Kicking off the sparcely attended Marketer As Broadcaster session, Carat Interactive’s John Durham referred to the teacher who created the mac commercial and how marketers and consumers are now creating their own content and advertising. The panel consisted of JibJab’s Greg Spiridellis, WorldNow’s Omar Karim and Target’s Scott Heimes who each spoke to the growing trend of marketer and consumer created content.
JibJab’s Spiridellis discussed the now famous This Land viral spot and how his company is working towards building a global entertainment brand. Spiridellis pointed out the plummeting prices of technology, proliferation of content creation tools, the Internet and two ease of two way communication as catalysts for increased distribution of non-traditional content. While acknowleging every effort will not have the far reaching scope This Land did, Spridellis perception of price barrier by stating the total cost for distributing This Land was $150. Offering advice to marketers considering the creation and distribution of their own content, Spiridellis recommended the creation of irreverent content, the need to have infrastructure prepared to handle sudden viral success and the need to engage in outreach to people during the content creation process.
WorldNow CTO Omar Karim offered down and dirty examples of consumer created content and the IP over TV technology his company offers to hundreds of media companies enabling them to offer content distribution services to their reader-created content. Unfortunately, much of the consumer created contact was drek. Karim did, though, point out how television stations can reap revenue by creating low cost ads for clients using previously recorded news footage combined with low production values.
Target Corporation’s Scott Heimes, explained Target’s strategy of created a multitude of microsites specific to individual marketing goals and the segmented needs of the retailer’s customers. He cited the Wake Up Call promotion which was composed of celebrity viral videos that promoted a website where people could sign up to receive a wake up call from their favorite celebrity the day after Thanksgiving with the intent to drive store traffic. While the viral was successful, only 3,000 people signed up for wake up calls.
During the session’s Q and A, an audience member asked the panelists how they plan to measure the success of these efforts. Unfortunately, one of the panelists had an answer but Karim did promise once metrics are in place, they will be far superior to current web and television metrics.Target Corporation’s Scott Heimes
