As you all know, the internet continues to profoundly change how people connect and engage with the world. Recent years have seen the rise of many types of “personal” user-generated content, from videos (YouTube) to photos (Flickr) to status updates (Facebook and Twitter). At the same time, these innovations are causing profound disruption to traditional media outlets like Television and Newspapers.
While no one “killer” model has yet emerged for how brands and businesses show up in the new media environment, we cannot sit still. I am proud of the innovation we are leading at Best Buy, from employees on Twitter to company blogs, forums, and more. Only through constant experimentation and innovation will we ensure we lead the change, rather than merely follow.
To that end, Best Buy and 11 other leading brands, from AT&T to Visa, recently partnered with Spike Lee and MOFILM, an international group promoting online and mobile video content, to sponsor the global “You to the Power of 12 – U12″ competition. Each brand invited members of the public to create their own video about the brand and what it means to them. We received an amazing number of entries from across the globe: customers who have spent hours thinking about how they can land our Brand Idea, and showcasing their impressive talent.
I am delighted to announce that our winner, “An Ordinary Creative Person”, was chosen as one of the 3 grand jury finalists. The jury, led by Spike Lee, selected our ad as the runner up, at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival.
You can view “An Ordinary Creative Person” at www.mofilm.com
Barry I would say Bravo. Love to hear you are focused on “being there” at the forefront. I worry that by not teaming with content creation and other brands you all are missing the mark. There is a land between your independent user generated initiative…and what network television did with a “bazaar” or stories, characters and products feel… the mdoel you are working on seems to keep the internet like a wild frontier (which is exciting) but overwhelming for customers and more importantly audiences. Content creation and brands have to work together in the new model… and not by the brand saying “make something for us” that does not instigate purchase activation inherent in organic story.
That is where I think the new model is. Organic storytelling with organic brands meeting transmedia story archtiecture and interactivity…where purchase is organic to the story. and this needs to happen independently but next to each other before the product/story is told/made.
imho
that’s not to say I am very hopeful by what you all have been doing.
I enjoyed Mahesh’s story, however in the end it was diminished by being just another commercial. User generated content is from the heart – and seeing Best Buy facilitate the ability to create that was great – it reached me – but the final analysis shows this to be another ad.
At best advertising is intrusive – at worst obnoxious. Why can brands not partner with the audience in creating win win scenarios where the brand facilitates the user experience and in turn the user can pull the brand information from the medium when they want it.
Internet technology makes this possible.
I don’t believe in throwing the baby out with the bathwater – but rather than adapting old advertising to new mediums, why not create a whole new form of brand facilitated user engagement – unadvertising.
If you are going to embrace a new medium, a new methodology – then really go for it and break massive ground. As Daniel Burnham said – “Make no small plans.”
Great post, thank you. Enjoyed all the commercials because of who made them… customers!
I am really enjoying these days as a marketing professional, between yourself, Gary Veynerchuk, Jeffrey Hayzlett and Lisa Genova there are so many examples on how to share your brand or idea in context to what really matters to others.
Passion, Patience, Transparency and above all Listening!
Hats off to Best Buy for embracing new ways of establishing relationships with the public, rather than superficial TV ads that audiences skip with their DVR’s.
Madison Avenue has never been as flooded with buzz-words as it has been in the past 5 yrs, and yet as someone who runs an interactive marketing agency, I can say that for all the rhetoric that is out there, there is even more paralysis and timidity when it comes to approaching these new platforms. The market is not lacking in great creative concepts but there is a real dirth of true pioneers applying these concepts to live, breathing brands…despite the drop in effectiveness of traditional methods (banners, emails, even webinars) –new branded entertainment campaigns or vlog sponsorships are simply foreign and scary to most clients. The few exceptions (full disclosure: many are our clients) include HP, Toyota, Sundance, Microsoft and even Apple. I applaud Best Buy’s efforts in rethinking who they put at the center of their brand-making; “You to the Power of 12″ is an empowering, original campaign that others can point to when navigating their strategic branding plans.
Really well-done. I’m struck by how well-done the ad is, and by how well it fits with the “You, Happier” tagline. I’ve never liked that tagline as much as I do in this ad.
Bravo Mr Judge. As a person evangelizing User Generated content for advertising, it really made me feel good when a company such as yours has the courage to put their brand in the hands of the public. I would have loved to see all of the work that was created for your company, but unfortunately it wasn’t made available Joe Public. I also noticed that their were only 350 submissions for all 12 brands. That seems a little small for the size of the companies that were apart of this. Did you help market this at all? Or were you just participants and Mofilms took the lead on that? It seems like the U12 missed out on a great viral marketing opportunity to get more people involved in promoting not only the competition but Best Buy as well. I hope that this isn’t the end of your jump into UGC and I look forward to your next project.
FriendFeed Comment
Good post from @BestBuyCMO on user generated content [link to post]
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What’s so interesting to me is that you’re using these tools not only to connect with your customers for marketing, and now support with twelforce, but that this movement represents a great deal of your product line that you sell. The products within BestBuy are catalysts for this user generated products: Publishing, sharing, morphing, and consuming.
Twitter Comment
Great post on User Generated Content from Best Buy. [link to post]
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Best buy doing things well
Good to see at bestbuy