tag:,2009:/1/tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12438- 2009-10-30T13:21:08Z Comments for Has Current Solved the User Generated Advertising Mystery? Movable Type 4.23-en tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12438 2008-11-06T20:48:38Z 2008-11-07T17:49:15Z Has Current Solved the User Generated Advertising Mystery? Has Current Solved the User Generated Advertising Mystery? Marshall Kirkpatrick http://www.readwriteweb.com At the Web 2.0 Summit today Current.tv co-founder Joel Hyatt told the audience that his video site and TV channel has landed multiple multi-million dollar advertising deals with giant companies, based on non-professional commercials created by fans. That's something that a whole lot of companies have been trying to do, unsuccessfully, for years.

Hyatt was joined on stage by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, who once again repeated the "wait and see" answer when asked about his monetization strategy. Side-by-side with Current's success, Twitter's continued stalling seemed more unsatisfying than ever - but success in general felt more possible when we saw what Current has done.

]]> Hyatt wouldn't disclose how many of these deals they've done or what kind of revenue the company has, but he did say that Sony, HP and Loreal were all advertisers. The audience today saw a pretty compelling example in a Prius commercial reportedly made by some guy who owns a Prius and likes it a lot.

Hyatt said that surveys show viewers prefer user generated advertising 9 to 1 over Madison Avenue's creations. Anecdotally, though, we know that recent history is littered with examples of campaigns where a trickle of users produced a handful of boring ad segments for uninspiring products.

How Did They Do it?

How has Current done it? Here's our theory. The TV station and news video website has a large audience of edgy young thinkers already, they eat their own dog food with non-stop risk taking and innovation and they've got great cachet with a sizable and desirable crowd - fans of company co-founder Al Gore. Current probably gets a lot of terrible ad and content submissions, but they must get enough that there are some really compelling submissions to choose from. Current site visitors participate in that selection process, which you can check out in action here.

This may or may not be a formula that's accessible for other companies, but we're sure that everyone who saw Hyatt's talk today took note: someone is doing it. Current has found a way to make real money with user generated ads. That's pretty remarkable, and we expect that if and when more examples of this kind of success emerge in coming years - Current will be remembered as a trailblazer in yet another part of the new media world.

Watch this space for full video coverage of Hyatt and Evan Williams on stage, along with more from the O'Reilly/TechWeb Web 2.0 Conference, to be posted on ReadWriteWeb later today.

]]> tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12438-comment:116142 Comment from Mark Schoneveld on 2008-11-06 Mark Schoneveld http://poptent.net There are several companies attempting some hybrid of this 'crowdsourced creative' model, Poptent being one of them. We've always admired the Current TV model and certainly wish them the best in their efforts. We firmly believe this model will only become more refined over time and will certainly become a big force in the industry. Our communities come up with fresh, new ideas in an aesthetic that is cutting-edge if not downright pleasing - and we're doing it for very affordable prices.

]]> 2008-11-06T21:03:51Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12438-comment:116143 Comment from Neil Perry on 2008-11-06 Neil Perry http://www.xlntads.com I'll echo Mark's comments. Current has really done a great job of making CGA work as an effective ad production approach for major brands.
You can add to the Current list of clients, a few of our own like Nestle, Unilever, NewLineCinema and Anheuser-Busch. And these companies are just selecting one ad to run from us, they are often selecting multiple ads to run both online and on TV.
Things, they are a changin'!

]]> 2008-11-06T21:17:54Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12438-comment:116146 Comment from Luke on 2008-11-06 Luke By the time Twitter figures out a business model. The opportunity will be lost. Yammer is taking over on the biz communication side. I've been hearing a lot of folks in the hallways and at dinner at the conference talk about their company's use of Yammer.

I think Dare might have it right.
http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2008/06/02/WillTwitterBeTheNextFriendster.aspx

-Luke

]]> 2008-11-06T21:25:03Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12438-comment:116167 Comment from Dale Larson on 2008-11-06 Dale Larson http://dalelarson.com From the samples I've been shown by Current, what they're doing looks brilliant.

The key to how well Current TV's user-generated commercials work is that they feel like they come from the community of Current viewers. They have a sense of truly being made for the community by fans of the brand within the community.

This stands in stark contrast to what agencies and brands do elsewhere, seeking users to create the best commercials in the style of agency generated spots. They're made by ad-(wo)man-wannabes for actual ad-(wo)men.

(You know, grammar sure was easier in Don Draper's day.)

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