How’s this for ironic timing. As a joke I called an earlier post “I’ve just posted some user-generated content on Flickr” that linked to photos from strolling around Manhattan this afternoon. In Monday’s New York Times there’s a story about marketers’ realization of the value of having their brands photographed in Times Square. No kidding, the article includes the term “consumer-generated pictures.”
Quote:
“As a result of the growing popularity of consumer-generated pictures, videos and e-mail messages on Internet sites like YouTube and Myspace, advertisers are getting consumers to essentially do their jobs for them.”
Consumer-generated pictures! If you’re a “marketer,” please be advised: only a complete dork would ever use the phrase “consumer-generated photo.” Here’s a better one for you: “photos taken by people.”
Photo: All over Manhattan today, I saw holiday shoppers taking time to engage in some consumer-generated picture taking.
December 11th, 2006 at 10:40 am
This reminded me of a funny experience. About five years ago I was designing a small magazine for a Las Vegas based athletic club. I met the editor (Brett) at starbucks (not quite Times Square) to go over a few things. Brett decided he wanted a new photo for his column and asked me to take his picture while sitting in starbucks. I took a couple shots (at least one with the flash turned on). Brett then went up to the counter to get another cup of latte whatever (I’m not a coffee drinker). The lady at the counter informed Brett that he couldn’t take photos inside the store. Brett (with an instant stroke of comedy) lifted up his camera and snapped a quick picture of this same counter lady. She wasn’t amused and if I remember correctly, we quickly left the store.
UGC.
December 11th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
[...] Times Sq. Ads Spread Via Tourists’ Cameras As my friend Rex Hammock points out, the term “consumer-generated pictures” is indeed a bad omen. And for all those marketers looking to stage events in Times Square — beware the Chevy Tahoe effect — consumers have this knack for sensing in-authenticity and taking your brand in a direction that you didn’t exactly intend. YouTube Adds a Layer of Filtering to Be a Little Nicer So much for the leveraging the power of the YouTube community. Too much corporate interference, and the consumers will start looking for elsewhere for a more suitable experience — the same reason why pre-roll video won’t work, as Fred Wilson argues: “So if you want to build a business around digital media, you have to be the best place to view/consume the media. Being the only place to see it is a naive strategy that won’t work. You have to make digital media easy to find, easy to watch/listen/view, easy to comment/tag/share, and easy to replicate/reblog/republish.” [...]