Despite being a graduate student of advertising and falling within the 18-34 age range that CGA supposedly targets, I admit to never having partaken in a CGA promotion. In fact, I am mystified by the very existence of CGA. Why would anyone want to spend their free time creating advertisements knowing that the chance for payment or awards is so small? Just who are these consumers, and what motivates them?

When I examined a multitude of CGA ads to research this article, I was often surprised by their production quality. Rarely did I encounter the shaky cameras and cheap-looking graphics associated with amateur work. Then I realized a critical mistake in my way of thinking – I was equating “consumer” with “amateur,” when in fact the two are far from synonymous.

Although those consumers who create ads are not professionals who work in advertising agencies, they are often professionals in other fields of media production. They use CGA promotions as a way to build their portfolios or get their work out to a large audience. With professional-level tools now available at “Best Buy prices” and the Internet providing a source for media-production knowledge (Walker, 2006), it is now very possible for students and other aspiring professionals to use CGA to break into advertising or other media production fields. Many of the more polished CGA contributors are using the medium as a way to gain recognition without having to deal with the “hard-to-crack Hollywood system of studios and agents (Tanaka, 2006).” In fact, Tanaka (2006) reports that it is not rare for agents to search CGA websites for talent.

The brands that host CGA campaigns are well aware of, and comply with, consumers' intentions to use CGA as a self-promotional vehicle ( Walker, 2006). The design of the Converse CGA website, for example, promotes its contributing artists almost as much as it does the brand itself. Each video is accompanied by an information card that provides the ad creator's name, background information, and director's commentary. By providing consumers superior opportunities for promotion and subsequent recognition, brands are better able to solicit the type of higher-quality ads they are hoping for.

Of course not every consumer who creates ads is an aspiring or current media professional. Some CGA contributors are motivated by a desire to express their passion for the brand, or because creating ads makes them feel they have a form of “ownership” of the brand (Rose, 2007). However, the consumers who create the ads that ultimately win the contests generally do fall into one of these two categories.

For example, the winner of the Firefox CGA contest was an aspiring director and the runner-up was a student in an arts and design college. Likewise, the five finalists in the Doritos CGA campaign were established or aspiring movie makers. It is these people, the “prosumers,” that put the "value" in the CGA value proposition. After all, which marketing executive wouldn't jump at the opportunity to solicit professional-quality advertising for a fraction of the prices they would pay traditional advertising agencies?