Last week I was attending the Blog World Expo where Rob Key, CEO of Converseon, shared an example of how General Motors launched a contest for audience-created videos of their Chevy Tahoe. Then I read the same example in “Content Nation” by John Blossom. It’s an older (2006), but good example of what organizations need to be prepared for when content is user-generated. According to cnet,
“As part of a partnership with the TV show “The Apprentice,” GM launched a contest last month to promote the Chevy Tahoe SUV. The contest challenges viewers to create their own digital commercial about the SUV at Chevyapprentice.com. Entrants must choose from a range of video clips and sound tracks and write their own text to create their ad.”
In this case, along with videos that were submitted for the contest, there were also plenty of videos made on everything that was wrong with the Tahoe. And it wasn’t just video, it was commentary that went viral as well. On top of that GM was then chastised for not responding quickly enough (details can be found in the cnet article).
Here’s one example that I found all these years later:
The site is gone (chevyapprentice.com), but the videos and articles still live on…
“Content Nation Marketing Rule #10: If you want to ask for a conversation about your brand in social media, you have to be ready to hear what you may not want to hear.”
Personally, I think GM was ahead of it’s time with this contest and it was probably a good risk that they took because only a fraction of the ads ended up being negative. As a marketer, are you prepared for engaging in social media and perhaps finding out what your customers (or other parties) may truly think of your company or brands?
Tags: Branding, Content, Marketing, Social Media, user-generated content
As a marketer, my personal belief is that we should embrace social media as an open forum and be prepared for the dialog it creates. I would rather have feedback that helps me improve upon my product or service. As long as your sufficiently prepared and are willing to accept negative feedback, social media can open many doors for your company.
Tessa Carroll
VBP OutSourcing
http://www.blogs.vbpoutsourcing.com
I’m not saying Beth nor Tessa (first commenter) intimated this, but i hear it enough so here goes: I don’t think it is wise to advise any brand marketer to go ahead and declare “open season” on his or her brand.
If brand management has been redefined as “giving it over to the public (many of whom are NOT your customers and NEVER will be) to control,” then I think we’ve lost the game before it has even begun.
Someone needs to write a nice blog on “Best Practices for Running Successful UGC Campaigns” (emphasis on the word “successful”)
Tessa, I agree. As a marketer, we learn early that we must know thy market…what better way than social media? I guess I am spoiled coming from the high-tech sector because often developed products/services based on customer needs (genius, eh?).
Kevin, I totally agree with you. I have never believed that organizations don’t control their brand (esp. identity and messaging). I do, however, believe that they can’t control brand relationships (well, only by working really, really hard to keep customers satisfied).
I love the idea of a post…I would think success runs a fine line.
Make no mistake, opening a dialogue with your customers is a good thing. But this event was poorly planned by GM. I don’t believe customers should have control over a brand’s messaging.
Tom, when reading through the information, I got the impression this was an idea generated by an agency. I wonder if they really considered it as ‘handling over their brand’ versus a cool contest (we know the difference). From the cnet article, they received a lot of great ads and the negative ads were minimal. But we all know it’s the negative that folks pick up on for blog posts, articles, etc.
Beth,
Thanks so much for the reference to Content Nation, the full draft of the book is available online as well as in print: http://bit.ly/qbJOr .
I agree that General Motors was ahead of themselves to some degree and that the had the potential for a more positive outcome with their Tahoe campaign, but if they had thought a little more carefully about the model that they chose, for example, they could have done much better. This could have been done, of course, by not operating in a vacuum – by pre-testing the concept in social media channels to see what the probable interests and outcomes could have been. Instead, as you have pointed out, since this came from an agency working pretty much in a vacuum, the results were somewhat predictable.
Wow that rule number ten there is so true. People are going to give you their honest opinion you can’t expect everything to be all good. Incidentally, I think that you can only improve from negative feedback, you have to let it motivate you to make you better.
John, thanks for stopping by! Glad you found the post [are you monitoring?! LOL!
]. Yep, I totally agree with you…and a lot of brands are falling into that same vacuum because they don’t understand the “content nation” (or how social media works) and that they will share their opinions, etc. The one thing I am wondering is if the hybrid Tahoe came as a result…that would be interesting to know.
Promotional Products, while negative feedback has helped to make products/services better…it’s never an easy pill to swallow. I think there’s a difference between critism and negativity. Some people are negative just because they have the tools to do so…they often deserve to be take with a grain of salt.
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