In the evolving Internet world of blogging mommies and college-social groups there is a new voice from the consumer. After being shown countless creative, entertaining, and sometimes-uninteresting brand advertisements, consumers are starting to talk back. There are many ways in which this comes across including online reviews, posting photos and even making a commercial. Many companies are embracing this wind of change as the next media; but some have already seen the backfire. From websites like YouTube and Facebook to Blogger and SecondLife, the Internet is changing the way people interact, in turn changing their brands. Everything is going “viral” or letting the users spread and share it rather than getting it from the main media sources. Did Doritos have good intuition when they launched their Super Bowl commercial contest or is the Chevy Tahoe example going to put the breaks on consumer generated content? The following pages will outline the history of the Internet, interactive advertising and the buzz on consumers in the director’s chair of their brands.
           

User-generated content exploded on to the scene in 2006 with blogs and MySpace. Viral-video sharing was right behind it with the front-runner site YouTube that was bought by Google. Marketers decided to take what they know of online marketing and combine it with this new consumer created creativity and the effects of TiVo and DVR’s eliminating the sparkle of primetime. Now with the consumer holding the remote advertising messages are being skipped, fast-forwarded and ignored. This is because “old media” spread content at the center with a passive audience. Advertisers decided to bring the consumer in on the brand message, this way they still hold the remote but the message isn’t deleted. The consumer’s voice is often seen as the most authentic and credible in an age when there is a lot of fluff to cut through to the marketing message. This new voice is heard more clearly through the marketing noise and is more talked about through community channels because it is so original. “In the new media universe, organized chaos is the rule and conversations are the kingdom.” Companies are opening up the lines of communication making it a two-way street between advertiser and consumer. A video on Google can host links in the clip to lead the consumer back to the parent site.

This new media doesn’t reward large companies and shun smaller ones. This is the same tactic that has kept Ebay and Google at the top of the merchandizing game because individuals use the service the same way large corporations do. They are on a level playing field. This is a necessary evolution for brands because consumers are no longer inclined to brand-style advertising, nor do they just have one TV set per family or even one computer per household. This is the digital age in marketing, where consumers multi-task by watching TV while surfing the internet and TiVo eliminates ad messages where they aren’t wanted. Consumers decide marketing content and they influence their friends. By marketing to right consumers advertisers can get their message out deeper and wider than a primetime “must see TV” commercial use to work and without all the budget concerns.