I know we all get kind of hot and bothered over User Generated Content when it’s done right, but boy is Dove getting it wrong. The process for creating your own Dove Cream Oil body wash ad is overly complex and appears to require some pre-existing video editing skills. Furthermore, the explanation is 7th-period-chemistry boring, and it looks like even after all that work, you still get a pretty cookie-cutter result. Plus, you don’t even get money if you win!
I really like the idea of users creating and submitting their own video for a campaign, but this seems like a great way to bore customers while simultaneously squelching their creative instincts. Anyone have examples of ways to do it better?
On an unrelated note, the name “Dove Cream Oil” makes me gag – it’s certainly not something I’d want to slather on my body every morning.
Anna Hecker
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Strategists & Planners
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Well, I'll tell ya...knowing a bit about UGC...
Dove is falling prey to what every huge or super-huge brand falls prey to when starting to dip their corporate toe in the untested waters of User Generated Content. They are seeking to steer the consumer down a very very narrow road that is "On Brand".
The power of UGC is taking the hood off of the brand and let the consumer tinker with the engine (the brand just has to make sure that they check all of the belts and hoses on the engine before they send it out in public).
Where Dove IS getting it right, however, is with its Golden Globes/UGC ad campaign. The online implementation is not ideal, but the idea of the competition isn't bad.
The key is to let these things live and breath on the brand's website and NOT on someone else's UGC portal.
Its a tough lesson to learn for many brands, that they have to surrender control to a certain extent to play well with their consumer in the UGC space.
And while it helps to give stuff away, the main impetus for many UGC citizens out there is to just become a bigger part of the brand that they like.
Posted on January 16, 2007 06:48
I'm in total agreement with the original post and Josh's comment. Dove's initiative seems insincere to me. Not only is consumer creativity limited, but the forced treatment of the brand seems to me to be the complete antithesis to the authentic spirit of the Campaign for Real Beauty.
Posted on January 24, 2007 15:13