The Super Bowl seemed like the national debut of the notion that agencies don't have all the smarts and you might just get a good idea by running a contest and letting Mr. or Mrs. Consumer craft your Doritos message. Well, here comes the next wave.
An e-marketing agency has announced that on behalf of their client Phytolabs Solutions - they are holding a contest to invite consumers to create a brand name and tagline for a new over the counter immune-booster.
According to the official press release, the marketing company is confident in this "crowdsourcing" method will generate the right brand for their product. The contestants are given some superficial information about the product. Potential customers are identified as busy moms and dads, traveling teens, seniors who want to get the most out of life–and pretty much everyone in between.
Two other things of note before I pose a question or two:
- There's a payday attached to this. The winning name earns $15K and the winning tagline $7.5K.
- No pros allowed. So don't start sharpening your pencil.
So, what do you think? Can Average Joe create an effective brand? If the company did a side-by-side comparison and let the pros compete against the consumers .... what would be the differences? Similarities?
Which of course leads me to .... does a product's name/tagline matter or are they just empty vessels that are given meaning by what the company does with them?
