Consumers become advertisers

 
Open-source user-generated advertising is no longer a trend in Switzerland, but part of everyday life. Consumers are more in demand than ever as partners for advertisers. 
The creative minds at JWT H+F are not magicians. But what the advertisers from Zurich's Maagareal showed us last year did border on true magic for a moment. Remy Fabrikant and his team of helpers turned a fluffy cat into a real cuddly tiger. And not with a magic hat, but in the microwave and with the help of a Whiskas can. The film is available on YouTube under "Making a Real Cat With a Microwave" and was shown on TV channels 3+ and SF 2. Andy Hostettler, head of JWT-H+F at the time, used the film to lay the foundation for in-depth research. The agency wanted to investigate the mysterious phenomenon of "User Generated Content" (UGC) in all its facets. The first results on the subject should have been presented last summer. The agency obviously underestimated the subject matter. As chief strategist Rainer Bühler says today, the developments had overtaken the agency: "Just as a few years ago it was imperative to have TV spots and double-page spreads, today it is imperative to integrate customers and audiences, activate, engage, post via the web and blog, have things sent in, vote, post-process and so on. We simply couldn't keep up with monitoring because we ourselves are part of those who are experimenting without a care in the world."
There is currently a lot of experimentation with UGC in Switzerland. One year after the "Broadcast Yourself" spot by JWT H+F, user-generated campaigns are springing up like mushrooms. ADC President Jean Etienne Aebi says: "It's a megatrend. The development has been going on for three years and can be observed in many different forms."
New forms, especially on the webConsumers are getting creative today. Branded companies are organizing competitions and asking consumers to take part. Although blurred and poorly lit commercials on traditional television are a rarity, a look at the Internet shows that more and more companies are being inspired by the rapid development process, the so-called Web 2.0 and the creative potential of consumers. "I don't think anyone disputes that the Internet can make the difference between the success and failure of brands today," says Dominique von Matt. The Managing Director of Jung von Matt/Limmat is keeping a close eye on developments because the acrobats on the Internet have a strong influence on products and their image. "Today, user-generated advertising takes place mainly online and less in traditional media," von Matt is convinced. And that will remain the case for the time being. According to von Matt, advertising based on the Linux principle rarely takes place in traditional channels because clients rely on the expertise of agencies and they know best how an ad works on television.
The UGC theme is more topical than ever at Jung von Matt. For the Graubünden umbrella brand, the advertisers shot a commercial with ibexes having funny conversations. In addition to the TV spot, the creatives have launched a website where visitors can synchronize the scene with the ibexes themselves. According to Dominique von Matt, the "Do it Yourself" versions will remain on the Internet for the time being and will not be used as TV commercials. This is unusual today anyway, because brand development will never be left unmanaged.
Jean Etienne Aebi agrees: "People like to talk about brand democracy, but no company is letting go of brand management. These days, they are all cleverly controlled stories." The claim by cynics that advertisers are being sent into early retirement as a result of current developments makes Aebi smile: "Such campaigns involve a lot of effort. For the agencies, such user-generated campaigns mean even more work."
User-generated advertising also means getting ideas cheaply. But not necessarily quality. This is impressively demonstrated by the "So much happiness" campaign from cat food manufacturer Whiskas. Cat lovers can post their moments of happiness online in the form of a video. The poorly exposed domestic cats, filmed eating and lolling around, raise questions among advertising professionals.
Hardly professional qualityClaus Bornholt from Futurecom sums it up in his blog post: "In any case, the cinematic results are of a rather dubious aesthetic nature." Although the campaign has caused a shake of the head, Bornholt says: "You shouldn't expect quality that can compete with that of advertising agencies. In most cases, that's not the aim. Such campaigns are basically just about involving the consumer in the world of the brand."
In addition to the lack of quality, Whiskas is also struggling with a well-known UGA problem: consumers are apparently only interested in large lifestyle brands. The cat page currently has very few visitors who actively participate and upload films. The situation is different with UGA campaigns from Apple, Coca Cola or BMW. A Jung von Matt/Neckar employee recently rightly asked himself: "Where are the cool communities that flock to small brands? The happy housewives who exchange staining tips on websites or the group of people who talk about cheese and document their best experiences in the cheese store?"
Perhaps consumers will meet on Internet playgrounds like "Pitch it" in future. At the beginning of February, television marketer Publisuisse launched an ambitious UGA project. It is intended to offer advertisers a platform to get in touch with amateur advertisers. Project manager Reto Hufenus: "It is a standardized model that we want to make available to the advertising industry." The aim is to enable clients to engage in cross-media dialog with consumers by communicating and publicizing a "Creative Brief" on television. Producers can then upload videos and rate them among themselves. Publisuisse wants to show the best videos on television. A campaign is currently being run by Switzerland.com.
Whether such a platform will mobilize the freelancer armies remains to be seen. Nevertheless, a study from the USA suggests what the future holds for such projects. The American Marketing Association asked consumers about their UGA behavior. Conclusion: companies that involve consumers in their advertising significantly increase the approval ratings of over 25-year-olds. The situation is different for younger people. Their reaction is predominantly mistrustful. The "net natives" are in a position to produce professional content thanks to simpler and more easily available hardware and software. However, they are also smart enough to distinguish genuine offers for participation from showmanship. Simply putting a participatory campaign online is therefore not enough.
Christian Lüscher
Some UGA examples from SwitzerlandUser-generated advertising (UGA) is also very popular in Switzerland. Werbewoche took a look at a few open source campaigns.
Graubünden - Beware of the ibex!
The star of the Graubünden umbrella brand is the ibex. The funny TV commercials can be replayed on the Internet. Visitors to the graubuenden.ch website can synchronize the TV spots with their own ideas in the Capricorn Remix. Due to the large number of entries, the competition has been extended until March.
Swisscom - Love is in the Air
Before Christmas, Swisscom launched an online karaoke competition to promote the new Bluewin DSL 20,000 Internet access. Until January 15, amateur singers could take part in the competition and sing along to the disco classic "Love is in the Air" (1978) by John Paul Young. A total of 750 videos were uploaded to the karaoke platform Swisscom-karaoke.ch. At the end of the campaign, a TV commercial was created using footage of users recording their performance with the help of webcams and cell phones.
Migros - Favorite products
A little older, but also a UGA story: Migros launched the cross-media "Migros favorite product" survey in 2006. The retailer wanted to find out from consumers what their personal favorite products were. The participatory campaign took place primarily on the Internet. Consumers were able to find out everything they needed to know about their favorite products on a website, view images and data or meet other people with the same product preferences in an original partner meeting. The most interesting results of the survey were included in the second wave of the campaign for TV commercials and advertisements.
Fust - EM fever
Last year, the electrical goods retailer demanded
asked customers to shoot a 20 to 30-second commercial on the subject of "Fust EM-Fieber". Around two dozen commercials were produced. To date, the winning commercial has not yet been broadcast on regional television, as promised in the advertisements. Find out more at Fust.ch/videoblog
Olma - Bratwurst
The well-known St. Gallen sausage specialty announced a public competition last year. The task was to produce a TV commercial for the Olma bratwurst. A total of 26 films were submitted. The winning video was chosen by SMS voting and broadcast on Tele Südostschweiz. The films can no longer be viewed today because individual participants have infringed music copyrights.
Baslerstab - My favorite piece of Basel
The free newspaper Baslerstab is currently running a photo competition. Potential participants are being asked to show the paper how important Basel's largest free newspaper is. The best snapshots will later be used for an advertising campaign. (cl)