Fully embracing the notion and value of consumer generated content, MasterCard, during the Oscars, will air two commercial which say basically nothing. The ads, Sailboat and Typewriter, will follow the customary format of listing prices for various items and closing with the final item labeled “priceless.” However, the item lines in these ads will be left blank. The ads will close encouraging people to go to priceless.com, click on “Write a Priceless Ad Contest” and complete the commercial by filling in the blanks using their own words.
A judging panel will select one overall winning entrant which MasterCard feels best completes either of the two commercials following judging criteria including creativity and originality, overall appeal and relevance to the Priceless theme. Following the selection of the winning language, the commercial will then be re-created complete with the winning consumers’ Priceless verbiage and broadcast in the third quarter of 2006.
We’ve seen plays for consumer generated advertising before but not quite to this scale. MasterCard is spending big bucks betting on people’s understanding of its long-running campaign and people’s willingness to take interest in writing their ads. We have to wonder, though, how many industry creatives will anonymously go after this and then gleefully add the ad to their portfolio once it airs.
