Peperami have recently ended their global relationship with their long time ad agency, Lowe. In place of this they have launched a worldwide competition to find ideas for their global ad campaign. Open to all-comers, the winner gets $10,000 and the kudos of their idea becoming a global campaign. Being run through the Idea Bounty community the brief rather worryingly asks for people to "crack the TV and Print ad". But let's not get hung up in the whole debate about needing media neutral ideas, not just TV scripts etc. Hopefully what Unilever (Peperami's owner) are aiming for is a bunch of new ideas to try and create news in the category, vital in FMCG. Interestingly, the downloadable brief cuts out the usual Unilever deep dive into brand planning, instead relying on the strength of the Peperami brand as it stands as inspiration to brief the would-be creatives. It actually directs them to the brand's consumer-facing website by way of inspiring them.
This has sparked considerable debate amongst the advertising community. Is it an admirably innovative approach to advertising ideas or money-saving exercise by Unilever? Is $10,000 enough? What do Lowe think?
Well for a start, this is not a new idea, it's all been done before at least once in the UK anyhow, for another FMCG giant. However the global scale of this move is what should be applauded for a company the size and nature of Unilever. And who says innovative approaches don't save you money? And as to how Lowe should feel? They should be proud that the strength of their 15 years of work is such that it gives an organisation the size of Unilever the confidence to put this in the public's hands.
Other brands could indeed follow suit. Arguably any brand which has a really established and clear identity could do the same. Marmite anyone? Any why not run a hyrbid model where a communications agency would steer the overall brand structure and briefing whilst crowd-sourcing the actual execution. What better way than that to keep in touch with what's relevant to those you're targeting?
Angus
Hi Angus,
We (blogging team at OMD Ireland) wrote a piece on this aswell - it's certainly an intriguing idea. I like your thought about the hybrid model as I feel that any brand needs long term strategic guidance as well as ongoing new ideas. And of course an agency to develop that clear brand identity to start with!
We got some feedback from the folks at IdeaBounty aswell which you might be interested in reading. It seems that it is not quite a "crowdsourcing" idea, in the sense of mining the public, so much as a new way to find professionals in creative agencies -all their winners so far have been in agencies.
Which I think proves the point that creative professionals are still offering the best work.
Neasa
http://theinfluentials.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/if-you-pay-peanuts/
Posted by: Neasa | September 22, 2009 at 01:45 PM