Free Ads Can Be Really Expensive

An anonymous reader writes "Companies are finding that this 'Web 2.0' user participation thing sometimes isn't all its cracked up to be. The New York Times reports on the efforts of big companies to harness consumer enthusiasm for assistance with advertising. Heinz, for example, is running a campaign asking users to submit videos using their product in inventive ways. The problem, of course, is that most of the submissions are utterly terrible. The result is a headache in terms of quality control and making use of the turned in submissions. 'Heinz hopes to show more than five of them, if there are enough that convey a positive, appealing message about Heinz ketchup, he said. But advertising executives who have seen some of the entries say that Heinz may be hard pressed to find any that it is proud to run on television in September. "These are just so bad," said Linda Kaplan Thaler, chief executive of the Kaplan Thaler Group, an advertising agency in New York that is not involved with Heinz's contest. One of the most viewed Heinz videos -- seen, at last count, more than 12,800 times -- ends with a close-up of a mouth with crooked, yellowed teeth. When Ms. Kaplan Thaler saw it, she wondered, "Were his teeth the result of, maybe, too much Heinz?"'"

Comments

Subject matter

[Raptoer]

Perhaps the "free" part of it is to blame, maybe its more that people that make good videos don't like Heinz enough for make an ad for them?
I mean would you really spend your free time making a video for a ketchup company?

Re:Subject matter

[Bloke down the pub]

I wouldn't. Perhaps somebody who just graduated in a related field and who wants to get hired might.

Re:Subject matter

[zappepcs]

You have exactly the tack that they need to be thinking, but won't. Use the new media or rather exploit it without expecting others to do all your work. Will it blend would be a good place to start. Will a bottle of Heinz blend? hmmmmm

That is what viral marketing is about, not asking others to do your work for you. Produce something that people will watch for whatever bizarre reason, and let it go...

"for just 39 cents per day, you can keep a needy hotdog or hamburger clothed in Heinz ketchup." Now do a YouTube commercial type video on that premise. Advertising agencies are only good about 10% of the time. Web 2.0 has them all flummoxed.

Variatio on Sturgeon's law.

[Hognoxious]

Companies are finding that this 'Web 2.0' user participation thing sometimes isn't all its cracked up to be.

90% of web 2.0 stuff isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Greedy advertisers

[syousef]

Let me get this straight. These companies want you to make an ad for them, for free on a zero dollar budget and they're complaining that the quality is crap?

Morons.

Re:Greedy advertisers

[indiechild]

The companies (well, Heinz, in this case) aren't complaining. You didn't read the blurb or TFA, but that's OK. It's the advertising agencies who aren't involved who are complaining that the quality is crap. Pot, meet fucking kettle.

Gee, an ad agency thinks that user generated content which is competing with them (indirectly, or directly) is shit. Big fucking surprise.

Heinz already states that soliciting user generated content and then sorting it all out isn't cheap, and is at least as expensive as hiring a marketing/ad agency. No wonder the ad agencies are scared -- that's money that they lost out on.

It's a completely stupid and blindingly obvious news story, filled with loaded statements.

Svelt Athletic people -- not big Ketchup market

[cathryn]

Maybe they're just shocked at finally finding out who the core market for ketchup really is. It's not those thin and toned muscular people like on TV. That's a rare breed, I've never even met one myself, though I see them on TV and in the movies. It's your good ole' fat, diabetic, round-bellied, yellow-toothed American. Slaving away at some crappy job, coming home exhausted, and collapsing with the TV and Jim Beam. That's who is guzzling down those giant Walmart-sized ketchup bottles. More power to 'em!