In today's AdWeek, Brian Morrissey writes about the considerable risks and questionable rewards of consumer generated ad campaigns and advertising within video sharing environments like YouTube. Brian and I spoke about this last week and he closes his piece with one of my comments:
Uneven results highlight the fact that the hurly-burly of social media sites like YouTube are not for every brand, said Greg Verdino, director of emerging channels at Digitas. While it is easy for outsiders to pontificate that brands need to give up control, many have invested literally billions in building up their brand equity-making them understandably wary of putting it on the line. "These types of viral distribution opportunities can go very wrong very fast," he said.
While this is certainly true, it isn't the whole story. A key consideration for brands weighing potential social media campaigns (video, blogs, social networks or otherwise) is whether or not the brand is truly "authentic." In other words, does the brand have a meaningful (and lasting) connection with its consumers that will stand up to the potential brand criticism that may be surfaced through social media sites? If the answer is a resounding yes, then social media programs are a lot less risky. Unfortunately, I fear that many brands aren't as authentic as they could be -- and it is these brands that bear the greatest risk and would be well advised to step cautiously.
