AMATEUR ADVERTISING
A marketing phenomenon has been occuring over the last year or so. In the spirit of ‘reality tv’ as well as the increase of do-it-yourself multimedia gadgets and software that have blurred the line between ‘professional’ and ‘amateur’. ‘We’ the consumers of advertising have been asked to create advertising. It’s often done through a competition and the results seem to be win win win for all.
The marketing department doesn’t have to hire an expensive ad agency to come up with the concepts and create the advertisements, the audience who participates in the creative process always finds the challenge fun even if they don’t win and the passive audience often enjoys the promotion more than a traditional advertisement because usually the results are more interesting and innovative to watch.
The biggest advantage of this sort of advertising (to the brand) is that it often ends up becoming a viral campaign that creates more hype and interest than most conventional advertisements.
Some of the brands to create this sort of hype include BMW, Converse, Virgin, Jones Soda and the list goes on. It almost seems as though it’s becoming a trend in advertising
A question pops into my head when ever I see these sort of promotions… Now that the creative process is being handed over to the ‘amateur’ is the designers role being devalued? After all if anyone can do it, why invest your time and money in a tertiary education? Hmm not sure, I’m still debating the answers in my mind. It may not be a win, win, win for all after all.