Now Filming: Your Customers

As Incentive reported in November, more companies are using customer-driven reviews and events in their marketing campaigns to rope in consumers who are more likely to trust their peers than a corporate message. The frequency of incorporating consumer content into commmerical appeals can only increase as more digital video recorders fall into the hands of a mass audience, many of whom seem eager to serve as unpaid brand representatives.

Some companies are already making the jump to the next logical step: Why pay an agency to make your ads, when your customers are willing to do so for much less money? Texas grocery store chain H-E-B launched a new ad campaign in November with TV spots starring real customers (and the San Antonio Spurs) and plans to kick off a contest during the Super Bowl inviting consumers to submit their own ads highlighting their H-E-B shopping experience. Frito-Lay, Chevrolet and the NFL are all  running similar contests that solicit consumer contributions.

National sandwich-chain Quiznos partnered with iFilm to run a contest inviting customers to film their own commercial pitting Quiznos against rival sandwich-makers Subway. The winning submission will be aired on national television and will earn its armchair director $10,000 and a gift card for a year's supply of their toasty sandwiches. Runners up will win Video iPods. Quiznos has a history of experimenting with amateur, "edgy" ad designs, not always successfully; their infamous "spongemonkey" spots (which this writer happened to love) repelled and confused many viewers and critics. Let's hope their choice this time around is more appetizing.

This mania for consumer-created content is driven by two suppositions: One, that consumers are more likely to be swayed by content created by people like them, and two, that those same amateur marketers are willing to hand over their creative efforts for nothing more than an iPod and a moment of TV glory. I predict that the novelty status of these promotions will wear off quickly as consumers  become as numb to these messages as to the slick corporate-produced ones and as the creative types realize they deserve a portion of the profits earned by their efforts. Expect the stakes to go up and the reward processes for these contests to become more creative.

But for now, jump on the bandwagon (or the camera dolly, as it were).

Comments

[Wanda]

I think the consumer based vidoes will just help the buisness world develop more effective products.