See What’s Out There

I have been reporting here about the trend of getting your consumers, or activists/donors, to participate in user generated content contests. The idea is simple — “make an ad for us and you could win something.” The something might be $25,000, $2,000 or recognition from your peers. The goal is to get people engaged, and get some “free” content out of it. MoveOn did this in 2004 when they got people to make anti-Bush commercials. In addition to having the videos online, they put together a DVD called Bush in 30 Seconds.

But contests are harder than they look.

We saw that for Heinz, the product wasn’t so great. And in today’s Times was the headline:

Outcome of an Ad Contest Starts an Uproar on YouTube

Some YouTube users cried foul this week when they saw the winning video in a Malibu Caribbean Rum user-generated advertising contest.

The contest, which began in early May, solicited videos about Malibu Banana Rum set to the tune of “Banana Boat Song,” also known as “Day-O.” It offered a prize of $25,000 or, if the winner preferred, a banana grove in a tropical location.

The Malibu brand, owned by Pernod Ricard, stated that it would consider the votes of YouTube users when it selected the winner. Malibu also said the actor Efren Ramirez of “Napoleon Dynamite” would help judge. The winner would be announced, the company said, by June 30.

The winner, however, was posted Monday, and finalists were not publicly named. Some consumers who lost the contest were quick to start a rumbling on YouTube message boards that the contest had been rigged — a charge that Malibu denied.

One YouTube user even made a six-minute conspiracy theory video that compared images from a professional Malibu commercial promoting the contest with the winner’s video, saying in part: “Wow, the same nose!? The same guy? You be the judge!”

“It just looks like, wow, they rigged the contest,” said Debbie Lusignan, 35, of Adams, Mass. “I am furious. I spent 60 hours on this freaking contest.”

Ron Klineschmidt, the winner of the contest, who has been peppered with negative comments from his upset competitors, said they were being sore losers…

Contests can work well. But don’t go into it thinking it will be cheap or easy.

I have written a lot about the growing trend to see for-profit solutions to the world’s problems. Grameen Bank being the most famous example, there are many people who believe that unlike traditional philanthropy, for-profit business has built-in sustainability. I don’t think it’s either or. There are certain things that defy traditional market forces that need the giving of individuals, organizations and governments. But there are other things that, with some creativity, the market will take care of.

The issue of water is a big one and there are two things on this I want to bring your attention to. One of them is something where market forces are being used and the other is more traditional philanthropy — both to great effect. The first is about redesigning the water carrier. A little design, and some market forces and you can change the lives of millions of women and children around the world. It falls into the category of “why didn’t I think of that?”

It’s a rolling 20-gallon water carrier. It is so smooth a kid could do it and it replaces those jerrycans that women carry on their heads. The Times reports on an exhibit in New York called “Design for the Other 90%” about designers who have created products to help people living on less than $2 per day live better. If you click on the story you can see an image of this water carrier.

The story is also about how market forces can be put to work to make a sustainable difference if we focus some talent on the problems. Watch the video here.

The other water thing I want to tell you about is an organization called PlayPumps. The idea is simple… design a water pump in the form of a children’s playground toy. You know those things that spin? Kids run and spin and sit and all the while they are pumping water for their village or neighborhood. PlayPumps is raising money for 100 pumps in 100 days. We are hosting a PSA contest for PlayPumps at DoGooderTV. If you have a video camera, enter the PlayPumps PSA contest and win a MacBook Pro with FinalCut. Here’s the blurb:

Calling all budding filmmakers! PlayPumps International wants you to create our next PSA.

Help spread the word clean drinking water crisis and highlight solutions that young people and/or adults can use to make a difference in both local and global communities.

PlayPumps International, with support from Reebok, women’s tennis star Nicole Vaidisova, the Case Foundation, Hard Rock International, Flashbags and The Motley Fool, is holding a contest to encourage youth and adults to produce the best Public Service Announcement (PSA) video about the clean drinking water crisis. The purpose of the contest is to raise awareness of the clean drinking water crisis in sub-Saharan Africa and compel people to act on behalf of PlayPumps.

Five videos will be selected as finalists by a panel of celebrity judges. One video from among those five will be selected as the contest’s official prize-winning entry, based on voting by the general public. Our grand prize winner will receive a new 15″ MacBook Pro with Final Cut Express and more! Contest entry deadline is June 15, 2007.

User generated content, or UGC, is all the rage. It is fueled by easy-to-use blog software, social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, and the online video phenomenon of YouTube, and a thousand other video sharing sites. The line between “consumers of information” and “publishers of information” continue to blur.

Companies and nonprofits are trying to harness UGC so that supporters and customers can carry positive marketing messages to their friends and their friends friends in a way that is more effective than traditional top-down advertising. In this way, UGC is connected to the idea of permission marketing. Don’t force me to watch your commercial by interrupting me with a marketing message. Instead, send me information on things I am interested in and allow my community to tell me about the products and causes they care about while I tell them about my own interests. The fact that traditional advertising is as expensive as ever and less effective than ever has pushed many marketers to experiment in this direction.

One way to get people to create content for you is through contests. A common form of contest among companies is the “create a commercial” contest. The ones that got the most publicity recently were the NFL’s user-generated Super Bowl ad contest, Doritos Super Bowl ad contest, and now Heinz’s contest, widely promoted, asking folks to create their own 30-second ketchup spot.

In the nonprofit world we also have contests and at See3 we have become “the contest people” helping organizations conceive of and execute user generated content contests. Among organizations, contests may seem like a short-cut to get compelling content, and cheaply. While it can work out that way, a successful contest requires some investment of both time and money. First, a contest has to be conceived in a way that it will attract enough entries to make it worthwhile. The prize has to be significant, or seem significant to the target audience. (It might not be money. The right kind of acknowledgment can go a long way.) It also has to have the right venue, an easy way for people to participate, legal rules and enough promotion so the target audience knows it exists.

We have also found that if you are asking someone to create a public service announcement, it’s a good idea to give them some examples. If the contest is too open and lacks any creative direction people will often stay away because they can’t imagine what the “right” kind of entry would look like. We also know that seeding the contest with some folks likely to create a decent product is a good idea as well. YouTube is full of folks who do a nice job with video. We reach out to those people and maybe give them a little extra incentive to participate.

One question being asked by corporate marketers today is whether the publicity around a contest is as much of a benefit as the contest itself. The current Heinz contest is a great example. On YouTube you can see a lot of very inappropriate ketchup ads. Heinz says they will put the top 5 on the air, but they might not get 5 that they like. On the other hand, when the New York Times writes an article about you — albeit about the challenges you are having with your contest — is that considered a PR victory? The article is a nice look into the challenges of user generated content contests.

But if people are talking about Heinz Ketchup, and showing dozens of videos on YouTube about it, and writing about it in blogs like this one, is that enough? Most of these videos are really really bad. And if you can imagine people making ads about your organization or cause, ads that might not be the way you talk about your issues, ads that might get their facts wrong or seem to compromise your brand in some way, is that OK if it creates awareness? These are the issues we are helping organizations navigate at See3.