co-creation at the crossroads

A lot of agencies are turning their backs on co-creation. Frankly, their belief is that they can do a better job of creating compelling communications, more artfully produced, than consumers can. They have a pretty good point. As Leo Burnett once said, “the most beautiful thing in the world is a good ad”.

However, consumers are pesky. They have time and the tools to interact with, mash-up, or plain butcher your content, whether you like it or not. They have access to channels that rival TV networks for reach and impact. And I suspect their favourite targets are either those toe-curlingly awful, so-bad-they-re-dreadful, content. Or the best ideas and artfully produced stuff that captures their imagination, or belongs to their kind of brand.

And marketers go and get in the way too. Low volume production techniques, long-tail niches and easy e-commerce make it simple to tailor or customise your very own product. Mini boast that not 2 cars in 100,000 are alike. So there’s real content creation going on with the actual stuff we’re selling and it seems wise and right to be aware that it’s all happening and to try and influence it all for the better. I like one current analogy for planning, which could easily be extended to the whole of communications agencies – brand gardeners. In this world, we’re looking to tend and nurture the loose associations and audiences that are attracted to brands and their content (just do a Flickr search for Baileys and see how many dog pictures you get). We want to help the brand branch off into wild and interesting new spaces, to keep it interesting and organic. And we need to help our customers do some of that for us. Brands only exist in the minds of their customers. Fruitstock only exists because real people (and lots of them) go there. So the more we enable peoples’ willing participation, the better the brand’s health, interestingness, and the richer the brand’s world of communication will be.

Of course, they’re going to cotton on pretty soon and want to start getting paid for it. Fancy a salary cut, anyone?