In order to assess which road CGA will ultimately end up on, we must first understand the emergence of CGA in a historical sense. Certainly, the phenomenon of consumers participating in the creation of brands and their advertising is not a new one. For example, jingle-writing contests were very popular in the 1950’s. Major League Baseball expansion teams such as the New York Mets, the Seattle Mariners, the Florida Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks chose their names from among the submissions of fans – a trend which started in the 1960’s. So if CGA has existed for at least half a century, why wasn’t it until recently that the format really started to take off?
 Would Billy the Marlin exist if not for CGA?
The present surge of CGA campaigns can be attributed to two main market factors, one “pull” and one “push.” The “pull” factor is the widespread usage and “democratization” of new media technologies (Petrecca, 2006), particularly that of the Internet. The “push” factor is the existence of market saturation and market fragmentation.
The Pull
Widespread Internet usage means that CGA campaigns can reach more consumers – particularly the passive observers who make up the bulk of consumers -- than ever before. Imagine how different a jingle-writing contest would look today than in the 1950’s. In the 50’s the average, non-participating consumer would likely be exposed to the campaign only when he heard the winning jingle. Today, he might watch dozens of “jingle videos” on the CGA website before a winner had even been decided.
Consumers' increased exposure to, and mastery of, different forms of media-production technology have also factored significantly into the emergence of CGA. Whereas a decade ago use of digital cameras and camcorders and editing software was limited to the white male “technophile elite,” mastery of these tools can now be found across all different income levels and ethnicities (Rose, 2006). With the average consumer of today being leaps and bounds more tech/media-savvy than he was just several years ago, brands now get to solicit contributions from a much larger, more capable pool of consumers.
Some industry insiders believe that consumers’ apparent enthusiasm for CGA is really just a side-effect of the novelty of using new technologies. In other words, consumers are displaying a greater willingness to participate in CGA for no other reason than to play with some new toys. Ed Dilworth, one of Campbell-Ewald's top executives, believe consumers' fascination with new forms of media may be at its peak. “ Right now, consumers are engaged with new forms of media in a way they haven't been before and probably won't be forever." (Rose, 2006)
In sum, more consumers are capable of using the Internet and interactive media than ever before, and for the moment they are content to do so if for no other reason than fun and practice. Marketers realize that these trends mean that CGA campaigns have the potential to be more professional and widespread than ever before, and are thus “pulled” into enacting them.
The Push
“Market saturation” refers to the way today's consumers are constantly inundated with advertising messages, and thus develop resentment toward advertising and try to avoid it as best they can. Nowadays when advertisers attempt to gain the attention of consumers, they enter a fight not only against the competition, but the aversive attitudes of consumers.
Market researchers have discovered that consumers are often less aversive towards CGA than traditional advertising because they see it as a form of “peer recommendation” rather than advertising (Rose, 2006). Moreover, a report by the American Marketing Association showed that 68% of adults believe that those companies that engage in CGA are more customer friendly than those that only use traditional advertising.
“Market fragmentation” refers to the existence of a multitude of media formats that now compete for consumers' leisure time. Advertisers yearn for the days when reaching one's target audience was as easy as placing ads on one of the few television networks that existed at the time. The media-consumption habits of today's consumers, from baby boomers on down, are divided among a spattering of television channels, websites, video games and digital media players. Thus it is now difficult for advertisers to reach their target audiences with placements across several media formats, much less through a single media format. CGA gives marketers one more weapon in their arsenal of formats they can use to combat market fragmentation.
The tough realities of market saturation and market fragmentation have forced marketers to develop new ways to engage the consumer. They are the major “push” factors behind the emergence of CGA as a popular advertising format.
|