A colleague sent this recently to our internal Web 2.0 group:
Chevy prepared core materials then invited web users to build the ultimate ad from them. 30,000 entries. All rubbish or seriously off brand apparently! :)
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/tahoe.html
The inference was that this was backfiring for Chevy - with examples of users who had submitted anti pollution messages and one that stated "Jesus would drive this car".
That's certainly what the Wired article above says. But surely, this is just another piece of TV company propaganda trying to persuade big brand owners that the new wave of advertising is not really here. Shame on you Wired for swallowing it!
Here was my response to the comment above:
Ok, but look at this from an advertising perspective...
You spend say $500,000 to shoot all the glamorous shots of the interior, stick it in rugged beautiful environments, and then try to put the ad on TV - which will cost you close to another $1m or two.
- What are you allowed to say about it?
- It goes fast? Nope. You're not allowed to say that in car ads.
- It will increase your sex appeal? Nope. Not allowed to say that either.
- That someone famous you've never met drives one? Nope. That would be untrue, so you can't say that.
- Offend someone's religious or political sensibiliies? Nope. Not allowed under The Constitution.
So you end up with a dull ad that nobody talks about and nobody remembers.
Instead, spend less than half on 'distribution' by not putting it on TV. Then let the public loose on it, and you've got a winner that spreads virally around the world. Even outside the territory you sell it in.
"Jesus would drive this car" - "Jesus loves America" - "Jesus loves muscles"
You can't BUY an ad that has that kind of impact, but if it comes "from the public" you're fine!
This is not a disaster for them. It's genius.
A quick test: What's the name of the car company? What's the name of the car?
Now, next time you see a car ad on TV for the first time, ask whoever else is sitting there, the same questions once it's finished.
Ask all the people you sent the Jesus video, or the Wired article to, the same question.
I bet you $2.9 billion dollars (GM's annual ad budget) that the 'recall' for the Jesus ad is at least 20% better than a typical TV ad.
THAT is the measure Chevrolet are intersted in, and the one that will sell more cars, despite the small number of people who talked about global warming. And even those!... well, suddenly Chevy are associated with an environmental message, and that's better than being the enemy of the environment!
The trick to all this is how you respond to it. If you say it's a disaster and try to get rid of all the YouTube clips, then it will be a disaster.
If you keep quiet, and let it run, you'll sell more cars. If you also quietly suggest that maybe it's time the car market made less of an environmental impact, but that it's down to their customers to start buying more environmentally friendly cars (also from Chevrolet), then you're actually on a winner!