Snap! Oh no, you didn't! I can see David Cohen's quote being inserted all over the MySpace/News Corp Media Kits even as we speak.
But seriously, in a panel of agency and marketer influentials, including UM's Cohen, Pepsi's Dawn Hudson, Campbell Soup's Paul Alexander, Subway's Tony Pace and Mickey D's Giovanni Fabrice, it is fairly telling when the sum total of their collective brands' presence on a social media giant like MySpace is the chirping of a cricket.
Why are brands so afraid? At a time where experimentation and risk-taking is not one way....but arguably the only way to the future, why are we so petrified to carve out bold new pathways in unexplored territories.
If it's because of sexual predactors/related crime horror stories, then of course I understand and agree. But shying away because of Consumer Generated Content? That's just plain silly.
Ultimately this underscores a rather large obstacle for the MySpace's of the world to overcome and also demonstrates a) if you build it, they (the brands) may not necessarily come and b) that once again, this is not about quantity, but quality of audience.
That said...never look a gifthorse in the mouth my friends. Or if you do choose to turn away, there's always the other guy on the panel, NBC Uni's Randy Falco who'll surely take your calls.
