Prolific Web2 blogger Dion Hinchcliffe comments on the Tahoe campaign fallout (The Web-Powered Control Shift: Social Computing (web2.wsj2.com)) and reading his blog--actually, I tend to spot his awesome graphics on Flickr first--I was reminded how hard it is for ad agencies (such as the one where I spend my days) to generate creative that invites co-creation and does generally give a stake in the outcome.
More often than not, the stake is more of a stick twig, maybe having your words appear on a website or entry into a prize draw. I mean sure, a lot of agencies are 'getting it' but can't we do something better?
After finally tracking the website down (it's all Flash of course, so that even if "moonbathing" had become a popular tag, googling it got you nowhere) I spent ten minutes the other day inputting garbage into the Levi's moonbathing site (something about time travel, base-jumping off a Park Lane hotel roof and a bunch of other gibberish). It just doesn't deliver any sense of satisfaction, worth or fun. Mebbe I'm just getting old, but I've been describing the internet as a collaborative space for the last ten years and if this is as good as it gets I'm a wee bit depressed...
One thing I'm increasingly noticing is initiatives that are much more inclusive being driven by PR companies and I'm guessing this will increasingly become a challenge to us agency folk.
(btw, just dug out the Levis uri again. It's http://eu.levi.com/index.jsp?lang=en®ion=uk -- catchy, no?)
