Brand strategy or brand suicide?

I recently posted a blog about Proctor and Gamble, and their Old Spice campaign to engage customers, by allowing people to create their own Old Spice commercials. This type of customer generated content is becoming all the rage on the web today. We’ve seen similar campaigns by MasterCard, Jet Blue, and recently Chevy. I applaud these brands for giving up some control – but there has to be a line drawn in the marketing sand as to just how much control to give up. When you give technology savvy, virally connected consumers the ability to step outside the brand box, you open yourself up for some associations you might not want.

It’s a good idea to think twice about the amount of creative power you give to consumers. As we’ve seen over the past couple of days, Chevy is paying a price for the amount of creative control it decided to give up.

Autoblog - A blog covering the auto industry with test drives and commentary on articles from other sites, posted an article about the campaign's results, along with some of the customer created commercials.

Brand Strategy or Brand Suicide? You decide.