• Ad Age, Wednesday, March 15, 2006 12 PM

General Motors Corp. is jumping onto the latest marketing bandwagon by initiating contest asking consumers to create a new ad for one of its products. The winner will receive trips and money for creating a 30-second online commercial for Chevy's Tahoe, its best-selling brand. The contest will be conducted on a dedicated Web site where participants can create their own copy and add it to a variety of video clips and sound tracks available on the site through April 10. The promotion follows a branded entertainment initiative by GM in an episode of NBC's "The Apprentice" in which contestants were required to create an entertaining, three-hour training event for 25 Chevrolet dealers for the 2007 Tahoe. Last year, another GM brand, Pontiac, also had a branded entertainment deal with the same show. Marketers looking to break through the advertising clutter and attract attention are experimenting with the "do-it-yourself" strategy in which they encourage their customers to create ads for them. On the recent Academy Awards telecast, MasterCard launched a contest asking participants to create a new execution of its long-running "Priceless" campaign.

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