New Source Of Ideas For Ads: You

Companies Turn To Web Users For Material For Campaigns

(CBS)  "We won two pair of shoes," filled in Snider, "which we're getting brassed as trophies!"

Greg Stern, who created the Converse campaign, told Smith, "With the advent of technology, there are tools in the hands of regular consumers to actually create outlets of their own self-expression, their own creativity, in terms of films, music, that type of thing."

"They're getting a different perspective," notes Federighi. "We're more in touch with the product than someone on Madison Avenue is, probably."

The idea doesn't always work, though.

Adweek's Lippert pointed to a campaign for Chevy Tahoe that "kind of backfired. They put themselves out there, they made themselves very vulnerable, and they got thousands of environmentalists flooding the Internet saying how bad GM products they are and what gas guzzlers they are."

But for brands looking to further involve consumers, there are many benefits, Smith says.

"We're up to over 600,000 visits to Priceless.com," says MasterCard's Fuller, "where, before the launch of the contest, we had 20,000, so it was pretty significant."

"This is inevitable," asserts Lippert. "People are on the Internet, and they're making their own movies, and the technology is getting easier and easier to do. So, advertisers and agencies have to embrace it, because there's going to be more of it. And if it raises the bar of creativity and fresh ideas, that's all the better."

The winner of MasterCard's "write your own priceless ad" contest will be announced next month, and the winning commercial will be used on the air.