• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 31, 2009

Sun Microsystems gives new meaning to the term "user-generated content" despite fears that putting consumers in charge of designing an ad campaign could steer branding off track. Zooppa's social network community has been tapped to develop creative pieces for print, television and online advertising and marketing campaigns.

Laura Ventura, group manager for the Sun Startup Essentials program at Sun Microsystems, became enamored with the idea after hearing Zooppa's elevator pitch at a venture capital event. She believes the social network's business model fits with the Sun's philosophy to rely on open source software and a developer's network for ideas.

Following Sun's branding guidelines could become the biggest challenge. "That's the only thing I worry about," Ventura says. "I worry people will go off and do something completely inconsistent and not follow our identity guidelines. If they get too creative, it may be difficult for us to use it."

Agencies are starting to embrace of idea of user-generated content, says Wil Merritt, Seattle-based Zooppa CEO. It wasn't that long ago that agency executives were scared to death that consumers would send the wrong message.

For Sun, Zooppa took on the role of an ad agency to help create a campaign based on content generated by members of the social network. The 40,000-plus member network is comprised of one-third professionals. Another third are amateurs who make videos and dabble in graphics. Students who want to work in the advertisers make up the remainder.

Sun's competition runs through July 21. There are numerous ways to win prize money from $50 to $1,000. The contest asks community members to design print, banner or video ads that explain Sun's startup program, Sun Startup Essentials. Zooppa community members vote on the best ad. Users can put the content on Facebook pages. The creator holds the copyright, while the brand gets the license to use the materials.

Sun's free program gives startups in business less than six years with not more than 150 employees access to servers priced at around $550, and hosting packages at $40 per month. A team of experts consult to provide feedback on Web site architecture. The program assists in securing funding, and in many cases, Sun marketing experts will also develop co-marketing strategies.

The two-and-a-half-year-old program has seen applications from about 8,000 startups. Ventura says: "Sun is a big startup and employees have never changed that mentality."

Zooppa has run campaigns for more than 50 brands. It also worked with companies such as Google and Brooks Running Shoes, wanting to run user-generated advertising programs that tell the story. Companies introduce contests, which cost between $5,000 and $100,000 to develop and support. Founded in Italy by the digital incubator group H-Farm in 2007, Zooppa grew U.S. roots late last year.