Advertising co-creation and the engagement factor

Abstract

In 2009, McDonald's launched a new interactive sign at Picadilly Circus, one of the most visited places in London. There, passers-by could interact with moving images displayed on McDonald's giant LED screen. Visitors could take an interactive role at one of London's most photographed locations. The interactive sign has displayed several pictures in motion, with objects chosen to be in interaction with people: an umbrella, a birthday cake with candles, a balloon, a football, among others. People passing by started taking pictures and sharing it by smartphones, to friends or on social networks. A video on the Youtube, that shows everyone taking pictures with the sign in the background, has been seen by 216 766 persons. The relation with the brand has continued in a viral way: people that took the picture with funny aspects have shared it on Flickr and Facebook. Inspired by this case and several others that followed that lead in the last years (Doritos/Super Bowl; Coca-Cola Australia), we intent to analyse co-creation, user-generated content and crowd sourcing advertising as communication tools, focused on the following issues: • How brands are changing their communication strategies towards a more interactive relation with costumers and, most of all, proving emotional experiences, beyond their product or service; • How brands are searching for new ways of engagement and for creative strategies of turning consumers into brand ambassadors or fans; • The risks of those strategies since brands no longer control the reactions on social networks. As an example, despite the successful Picadilly Circus Sign action, the last post on Youtube from MacDonalds1 is about the decision of the putting some posts down due to “not acceptable” adult language; • Finally, the importance given to transparency and authenticity, as a signal of crowdsourcing power. As posted by the MacDonalds Picadilly’s author on the Youtube: “We also wanted to clarify that we didn't hire actors for this movie but filmed general members of the public on the day.” We will frame our analysis on the scope of co-creation theories as drivers of innovation and added value (C. K. Prahalad, 2004; Ramaswamy & Gouillart, 2010), but will also look to other recent perspectives on the subject (Hall, 2010; Melo & Sousa, 2010, 2012), namely the impact in the consumer of co-creation awareness (Sigala, 2013; Thompson & Malavyia, 2013). We also intent to pinpoint some of the advertising industry perspectives on co-creation (Welch, 2012).