Ian Schafer on user-generated content
Ian Schafer, CEO and founder of Deep Focus, was keynote speaker at the IAB's Leadership Forum on User-Generated Content and Social Networking. Schafer said asking users to create content doesn't mean marketers don't have to stay creative themselves.
Transcript: Ian Schafer on user-generated content
When you see more than three advertisers using the same promotion for the Super Bowl, for example, it starts feeling old before it even had the chance to be new. In that case, it could be a little over hyped. But I think it's over hyped for the wrong reasons. I think there's a lot of good hype and good buzz that it brings about. And now it's just a matter of marketers trying to figure out exactly how to use it without co-oping it. So it's a challenge for everybody. The users that have used user-generated content the best have tended to be the record labels, which it behooves them to use that because their marketing budget is typically zero, or at least very small. The way that they can tap into an impassioned user base or an impassioned audience and get them to get behind that album for that matter, and basically exclaim to their peers how much hey love that particular artist or how well they know this particular song. That's had the potential, and I've actually seen it go incredibly broad in terms of its reach. A lot of companies are tapping into the music industry to inspire user generated content and that makes sense. Music is one of the things that's left that humans feel very passionate about, almost universally. The music industry has made great use of user-generated content.
I hope that user-generated content doesn't become a bullet point on a marketing strategy. I would hope that user-generated content is just another tactic that can be employed, but it needs to be a custom application of user generated content and it's going to require agencies to cleverly create ways in which to inspire consumers and inspire audiences to create content around the brands that they re responsible for managing. It's creativity and at the end of the day, you can ask every one of your consumers to be creative, but it s not their job to do it. Creative agencies are trained professionals, supposedly. If they can come up with new and exciting ways, to not only create a traditional advertising campaign and around something, while at the same time getting consumers to participate in that brand campaign, you've got success.
I think user-generated content will be a portion of any brands traditional advertising campaigns. I think they ll always be an outlet that they'll provide consumers to interact and create around their brands. There is some greater potential for user generated content in terms of how much of a campaign that it makes up in local markets. I think people feel very passionate about their local bar, or their local hot dog vendor, or the local car dealership, or their local sports team. And I think there are tremendous opportunities for those local brands especially as local media gets easier and easier to purchase. I think there's going to be a lot more potential for user generated content in the local advertising space as time goes on.