The latest hip thing to do in advertising is let your customers create the ads for you. In fact, Fast Company lists advertising creatives as one of six jobs that won’t exist in 2016- because:
“Talented amateurs making ads for fun and posting them online seem to be better at your job than you are. Bonus: No more “whither the 30-second spot” whining.”
Right now Mastercard is fishing for ideas for their “Priceless” campaign officially with a spot _____________ is _____________, etc.
Read more: on adfreak The Consumerist or Ernie Schenck
Spending money making ads asking people to make ads- hmmm, sounds like the ultimate creative cop-out to me.
In the business- often time marketers with big budgets ask for Spec work- and that’s “Spec” as in “Speculative” not as in “Special.” If we like it- we’ll hire you. (See http://www.no-spec.com for the right answers to this practice).
We had Arby’s ask us for Spec work- my answer was that when they start serving roast beef- where people only have to pay if they like the sandwich- I’ll consider it.
“The Apprentice” likes to use marketing tasks to evaluate Donald Trump’s future yes persons. It seems that every other task is to make an ad, or figure out how to sell something- yet most of the candidates aren’t marketers- and the job they are auditioning for isn’t a marketing position.
Advertising Age points out yearly that the ad industry isn’t paying competitively with other business fields- that managers, finance people and accountants all earn more. And granted, there are a ton of bad agencies doing crap work out there- but, in the end, someone has to be brilliant and change the Nike’s of the world from running shoe maker to lifestyle brand with “Just do it.”
So- before any more of you marketers consider letting your fans do the work- (see adcandy for more of this_enabling them with packaged flash clips on your site- take a look at what someone did with this Chevy Apprentice site tie in- and realize- maybe it is better to pay someone to do your spots afterall.
What do you think?
After watching this creative execution- using the crazy high budget shots to “sell” an SUV- the same “create your own spot tool” was used to create a comment on the insanity of these types of spots- click here.
While the idea is pretty cool and is definitely brining attention to chevy – it may not always be the best type of attention: See
http://www.alaskaaction.net/tahoe/ to know what I’m talking about.
hey david-
ever heard of a test drive before you buy a car? when a client is preparing to drop hundreds of thousands and maybe millions on an agency, they have every right to taste test the goods. it’s been that way for a while. you don’t like it, get out.
-j.a.
Hey Jim-
Do you ask a surgeon to do a test surgery before you trust him to do the emergency appendectomy? No- you look at their body of work, their success, their strategy- and then you hire the best match.
There is never an excuse for doing work for free- unless it’s pro bono.
CMO’s that need spec work- don’t have the skills to be CMO’s. Agencies that do spec work- don’t have confidence in the value of their work.