Shake Gently - advertising technology blog

Will Advertising Agencies Embrace User-Generated Content?

This has been on my brain for a while, ever since social networks started to gather steam: How can businesses take advantage of the user-generated content that is being created?

I work for an Ad Agency, so more specifically, how can advertising agencies utilize the general audience to help come up with new ideas? And at the same time, how can the audience be compensated for their participation? Because after all, people will only participate as long as they are motivated, whether it be by tangible or intangible means.

I read about Idea Crossing in the March 07 issue of Inc. Magazine. I guess they were also featured in the November 06 issue of Business 2.0.

I also recently heard about Zooppa via MarketingVox. Zooppa is one of several startup companies that are trying to put together an incentive package for luring in the general public to come up with ideas on the cheap.

Basically how Zooppa works is that they obtain a brief from a client and any other relevant information such as target market, general constraints, etc. Next, they post the information on their site, including the prize for the winners, and sit back and tally the votes as content is posted and rated. The winner is determined by the content that receives the highest votes from the general audience, democratic style.

Idea Crossing works a little different, and more focuses on collaboration and the creation of idea competitions, known as ‘crowdcasting’ for those in the know. There is a great Business 2.0 article that explains all about it.

Others to check out: Virture, V-Cam [via MIT Advertising Lab]

While I don’t think that these sources for ideas will replace agencies, I do think that they could be utilized as an additional source of ideas.

Big ideas aren’t cheap and don’t come often. Granted, I wouldn’t expect many big ideas to suddenly land at the feet of agencies for pennies. There’s a reason big ideas are tough to come up with and take time and nurturing. But, nonetheless, a couple thousand dollars for an idea to help kick off an initiative would be a good investment.

So, what are your thoughts?

Would you suggest a user-generated content project to your clients? If you are a client, would you be interested in hearing what your user community has to say about your product and compensate them for good ideas?

Technorati Tags: crowdcasting, Zooppa, Idea Crossing, user generated content, Web 2.0