What's a Picnic (apart from the classic family activity involving a checkered tablecloth and a ton of ants)? A Picnic is a formidably large candy bar proffered by Cadbury, stuffed with caramel, wafers and nuts. But unless you're in the mood to strengthen your jaw muscles, it's not really the option of choice for those of us just up for a leisurely sugar rush. In short, it's darned tough to chew!

But Cadbury recently found an awesome way to get the young, tough-toothed and ambitious to pick Picnics up: It proposed a challenge. Check out "It's No Picnic," Cadbury's user-generated content (UGC) campaign to raise awareness of Picnic bars in Australia. The idea's simple but appealing: Visit the site and create a video of yourself trying to eat a Picnic bar in 30 seconds, and your ad might end up on TV! So far, "It's No Picnic" has garnered more than 200 user-generated spots!

OK, OK, we hear you saying, "Yeah, but that's hit-or-miss. There's no guarantee that a UGC campaign will result in the engagement I need." Well, that's absolutely true. Which is why we're gonna break down the formula for what makes "It's No Picnic" a winner:

• Limited options. The rules of engagement are simple: Folks have a mission (eat a candy bar in 30 seconds), and they're provided with a partial script (each ad has to conclude with "Picnic. It's no picnic!"). Once the video is recorded, users can choose from 50 pre-made voiceovers. As a result, the ads have some uniformity.
• Clear payoff. Australian users are promised the chance that their ad will appear on TV. Cadbury tells winners in advance when their ad will air, so they can share that spotlight moment with friends.
• Instant shareability. Once contestants make an ad, they can immediately link or embed the masterpiece on their socnets of choice. So even if they don't make primetime, they can still be like, "Hey, everybody, watch me chew for half a minute!"

The Po!nt: Chew on this: You, too, can win with UGC. Just be smart about user engagement. Set ground rules and create a clear incentive for trying your product. With those boxes checked, half the work is done!

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