• by dave.b , Max Kalehoff , June 8, 2007

Superbowl XLI was a beehive of advertising inspired by consumer participation, and that advertising was often justified by potential multiples of viral ROI. At the heart of this frenzy was consumer-generated advertising, such as campaigns from the NFL, Frito-Lay and GM.

Four months later, marketers are still experimenting in hopes of engaging and co-creating online with consumers in all sorts of consumer-generated campaigns. While this bandwagon is still relatively new, marketers are beginning to learn some key lessons around these hybrid programs, which typically are loaded with elements of contests, promotions, customer relations, co-creation and fusion with traditional media campaigns.

What are the early and obvious lessons? For one, consumer-generated advertising is not necessarily a cheaper production alternative, and to even strive for that is naïve. To lure and harness consumers' creativity and skills, and then coddle them into traditional boxes of interruptive advertising, can be resource-intensive. Creating effective traditional advertising is a craft the pros have mastered over decades, and even their effectiveness is eroding. Second, consumer-generated ad contests, alone, don't necessarily lend themselves to mass participation, nor do they automatically achieve viral dispersion or pull consumption. Third, no matter how hard marketers try to narrowly control the outcome, core passions and authentic consumer expression tend reveal themselves above all else -- good or bad. With consumer-generated ad campaigns an inevitable and increasing presence over the next several years, my colleague Pete Blackshaw and I recently created the Top-Ten Principles of Consumer-Generated Advertising Campaigns:

1. Connect The Program To Larger Business Goals: Ensure that your strategy aligns with well-defined goals and objectives, and create a measurement framework for program planning, tracking, adjusting and evaluating. A consumer-generated campaign is not a license to veer into irrelevance or sloppiness.

2. Keep It Authentic: Leverage the full creative power of the participants and don't set narrow guidelines on the creative. The traditional media framework for inserting creative is losing its effectiveness, even among the pros. Allow for flexibility in shape, form and raw spontaneity.

3. Be Transparent: Don't play fast and loose with the fact that the brand facilitated content creation. Avoid a potential backlash by being completely transparent.

4. Encourage Advocacy: Don't be shy about allowing entrants to vote for their favorites and encourage their friends and family to vote. This builds momentum around the campaign, and ensures that the best content rises to the top.

5. Empower Syndication: Make it simple to upload, simple to share, simple to embed on blogs and other community and video platforms. Let the people become the distribution and evangelical pipeline.

6. Tap The Long Tail: Don't hesitate to leverage non-winners for other marketing purposes. Embrace them as passionate and loyal stakeholders, and use the Web site as a repository for their rich content.

7. Capture The Moment: Capitalize on "great brand moments" when consumers are highly vested and more likely to advocate, such as new product launches, purchases, or actual brand use and enjoyment. This will help passionate, credible and authentic storylines rise to the top.

8. Be Consistent: If you create an environment of dialogue and interaction, stakeholders will notice inconsistencies across other customer touch points or company silos. While the campaign may end, its equity around "participation, community and feedback" may live on. Decide beforehand if your brand's cultural values, resources and commitment will sustain after the campaign ends.

9. Embrace Criticism And Deprecation: You've got to take the bad with the good. While a good strategy will acknowledge and plan for detractors, the reality is that everyone is empowered to publish. Accept and embrace this truth, and leverage criticism or deprecation as a gift of feedback and opportunity.

10. Move From Campaign To Platform: Campaigns may have clear beginnings and endings, but there may be dimensions of your program that want to live on forever. Prepare a platform to facilitate and leverage sustained engagement and brand return.

Are you in compliance?