Consumer-generated content is spreading from YouTube and soon could appear at a movie theater near you.
To promote its upcoming movie “Watchmen,” Warner Bros. has asked fans to make TV commercials for fictional products in the story. The company put graphics including product videos and logos on YouTube, where aspiring directors could access them and incorporate them into their commercials. Submissions closed June 3, but now fans can vote on the 20 finalists, which will be announced June 23.
The winning entries may appear in the “Watchmen” movie as part of the plot. The movie is about comic book-like superheroes who struggle to live regular lives, and the fake commercials will be for a fictional company that is a part of the film.
While user-submitted video is a staple of the Internet and funny home videos on TV, the “Watchmen” campaign marks an escalation because the home-made commercials will be in a film released by a major studio.
“It’s a new interpolation of existing user-generated content models,” said Scott Leonard, chief executive at A.D.D. Advertising & Marketing, an agency in Hollywood which is not involved in the movie.
Leonard believes non-media companies can learn from the “Watchmen” experiment by getting consumers to make commercials for real products. Technology has progressed to the point where amateurs can film and edit high-quality video, he said.
However, the strategy won’t work for every product. “The best categories for this type of advertising also known as citizen advertising are those that engender a very strong brand loyalty or fan base,” said Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, chief executive of Hispanic ad agency Enlace Communications in Los Angeles.
“The danger is that the consumer engagement will lack focus and ultimately dilute the brand. Consumers are not necessarily the best creators for keeping a strategic direction and a brand voice.”
According to Leonard, the quality of submissions depends largely on the incentives a company offers. A contest that offers a chance at a new car, for instance, in exchange for people submitting their name and address generates a high response rate. As the task gets more difficult such as producing a commercial the incentive should increase.
“In L.A., people have lots of talent and editing equipment to make a commercial,” Leonard said. “The question here is: Is the prize big enough?”
For the “Watchmen” commercial, the 20 finalists get $1,000 each and the top five get camcorders.
The “Watchmen” commercials will appear on YouTube this month, while the film won’t reach theaters until March. That raises another possible problem: The fake commercials could mislead YouTube viewers about the film.
“People may not get enough information about the film and they could make the decision early on that they’re not interested,” said Leonard.
