<FONT COLOR="#FF0033"><B>Goafest:</B></FONT> Consumer generated content is the way ahead

At a seminar at the Goafest, Paul Kemp Robertson, managing editor, Contagious magazine shed new light on ‘Consumer generated content’ and how it is gaining in importance. Kemp described how it is consumers who are now creating content for brands through blogs, websites, podcasts, videocasts, contests, and so on. “Consumers have gone from passive, voiceless to active and creative in the blink of an eye,” he said.

For instance, he quoted the Mastercard example where the card company organised a copywriting contest for its ‘priceless’ theme, promising that the winner’s copy would be used in an actual advertisement.

Another example of using consumer generated content (CGC) in retail space is the Spanish shoe brand, Camper, whose store in London allows customers to write messages, quotes, or anything they like on the blank white walls of the store.

In the media as well, CGC has been adopted. OhMy News, an online news website in South Korea, allows citizen reporters to send in stories and pictures on latest happenings. The website has around 7 lakh visitors daily and approximately 26,000 citizen reporters, who account for 80 per cent of all the content on the site. CNN too allows citizen journalists to report for it.

Robertson is of the opinion that CGC has largely been fuelled by the trend towards social networks, file sharing and peer-to-peer engagement on the Internet. He feels that 2005 was a breakout year for citizen media and CGC, and consumers took control of the Internet thanks to the proliferation of technology that changed how they could find share tag and create content on the Net.

Examples of using CGC in packaging are quite a few internationally. McDonald’s for instance, is running an online casting competition currently, where anyone in the world can submit a picture and a story to earn the chance to be featured on the company’s packaging from August onwards.

Similarly, Sprite’s Urban Creations was a contest where winning designs from young artists were printed on Sprite cans.

Robertson is certain that now that people have been allowed to participate and collaborate with brands they consume, they won’t tolerate advertisers shouting at them from a distance.

Robertson also quoted the CEO of Reuters, Tom Glocer as saying, “Our audiences have already moved on -- now they are consuming, creating, sharing and publishing. The consumer wants not only to run the printing press but to set the linotype as well.”

So if consumers are the ones generating content, then where do advertising agencies come in and what role do they play? “They have to act as a conductor, they receive all this information and content from consumers, but it is up to them how they use and channelise this content. Collaboration is the way ahead,” believes Robertson.

He also pointed out that the explosion of consumer generated multimedia such as YouTube, Sharkle, Google Video, etc, that allow sharing of personally created videos, has led to business being altered in favour of consumer generated content.

In fact, a Google survey pointed out that wherever broadband penetration is widespread those under 25 spend more time on the Internet than watching TV. Coke, P&G, Unilever have all started to reduce the amount of money allocated to TV, diverting on an average 25 per cent instead to Internet, branded entertainment, sponsorship and direct response advertising. In the UK, beer brand Heineken has walked away from TVCs.

Robertson shared that Roisin Donnelly, head of P&G’s marketing effort believes that a teenager would trust a stranger in a chat room more than a TV commercial.

“The benefit of CGC,” Robertson said, “is that it is highly measurable, allowing advertisers to gauge brand equity, reputation, and message effectiveness in real time.”

Also, the new era of blogs, podcasts, and videocasts have massive implications for the future status and shape of traditional media.

‘Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember, involve me and I will understand.’ This old adage, Robertson believes, gives an insight into the future of marketing communications. “The future will be about customisation and targeting, conversations and invitations,” he concluded.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!