“I think this consumer-generated advertising fad is going to diminish in a few years’ time,” she said during a visit to Asia last month. “If our consumers are better at creating content than we are, then we’re out of business.”
Lazarus also cast doubt on the effectiveness of interactive branded websites where consumers get to play games or create their own content. “Just because you interact on a website, I’m not sure you are fully involved. Just because you’re interacting, does that have anything to do with a brand?” She added that there was no clear evidence to show these sites were effective, noting that the ultimate judge of the success of a campaign was still “did we sell stuff?”
Another issue, Lazarus noted, was that those interested in creating content are in the minority, while many of those who enter advertising-related content competitions are simply aspiring advertisers.
Campaigns in which consumers take an active part in the creative process have been very popular in the US, Asia and Europe. Pepsi has successfully used this medium for a TV commercial in China, while Doritos and GM-Chevrolet ran user-generated adverts at the Superbowl in the US this year.
Lazarus said that with so many new advertising channels available, it is an exciting time for the industry — but also that its direction was unclear. “This is not a time for people who are uncomfortable with ambiguity,” she said. “We have to be in all the places that consumers are going to be.”
With PR, digital and CRM all now part of an advertising strategy, Lazarus described the situation as now being “advertising with a little ‘a’.”
In her keynote speech at Ogilvy & Mather’s Marketing 2.0 conference in Shanghai, she emphasised the power and importance of great ideas in advertising, saying “ideas are the currency of the 21st century”.
Advertisers now need to be invited, rather than intrude, into people’s lives by creating compelling, exciting content, she said. As an example of this, she pointed to the Superbowl advertisers in the US, who drove consumers to their websites to watch the adverts again.
