinking.