| Advertising and Public Relations 445

Chapter 15 | Advertising and Public Relations 445

expanding its “crowdsourcing” efforts with a Real Marketing 15.1 video ad contest that involves 13 of its brands,

including Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Lipton, and Vase-

Consumer-Generated Advertising: line. However, the company is quick to clarify

the role of its user-generated content strategy.

When Done Well, It Can Be Really Good

This in no way is a replacement for our ad agencies. It’s not really what it’s designed to

Fueled by the user-generated content craze

and “Underdog” taking fourth. “House Rules”

be. The real reason for it is to offer more par- ticipation for our consumers, to get closer to

made popular by the likes of YouTube, Face-

consumers, and allow them to be more in- book, and other online content-sharing commu-

was also the most-liked spot on Hulu.com. And

volved with our brands. It will help them be- nities, the move toward consumer-generated

in surveys by Nielsen and Twitter, Doritos was

come advocates, help them have more of a advertising has spread like wildfire in recent

the “most buzzed-about” advertiser during

connection with the brands if they’ve been a years. Companies large and small—including the

and after the game.

part of helping to create it. It’s not one of our likes of PepsiCo, Unilever, P&G, CareerBuilder,

It seems as if everyone is getting into the

objectives to save money. I mean it’s a nice and other blue-chip marketers—have fast recog-

consumer-generated content act. According

benefit, if we can get great stuff. But it’s not nized the benefits (and the drawbacks) of invit-

to one global report that ranks the world’s top

really the objective. We believe that marketing ing customers to co-create brand messages.

creative work, nine of last year’s top 10 cam-

will be much more participatory in the next Perhaps no brand has been more suc-

paigns involved some kind of consumer input.

few years and we want to be at the leading cessful with user-generated advertising than

“This is a big seismic shift in our business,”

says the former ad agency executive who as-

edge of that.

PepsiCo’s Doritos brand. For four years run-

sembled the report. “We’ve had 100 years of

Although most consumer-generated con- test has invited consumers to create their own

ning, the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” con-

business-to-consumer advertising, but now

tent efforts are limited to ad and video mes- 30-second video ads featuring the market-

the Web has enabled us to get people actively

sages, Pepsi-Co’s Mountain Dew crowdsourcing leading tortilla chip. A jury of ad pros and Doritos

involved in talking to each other. If the idea is

campaign—called Dewmocracy—involves con- brand managers whittle down the thousands

interesting enough, consumers will do the

sumers in decisions across the entire range of of entries submitted and post the finalists on-

work for you.” Even more, they’ll work for lit-

marketing for the brand. Now in its second year, line. Consumers vote for the winners, who re-

tle or no pay.

Dewmocracy seeks inputs from ardent brand ceive cash prizes and have their ads run during

That kind of talk makes some ad agencies

fans on everything from product development the Super Bowl.

nervous. But the idea isn’t that companies

to ad messages and ad agency selection. For last year’s Super Bowl, Doritos threw

should fire their ad agencies and have con-

At the start of the most recent Dewmoc- prize money around like a rich uncle home for

sumers create their ads instead. In fact, most

racy campaign, Mountain Dew asked loyal the holidays. Six finalists each claimed $25,000,

consumer-generated ad campaigns are coordi-

fans to submit ideas for three new flavors. It and PepsiCo aired the top four ads during the game. To put more icing on the cake, Doritos promised to pay a whopping $1 million to any entrant whose ad placed first in the USA Today Ad Meter ratings. Second place was good for $600,000, and third place would take home $400,000. If the winners swept the top three Ad Meter spots, each would receive an addi- tional $1 million. Not surprisingly, the contest attracted more than 4,000 entries.

nated by ad agencies. For example, Unilever is

Although they didn’t sweep the top three Ad Meter spots, one ad (called “Underdog”) took the number two spot, winning 24-year- old Joshua Svoboda of Raleigh, North Carolina, $600,000—not a bad return for an ad that cost only $200 to produce. Even more notably, the lowest-rated of the four consumer-made Dori- tos ads came in 17th out of 65 Super Bowl ads. Moreover, the ads finished strongly in virtually every consumer survey. They dominated the

Consumer-generated messages: Last year, the winning ads in the Doritos “Crash the Super

“most-watched” ratings in TiVo households,

Bowl” challenge finished strongly in virtually every consumer survey. The top ad finished

with an ad entitled “House Rules” taking first

second on the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter.

Continued on next page