I was sent a heads up by one of the finalists in the Doritos CGC Super Bowl competition. In short, Doritos will air the consumer created commercial which receives the highest number of votes...
It's an initiative that I would file in both the "shit, I wish I had thought of this" and "incremental shift happens" files. With the former, it's definitely a smart way to acknowledge CGC AND do it on Advertising's center stage. With the latter, it's yet another example of cramming new marketing into old marketing's tired and staid 30-second container. In addition, I wonder to what extent the 90 million consumers watching will know what's going on and if so, will actually give a damn?
Put differently, this is purely a buzz play and the success of this will depend predominently on the ability to generate pre-bowl buzz on the CGC component (I'm doing it right now) For this reason, I would hope that Doritos puts a fair amount of media weight behind the voting component.
Skeptical me also wonders how much behind-the-scenes manipulation took place throughout the process. Are these 5 finalists truly 100% pure in terms of their creation (i.e. no tampering by ad execs)? In addition, are these 5 finalists "consumers" or amateur filmmakers i.e. are the industry savvy? And if so, does it really matter?
On the whole, I think the 5 finalists are pretty strong (unlike the Tahoe shortlist). "Check Out Girl" and "Mouse Trap" are definitely the edgier of the spots...and would most likely receive my vote. "Chip Lover's Dream" and "Live the Flavor" are more conventional (i.e. view like ads) and would be ideally suited to any day other than a Super Bowl. "Duct Tape" is even more formulaic as in could easily be a Bud Light commercial (that could be a good or bad thing)
On the whole, a great demonstration of the power of CGC.
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