An Open Letter to Advertising & Marketing People from Average Joe

Read this:

Crowdsourcing is one of those buzzwords being bounced around a lot of late….we can thank Wired for coining the phrase.  Essentially it is an open call to a group of people to complete a task. In the case of the sausage makers above, apparently that task was to upload a video to their microsite, presumably to win a prize or some such thing. It’s become all the rage these days as brands tap into social media tools, searching for new ways to build long lasting relationships with consumers.

Apparently this ‘sausage social-media campaign’ was the straw that broke this consumer’s cash-strapped back but this letter highlights something all those working to promote brands/services need to remember.

Many brands are successfully interacting with consumers in new ways through crowdsourcing and social media – allowing them to do things like get market insight in real time, enhance customer support, attract new consumers, build brand advocates and generate new ideas. Fabulous in theory eh!?

With crowdsourcing initiatives the important thing is not how much money you put behind the campaign, but rather what the reason behind the campaign is and how is it being run.  Campaigns must be relevant to the consumer and interesting.

Generally for initiatives such as this, unless you’re asking people to do something that’s not time consuming and is relatively easy to do, you will be targetting the few rather than the many. Obviously you’ll capture more attention and garner more interest the bigger carrot you dangle on the end of your stick.

The sceptic in my doubts this was written by Brian the ‘tasty sausage’ lover. I suspect an industrious ad agency is behind the letter.

(h/t to The Sell Sell Blog)