Advertising your Advertising

Being redundant is certainly not my intent. Imagine if the second advertising were replaced by the word content. Why wouldn't you as a marketer want to promote any content, user created or otherwise that promoted the essence of your brand? When looking at advertising in today's rapidly changing online environment, user's demand interactivity from advertising. They become irritated at one dimensional online ads and they engage advertising that allows them to express themselves. From the marketers perspective, the challenge is to develop a create and engaging ad that express their particular brand identity. Here are some great examples:

G.E.'s Imagination Cubed is a marketer-driven initiative that provides consumers with an interactive etch-a-sketch large enough for two or three like-minded people to play at the same time, with a host of tools to demonstrate their "Imagination at work."


George Masters' iPod Ad: A school teacher created a 60-second masterpiece, using his passion for the brand and imagination. With the help of the blogosphere, he became a poster child for CGM.

What do campaigns like this mean for marketers? In short, stop trying to get your hands around consumer generated media. The answer is to leave it be. Let it live where it does and try your utmost to give it the acknowledgment, respect and credit it deserves.

Think of it as an opportunity to show consumers that your brand is human. That your brand is willing to laugh at itself once and a while. And most importantly, that your brand can relate to consumers through its experiences in the world of CGM.