In typical ADD (or is it the brilliant acknowledgment of the public's ever shortening attention span) style, Crispin Porter + Bogusky is out with yet another iteration of Microsoft's $300 million campaign. This time, perhaps anticipating the fact $300 million might not remain $300 million given current economic conditions, the agency is treating us to...wait for it...CONSUMER-GENERATED CONTENT! Yes, you read that right, bucko! Rather than Jerry and Bill, we'll be treated to...Mr and Mrs. Nobody With A Video Camera.
The videos, which call for people to say, "I'm a PC" followed by some inanity, have been integrated into television commercials which are currently airing. Check out over 17,000 videos and photos here.
- The US Army has released a list of new technologies that could be used to enable terrorism. Twitter, MySpace and Facebook make the cut.
- The recession's not real! And neither is your loneliness.
- Here's a fun little site. Click on a pair of shoes to see a luxe little ad -- er, "dream" about it. The image at left is for the Vinyl Mary Jane-looking shoes. The Ultra Girl Night Sky one is probably my favourite though: jelly shoes, underwater. How novel.
- You know you hate the new Pepsi logo almost as much as you hate the douche-tacular smile/grin logic behind it. Why not make a new one? Show Pepsi what it could've had for far less money than it probably spent.
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Adrants reader Candace sent us Palin as President, a just-for-kicks interactive site "updated daily until November 4th!"
Palin sits behind the desk of the oval office, wearing a frozen doll-like grin. Click on the items around her and along the walls.
"Where'd Russia go?" she wonders when I brush by the window. For bonus points, take a shot every time you see or hear the word "Maverick."
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- Marvel's soliciting the YouTube community for the best comic-inspired costumes. Get dressed, flip your camera on and keep your videos down to a minute. Beyond licensing an entire suite of heroes and villains to Hollywood, I guess that's one way to stay relevant.
- Got VD? The decent thing to do would be to tell everybody you slept with, so they can check if they have it too. But don't sweat it too much; this is the digital age! Send those hutches an e-card. (Thanks Adrants reader Candace.)
- Not quite The West Side Story, but it's Macs and PCs, so almost the same thing.
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Everyone likes pictures right? After all, no one like to read anymore. Which is probably why Ford's European division chose to launch an all-images consumer generated thing that lets people contribute to and change a Fiesta covered with a collage of images. People can rate the images they like, dislike or add their own.
And, yes, we understand the real reason behind the no words approach what with a hefty collection of different languages spoken on the continent.
Just don't leave the sound on to long or you'll get sick of that overly repetitive song that just keeps going and going and going -- sort of like the Energizer Bunny.
Wunderman created the campaign with blogger outreach handled by We Are Social. Spain, France, UK, Italy and Germany are the countries targeted.
There are so many reasons to launch a consumer-generated media campaign. They save money and think time, encourage brand appropriation, and are pretty easy to sell to a client. ("Think of all the engagement opportunities and cost savings!") Doritos alone has done it, like, four times (make that five!), all your friends did it, and hey, even Tide did it -- with reasonably good results.
Besides laziness and balls, what's keeping you from leaping aboard the Goodship CGM? ...A platform,* by gad! Because building grids where users can input their own content and browse through others' is hard, right?!
Waffle no longer, love. Photrade just launched a photo contest platform that enables anybody (even you!) to follow the well-trod user-generated media trail.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start ingratiating your unwitting client with casual photographers. Think of all the engagement opportunities -- and cost savings!
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Oh look! It's another video contest! Calling Julia Roy! Calling all art directors, copywriters and other people who just...HAVE TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES or die. The Paley Center for Media, along with Human Giant, have launched A Giant Challenge. Apparently, they don't have enough entrants because the contest started September 13 and it seems they're just getting around to promoting it.
Those interested have until October 10 to submit their masterpiece which should be two minutes or less in length and focus on all things giant...as in big. The press release states, "Video submissions will be judged on comedic value, originality, creativity, quality, and adherence to theme'" which means the judges will just pick the once that makes them laugh the most becasue, well, the videos are supposed to be funny. All the details are on the Paley Center for Media website but it's easy to miss there so just go here. Oh and to watch the video, you have to install a player. WTF??? Maybe that's why no one's entered yet.
Oh, and winners will have their videos highlighted during New York Comedy Week.
Encouraged -- but apparently not inspired -- by the success of its talking stain Super Bowl spot, Tide to Go solicited users for their own talking stain ads earlier this year.
YouTube's emceemiko won that contest. His spot -- where a rapping stain mocks an interview candidate -- appeared during the Desperate Housewives premier. The low-budget feel made it instantly recognizable as CGM, but the rap was surprisingly good -- even relatable! -- so I guess sometimes it pays to ask Main Street to do Mad Ave's job.
In an effort called "A Piece of Your Lov," Volvo invites online users to contribute to the first Volvo XC60 billboard, which looks something like this (except without the "download wallpaper" bar up top).
The image has been cut jigsaw-style. You'll be given a puzzle piece upon which to inscribe a raving little message about the XC60. These notes are called pieces of "Lov," named after the Swedish town of Lov, home of the XC60.
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To promote W., Oliver Stone's artistic tribute to America's favorite President (insert eyeroll here), Lionsgate launched the W. Mashup Contest on YouTube.
Use the clips and audio/video composition tools to create your own trailer. Oliver Stone himself gets to decide which is best.
The problem is, YouTube immediately removes entries upon submission. One entrant says, "all that remains of your genius contest entry is the phrase 'This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Lionsgate'."
Here is the hole where an entry should be. (In the event that Lionsgate is smart enough to fix this, here's a screenshot.)
A complex promotion for a man who, at the very least, was a complex leader. Maybe they're only suppressing entries by users suspected of storing WMDs.
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