Ideas Are Everywhere

May 24th, 2010

I was recently interviewed for and quoted in an AdAge story. The gist of the article is about whether or not using Consumer Generated Content and ideas in advertising has worn out its welcome. There was a time, of course, when asking consumers for their ideas was the “new hot thing” and big brands like Doritos, Converse and CareerBuilder were quite successful with such efforts. Now, the theory (and story) goes, such campaigns have jumped the shark. Somehow, it appears that consumers have gotten less creative. Or, that’s what the “creative community” would have you believe anyway. As the lone “industry type” interviewed for the story who dissented on this belief, I beg to differ.

A friend of mine pointed out (as did I in the interview, but this point didn’t make the final edit), that the very foundation of this theory is flawed. It kind of assumes that all advertising NOT created by consumers is good. And, we all know that’s not the case. (That’s not so much an entirely different blog post, as much as it is a book.) What’s worse, the story (and most of the comments) reads like advertising professionals have some kind of gift from God that only allows them to understand a brand and, as a result of that gift, create advertising.

Why the fear? Is there some concern that brands are going to start looking to consumers for all of their marketing programs? And, if they do…so what? If brands did actually do that, whose fault would it be? I’d argue that it’d be the fault of the marketing community. An argument can be made that if agencies did their jobs correctly, their clients wouldn’t be looking for alternatives. (Oh, and spare me the budgetary arguments about Consumer Generated Content being cheaper and more appealing.)

The other point that I made that didn’t make the article is that creatives are arrogant as hell. The “not invented here” complex runs deep in the advertising circles. Have you EVER tried to pitch something that required you to go through an agency? Doesn’t matter how good the idea is, or even whether or not it would step on the agency’s turf…there’s no chance that idea will get through to the end client. No chance. (This is a big part of the reason why we cringe when Skadaddle gets dubbed an “advertising agency.” We’re not. We’re all about engagement. With consumers and clients alike. We don’t think it’s very engaging to assume that you’re the only one who knows anything.)

If “in this economy” is going to continue to be used as the world’s greatest excuse for not finding success, shouldn’t we all be looking for new ways to be successful? And, if someone comes up with a good idea, wouldn’t we be better served (and wouldn’t our clients be better served) if we passed those ideas along? Don’t we end up looking BETTER for supporting good ideas – WHEREVER THEY COME FROM? Seems to me that the fear of losing the client just means (again) that the job isn’t getting done. If you fear losing your client – step up. Don’t simply make blanket statements that ideas can’t come from all kinds of sources.

Now, to be fair, as I said in the article, sometimes the consumer execution sucks. Well, that’s where the agency can actually help. Ideas…are everywhere.