Memewars: Social Media Powered TV Ad Slots
In the TV business, there's a lot of discussion, some might say nooise, about user-generated content and how it can be harnessed to create "TV". I'm sure it's one of the topics that we'll tackle at the next Chinwag Live debate, Web TV Takeover.
Until now, I've not seen many companies take full advantage of social media to power their campaigns. There's plenty of remixing of original content, some more, erm, engaging than others arguably these techniques are allowing the audience to tinker at the edges.
In contrast, check out the latest spot from Adbusters (via Youtube), who describe themselves as the "Journal for the Mental Environment":
The spot, titled, The Modern Adventure, uses a situationist slogan from 1960s Paris to illustrate the state of modern society. A little pious perhaps, but well executed. The video aims to kick off their Memewars campaign, which encourages members of their community to help create the ad spots the organisation uses to get their message across.
As an organisation, you may find it difficult to agree with some of their objectives - the slogan for the Culture Shop is "Advertising Is Brain Damage", for example - but this feels like a campaign which is closer to getting real value for an organisation using social media.
14 August 2007 by Sam Michel
Sam Michel is the founder of Chinwag and blogs here for work, and more randomly at Toodlepip. He runs Chinwag Jobs, Digital Mission and tends to focus on murky place where technology, community and marketing collide. You'll find him on twitter @toodlepip.
Sam Michel is the founder of Chinwag and blogs here for work, and more randomly at Toodlepip. He runs Chinwag Jobs, Digital Mission and tends to focus on murky place where technology, community and marketing collide. You'll find him on twitter @toodlepip.
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Online Auditions for a Crowdsourced Movie
Since writing the original post, I've been thinking more about how content creators, brands, anyone in fact can harness social networks in something beyond remixing.
Then I came across this item in the ever-excellent Springwise newsletter about a crowdsourced movie. Naturally, wannabee/resting actors can upload their auditions which are then voted on by the "crowd". For those sans-webcam, there's live auditions.
If you're willing to pony up some moolah to invest in the film, the producers say the money will go directly to the budget and the more you invest, the bigger say you have in the script. Sounds familiar. Question is...can great art come from this type of collaboration? Be interesting to see.