The fastest-growing media is one consumers create
and share among themselves, coined “consumer generated media.” Because
it comes straight from the consumer, it has the power to influence
anyone that watches it and it will forever be online. CGM is the
most valuable research tool than any company could want. It allows
companies who consumers create CGM about to have a competitive advantage
over other companies who consumers choose not to create CGM about
because it tells them how consumers truly feel about their product,
for free. Better yet, it helps companies identify psychographic information
about consumers in general.
Unlike paid media that you see on TV, hear on the
radio, and see flashing on top of a Web site, CGM is solely created
by consumers. It's often inspired by consumers’ experiences
with products or services and is archived online. Examples of the
major types of CGM include blog entries, consumer email feedback,
message board posts, forum comments, personal Web sites, and personal
email. The following list gives brief summaries of each.
Blogs. The
majority of today's blogs are rich, unaided first-person narratives
across a host of topics. They mirror insight-rich focus groups
but are even better. Though consumers rarely dedicate blogs
to brands, brand experiences abundantly decorate blog narratives.
Often, the texture of brand commentary is incidental, implied,
even unconscious in nature. This can shed light on how advertising
truly works. Thanks to RSS (an XML format for syndicating Web
content) and blogs highly networked nature, they're quickly
becoming the most potent form of CGM. They also index fastest
on search engines.
Message boards and forums. These
are industry- or interest-focused areas that draw consumers based
on a particular product, specialty, or niche. Typically, they draw
consumers interested in specific products (automobiles, computers,
electronics, software) or issues (politics, baby/parenting, lifestyle,
travel). Active participants tend to be folks who have experienced
the products or issue in question. Buyers tend to be the listeners.
Review/rating sites. There are
far fewer CGM "impressions" in this venue, but the reach
and effect are enormous, especially in regard to consumer purchase
behavior. Reviews are typically grounded in relevant experience,
which significantly dials up credibility and trust. Amazon.com,
eBay, Edmunds.com, and Epinions.com all fall into this category.
Ratings add an important quantitative dimension.
Clubs or groups. These are highly
focused, often specialized sites where aficionados congregate around
a single issue, product, or item. They can be public or private.
Although membership is usually small (up to hundreds of users),
tens of thousands of such groups exist. Groups can range from celebrity
fan clubs to stamp collectors sites to automobile owners sites
to book clubs.
Direct company feedback. This
critical, often overlooked form of CGM is targeted directly to
companies, but consumers who exercise this channel typically offer
their feelings across multiple platforms. Some of our recent research
shows nearly 70 percent of consumers who provide feedback through
company/brand Web sites are active across other CGM venues, including
boards and blogs. The good news for companies is this channel is
controllable. The challenge is shifting from an operational, "I
don't want consumer attention" cost-center mindset to a marketing-centered, "I'll
take whatever consumer attention I can get" one.
Third-party Web sites. Smaller
yet active groups of consumers generate high-impact CGM on third-party
feedback sites such as Complaints.com and My3cents.com. The Better
Business Bureau's online service also captures, archives, and makes
publicly available certain forms of "escalated" CGM.
Media writers and financial analysts often quote such sources.
It is estimated that there are over
1.4 billion CGM comments archived on the Web today. And by archived,
that means permanent! Unlike a commercial you see or hear, CGM will
be online forever unless the consumer chooses to remove it or the
media violates copyright laws. It is also estimated that the number
of CGM comments will grow 30% each year. The Pew Internet & American
Life Project estimates 44 percent of online consumers have created
online "content."
Pete Blackshaw, CMO of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, wrote
in an article titled “The Pocket Guide to Consumer-Generated
Media”, that CGM can be influenced, but not controlled, by
marketers. He insists to not let the viral, guerilla, buzz, or street
marketing folks suggest otherwise. Blackshaw believes that CGM delivers
high-impact, targeted ad impressions well outside the scope of conversation
among "familiars," and that is a big reason it bears an
important distinction from word of mouth.
The most important aspect and advantage of CGM is
that it leaves a digital trail. It allows advertisers to measure
and gauge brand equity, reputation, and message effectiveness in
real-time. Because of this, advertisers must research CGM and take
accountability for the scope to then in turn make more-informed decisions
abut their advertising strategy. [5]
CGM and videos
Web sites like YouTube and eBaums World allow
consumers to upload videos ranging from bloody fistfights, half-dressed
teenagers gyrating in their bedrooms, spectacular car and plane
wrecks, to monologues and reactions to advertisements and products/services.
These sites attract a large and hotly sought-after audience: males
between the ages of 18 and 34.
YouTube is a popular free video sharing website which lets users
upload, view, and share video clips. Videos can be rated, and the
average rating and the number of times a video has been watched
are both published. Moreover, many videos that are uploaded to
the site are responses to TV commercials and products. Users can
say just about anything they want to in their videos and are many
times brutally honest with their own advertising of a product or
service. Other consumers are using YouTube as an inexpensive yet
effective advertising opportunity to help increase traffic to their
web site. [6]
Examples of CGM campaigns
Chevy CGM
Chevy’s brand and its agency decided to build on a product-placement
gig with “The Apprentice.” On the show, contestants
were tasked with developing a :30 spot for the Tahoe, an SUV.
This allowed anyone watching at home to do the same: grab some
stock footage, choose a soundtrack, and write your copy. Once
finished, the consumer could send the URL from one of the aforementioned
sites to friends and family to see.
The problem with this tactic was that the people
making the ads were not Chevy enthusiasts writing positively about
the vehicle. The consumer-generated ads that received the most attention
were the ones with fairly aggressive, pro-environment, anti-SUV sentiments.
Though brand spokespeople said in a press conference that they were
expecting both positive and negative ads, it would be hard to believe
that they were happy seeing their vehicle being connected to such
strong negative feelings. [6]
The following video is a product of CGM, not GM!
Converse CGM
Gary Stein, the director of strategy for Ammo Marketing, said he
loves the concept of giving consumers opportunity to express
themselves. “Consumers have an incredible amount of control,
and they're going to use it, either with a brand or against
it. But harnessing and channeling CGM in this way is an advertising
tactic, and tactics without strategy are simply bad agency/advertising
business,” said Stein.
“A brand that's going to field this type of
campaign must have some sense of the emotions they're going to unleash
as they pierce the veil between consumer-generated and advertiser-generated
content,” said Stein. “Converse fielded a very similar
campaign for its Chuck Taylor brand and it worked quite well.” [9]
Converse used online video promotion to collect
original :24 films to use in a future TV campaign. The company asked
fans and filmmakers to submit short works that embodied "the
values and spirit of Converse" for a chance to win $10,000.
Results were posted online at the ConverseGallery. [8]
Converse received 250 submissions within the first
three weeks. The gallery, where submissions are still hosted, drew
3 million visits within the first few months. Converse executives
said that the campaigns objective was to facilitate "a conversation
among those in our community." This campaign was very successful
because in drew attention in a positive light towards the brand and
its Web site. [8]
The following video was one of the submissions for
the contest.
Mentos/Coke
On YouTube, two guys put together a video of themselves creating
complicated geysers and mist clouds of vaporized corn syrup
using only Mentos and a two-liter bottle of Coke. Many amateur
chemist-videographers followed, and scattered across video
sites were hundreds of short movies showing the curious results
of dropping Mentos into sugared soda water. Though the videos
appeared as experiments, they were also advertising the products
and showing advertisers and the companies how consumers feel
about their product
The following
video is the experiment that blew up on YouTube (pun intended).
.
With the contest, Mentos did what Cingular, Intel
and others have done before: invite video creators to make movies
featuring its brand, in exchange for a shot at winning something
or other. [10]
HBO
HBO presented a CGM spoken word competition to promote the fourth season of its
hit series "The Wire." The contest invited users to submit three
minutes of video recorded “spoken word” about their own personal
education.
The campaign which was created by Deep Focus, captured a rough, truthful and
real mode of expression that reflected the show's setting in inner city Baltimore. "The
biggest thing for us in developing this campaign was trying to be true to the
spirit of the show," said Sabrina Caluori, account director at Deep Focus,
in an interview with ClickZ News. "We were trying to come up with a way
to approach it that was new and interesting."
The result was "The Wire Spoken Word Battle," a competition for poets
and freestyle artists hosted on Blastro.com. Users were asked to submit their
experiences and views about how they were educated in a three-minute video. The
theme of education was consistent with the emphasis of the current season. [11]
The future of CGM
Consumer generated media is evolving every
day and internet users are minding more and more way to express
and share themselves with other users. Currently, there are three
forms of CGM, or CGM2, that are gaining popularity and are listed
below.
CGM2
Moblogs, photo sharing, and tagging. Moblogs
are mobile-enabled blogs that let users post photos from anywhere.
Interestingly, many of the online photos today are efficiently
tagged with labels such as "BadMcDonaldsExperience," which
makes them easier to find, organize, and index through search engines.
Camera phones play a huge role in moblog growth. By tagging pictures
with companies names connected with feelings, advertising agencies
and companies can easily track CGM that relates to their business.
Vlogs/personal videos. Vlogs are video-based
journals, almost like reality TV for online. Thanks to iMovie,
Windows Movie Maker, and other tools, it's getting easier to create
sticky, viral, even incriminating online video.
Note: Viral videos are becoming
all the rage with advertisers because they create a “buzz” amongst
consumers and are generally humorous.
