The Consumer Industry

Sometimes I wonder how many people are come up with better creative work then the agencies themselves. When given the right training and program skills the consumers are coming up with almost identical, if not better, advertisements and designs then the big time agency players. Most of the time when user-generated content is raved about online or other media sources, authors hype them up more than what they really hold as far as execution--but one has to admit that user-generated content is matching up to the concept standards.

Observances such as this can give the title of "freelance designer" a whole new recognition. We are cheaper, typically younger, up-and -coming, and in with the times. We know where all the new technology is and have a high understanding of most target market segments. Most of the user-generated content in advertising that becomes displayed are college students or the people that are just creative for fun--not for dough. Isn't that were the best creativity sprouts up?--when there exists fun, passion, and emotional expression.

Marketers are going to start thinking much harder about how much they are spending on production costs and the traditional advertising rates once they start discovering how much user-generated content and buzz marketing actually works and stimulates higher sales. Not only that, but college students these days are the ones growing up with production and design programs right on their desktops and "shared" through online software downloading programs. The generations Yers are learning these expensive and complex programs just for the hell of it. So they can develop artistic videos of their friends making music videos or participating in extreme sports. I know because I have done it ever since my parents purchased me my first MAC in 1997. We love this stuff! Hire us!

And as Max Kalehoff mentioned in a similar topic article: "Regardless of how big consumer-generated advertising becomes, or whichever direction it morphs, the phenomenon is going to prompt faster reevaluation of the current ad-production model, among all stakeholders."