So Google has decided that the best way to advertise its various products is to get you, the user, to do it for them:
The crowdsourcing of advertising in ways like this always interests me because originally the point of these things was to get innovative advertising at lower cost: enticing people to submit creative marketing work on spec by dangling a prize has only really started to come of age. However, what’s new in this case is that nowhere on Google’s Demo Slam website can I find even a hint of a prize. It seems that the prize is bragging rights. (It’s entirely possible that Google will give out some neat prizes to the people they consider winners or the ones they really like, but somehow I don’t think the prize will be “a bunch of money” so much as it will be, I dunno, a few Android phones or something.)
And here’s the thing: I’m going to guess that people are still going to jump at the chance to advertise Google’s stuff for them. Partially this is because people like Google as a company and like Google’s products (even if, in some cases, they probably shouldn’t). Partially this is because people want to be famous or at least recognizable, because personal fame is now a sort of currency, and advertisers are rapidly coming to realize that said fame is perceived to have value in and of itself and don’t need to add money to sweeten the deal.
Or maybe just saying “chubby bunny” with marshmallows in your mouth is awesome. I dunno.
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“Employment at Google” is another potential prize.
I work for an online advertising company, and this sort of thing happens all the time. You’re right that people are more likely to do this for companies they think of as “good” but really, almost any company has its fans, and a small section of them are willing to do things to support them for free.
and besides, people like seeing themselves on the internets (or in print, or hear themselves on the radio).
Well. But everybody gets a few shiny new things, right? That’s a prize and a HALF, especially if you’re… um… a crow.
I have a prize for anyone who can identify 120 Marvel Comics characters:
http://sketchcardsaloon.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/sketchcard-sweepstakes-marvel-heroes-and-villains/
… but I ain’t no Google.
A) Being able to annunciate anything with four marshmallows in your mouth is quite a feat, so yes it is awesome.
B) I hate attention, and I would still do this if I got a free Android for it.
C)The “open source advertising” programs often produce some of the most creative tv available. Honestly, sometimes I’d rather watch those commercials than whatever reality program or “news” happens to be playing at the time, though that’s not exactly saying a lot.
They’re not just advertising Google, they’re advertising themselves.
1) Advertise self!
2) ???
3) Profit!
Remember that “Chocolate Rain” guy? How much money did he make? What about the “Leave Britney Alone” guy or the “Obama Girl”? But people still hope, and they think it’ll be the path fame and fortune (as if the two were one and the same like some sort of incestuous Siamese twins).
Occasionally you’ll have someone like Kim Kardashian who becomes an internet meme and then hits it big, but there are other factors at play there (being attractive, having a D-list famous family, knowing the right people who know the right people, and willing to be a total media whore all being good starts).
But yeah, the attention is nice.
@dirge93 The chocolate rain guy and the Britney guy both made and continue to make money from making those videos.
dirge93, the chocolate rain guy definitely had a cameo on John Stewart’s Night of Too Many Stars last night, so that’s not really a good example, considering he probably got paid out the ass for it.
Gah, now I can never eat a Marshmallow again.. why do people f**k with stuff.