Nice piece here for Wise Monkey Records.

With consumer created content this weeks biggest buzz word I thought this was quite fitting.

From b3ta "Banner ads don't work. Everyone ignores them. So let's save the online advertising industry and reinvent the damn things. Show us the kind of web advertising that would make you click..."

I live in it. I work in it. And no it's not australia. I live in England.


I was reading the Age today as I'm inclined to do on occasion, and came across this article Growth in broadband slows. Slows? Slows!? Hold on a second it's never been any faster than a telstra suits monday lunch. Ever since the cable rollout stopped on the bad side of Bubble v.1 someones been thinking it's a better idea to squeeze the life out from anyone who tries to do anything about providing the australian population with a reliable, affordable, fast and fair broadband service.

The percentage of britons on broadband hit a high of 50%+ active internet users a few months back, with the gov here aiming for close to 100% access by 2010.


What has australia got. About 15% penetration (3 million of 20 million - correct me if i'm way out here) - It's no wonder that the industry has never recovered from the heady days of the mid nineties - without an audience what chance has the industry got in competing with the budgets and audience in other developed countries.



It's shameful. It's certainly not lucky. Blame Telstra.

Automaker General Motors has got a valuable lesson in the downside of Consumer Generated Content. GM's sponsorship of TV show 'The Apprentice' included a challenge that involved making a tv ad for the Chevy Tahoe SUV.

It extended the concept to the web, whereby anyone can direct their very own ad, including music, vision and supers. Sounds like a marketers dream, but it was not to be.

The result has seen the tool used by anti-SUV lobbyists and environmentalists to spread their message virally - and it's working, you need only do a search on Google to see it catching on.

Ad Example 1
Ad Example 2
Ad Example 3
Ad Example 4

*UPDATE* - News.com has a video capture of two more ads, which are even better than the ones above, to view them head on over here

This is a very impressive & successful example of a consumer generated content program by Three in the UK, which allows users to upload content which earns money for both 3 and the user who posted it each time it's downloaded. They've had over 4 million downloads, which has generated over £100,000.

From the site -

"See Me TV provides an opportunity for 3 customers to shine in front of millions of potential viewers. All the budding star has to do is record a short video displaying their talents, and then send their clip via MMS to 32323 to have it uploaded to the See Me TV Channel for other 3 customers to view.

SeeMeTV is also a chance to earn. For every 3 customer that watches a clip on See Me TV, the performer gets paid 1p - and with a potential audience of 3.2 million, who can each view the clip as many times as they like, the money to be made can quickly mount up. The cash is accumulated and paid out once it has reached £10 - there's no cap on what a 3 customer can earn from SeeMeTV"

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