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.
