The MIT Advertising Lab caught and commented on a great article by The New York Times today regarding Heinz.  It seems that Heinz has entered the world of co-creation by asking (and offering a handsom reward) for anyone who can generate a great Heinz Ketchup advertisement.

The Times notes that companies like Dove, Doritos, and now Heinz have spent amazing sums of money to have customers create ads.  The price of such a production is sometimes more expense than simply having the professional advertisers simply do the work in house.  The time and energy to sift through the submissions ads up, as does the cost of simply promoting the promotion.  In then end, one wonders if it really ads up to have customers co-create.

The paper also quotes Scott Goodson, chief executive of StrawberryFrog:

“Scott Goodson…said the shortcomings of contest entries — not just those for Heinz — refuted predictions that user-generated content might siphon work away from agencies. ‘This Heinz campaign, much like the same ones done by Doritos, Converse and Dodge, only goes to show how hard it is to do great advertising,’ he said.”

MIT notes they ”don’t think (such campaigns are) about agencies wanting free ads. It’s more about brands trying to open up to participatory culture and letting fans into the institutionalized part of the meaning-making world.”

I agree, co-creation is about brands trying to open up to participatory culture, but I wonder if going to the effort of have people participate in traditional media is the right approach.  Participatory culture is much more organic, and trying to capture that culture and package it into a television spot is where good intentions yield insignificant results.

Co-creation opportunities are everywhere, but few companies are willing to incorporate the idea of participation into their business model beyond advertising.  Even then, the co-created advertising is controlled, monitored, and edited for content.  Is this really participation?

The one area NYT and MIT did not cover is where brands could learn from the costly endeavors of companies like Heinz.  Rather than go to the effort of having customers co-create ads, perhaps there are other arenas to leverage their participation and turn it into branded gold.

I know it’s success is played out a bit, but Run London by Nike is a great example of how participatory culture can leverage the power of co-creation.  The developers of this website understood that participation needs to be organic - let them update runs, edit runs, add runs, all in real time.  Nike realized that participation doesn’t have to revolve around the established brand essence of Nike; rather, participation can extend the brand into areas that are legitimized only when produced by those outside the walls of the company and ad agency.  Start the process, then let others run with it.  Pardon the pun. 

That is real participation and co-creation in the digital age.