Challenges in crowdsourcing ads

I have a couple of potential issues with crowdsourced advertising. Now, I should first make clear that I am not referring to UGC that is subsequently used for marketing purposes. Lord knows, there’s been enough material out of Nike alone to show how effective and imaginative this can be.

No, what i’m specifically referring to is when an advertiser or agency actually asks the public, or an appropriate subsection thereof, for ideas for their next broadcast media commercial.

My two issues with this ploy are as follows:

1. If you’re going to ask a member of your audience to go to all the trouble of creating an advertising idea for your brand, it’s worth considering whether there something more kudos-friendly you could ask them to do instead. Like advance review a product. Or respond to someone else’s question about the business. Or express a view on how a product could be improved. I know creating an ad should be a creative, insightful and hugely engaging process, but just wait until you get involved in making a difference to the product itself.

I should hasten to add at this point that I know there are times when a crowdsourced ad might be the right solution to a client’s brief. My point is that we should also consider other, more social options  before we ask this of the brand’s fans. Which brings me to my second point.

2. I’ve seen a crowdsourced ad strategy pitched to a client in agency meetings a couple of times. Both times the marketing director raised the following point, “If we ask our audience to design our ad for us, isn’t there a risk that people might interpret this action as a sign that we’ve run out of ideas ourselves?” It’s a decent question, and I was reminded of it earlier today when I read this.