YouVert

Holidays

We are off for the holidays but look forward to keeping up the conversation with you all in the new year.

Happy Happy Joy Joy.

Citizen Journalism

I just came across this on Yahoo. It is You Witness News. They are asking for anyone out there who witnesses any kind of news or event to submit it to You Witness News where Yahoo users can keep up on the latest happenings in the world, as they occur. When I launched the player You Witness was placed between 60 Minutes and the BBC, not bad placement. Granted when you own the medium...

As far as I could tell, there were only 2 or 3 postings from users, not a great start seeing that it appears to have been up for a few weeks, but we will keep an eye on it.

What i find most interesting is the idea that modern technology, tech that most of us carry with us virtually every day, allows us all to be documentarians on society. The paparazzi nature of culture, the allure of what we do not have (or happened to us), the inherent judgment in many of our daily encounters, all of this equals both the best of the networked world and potentially the destruction of it and our privacy.

I wonder if the photo stringers of the world will come down on user shutterbugs the way journalists do with bloggers.

LINK: You Witness News

CGM Makes People Buy Stuff

I wanted to like this article and thought it was going to offer some insights, and in fact it did, but not what I thought. I thought it would talk about how when people saw user commercials and negative commentary that people responded. In fact, it discusses how online travel and auto are often influenced by what people read in blogs, message boards and consumer reviews. So I guess the question I have is..."what is consumer media?" - If i write how I like brand x on a message board, is that considered CGM? If anything I would say it is Op-Ed.

The Internet does a great job of allowing consumer talk-back and encourages research so we make better decisions, and for that reason alone the products and services need to get better because bad experiences travel quicker and farther than ever before. But, if all consumer input is classified as CGM, it dilutes the category and makes it into an unmanageable beast. I look at CGM as consumers creating their own media communications in the formats we expect to see media, not commentary.

LINK: CGM Changes Minds of Auto and Travel Buyers

The Undeniable Power of CGC

Browsing through youtube today watching the funniest vid in along time, i ran into this contest for Panasonic. They are offering a user the 'Ultimate YouTube starter kit.' All ya gotta do is create the best animated or live film on the "Undeniable Power of something". Yeah, that sounds easy. Maybe it's me, but this one has train wreck written all over it. The undeniable power of crack! The undeniable power of killing someone! The undeniable power of domination! The undeniable power of cramps! The undeniable power of diarrhea! The undeniable power of stripper perfume! I think you get the point. Also, what kind of ultimate YouTube starter kit would not come with a computer and some editing software? I mean a 37" plasma and camcorder ain't bad, but that aint gonna get me 3,000,000 views.

LINK: Undeniable Power

I'm not buying it and I will beat your ass.

I'm with Max, this sucks.

oy.

Southwest Wants Your Most Humiliating Moment

Brandweek reports that Southwest Airlines jumps into the GGC space with a 'show us your most humiliating 20 seconds' contest. Viewers will vote on them (the most offensive will not make it according to SWA) and the winners will win free getaways and such. So get out that vid of you crying during White Chicks and let the games begin!

LINK: Southwest Embraces YouTube In Marketing Contest

Stoner Generated Media

It was only a matter of time before someone decided to tap into the creative minds of stoner nation. And obviously it is Staples office products....ok, i lied. NORML (National Association for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) has launched an consumer generated ad spot contest to get the word out about Marijuana Reform Laws. You get $1000.00 (and all the burgers you can eat??) and it airs on MySpace, YouTube and NORML. I am thinking like like like a video man, with like colors and like trails you  know? Wait, man, aliens too!

LINK: NORML Contest Rules

Awesomeness Incarnate

Beyond Madison Ave blogged on this a few weeks ago and I finally got a chance to watch it. Brilliant. A fake trade school ad for the "Viral Learning Center". I wish this were real.

When a fan is not really a fan

So SONY thought that we would not recognize a fake blog and they were wrong. It has been reported that the Alliwantforxmasisapsp blog was not in fact a PSP fan's props page, but was a product of the SONY corporation, they came clean. In what is even more interesting is after getting busted with the fakeness, they posted snippet admitting it that actually included the phrase "Funky Fresh". Someone should be fired simply for writing that.

Read the blog simply for the vitriolic comments once the blog was exposed. Now that is some good PR huh?

There are enough PSP fans out there that they last thing SONY needed to do was create a fake one. Note to SONY: Let the consumer express themselves when, where and how they want.

LINK: The Fake Blog

When an ad agency rips off CGC

Here is an interesting tidbit from B3TA about how it seems that an Argentinian commercial for Coke strongly resembles a consumer created vid for a song called Ninja from well-trafficked animation site RatherGood.com.  Rob from B3TA made a short film and study comparing between the 2. Wouldn't it have been easier for Coke simply to hire Joel from RG to do the ads instead of co-opting his creative idea? It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this. Let's Watch!

LINK:
The RatherGood Song
The Coke Ad

CMM on the controversey.