Several months ago an amateur commercial originally created by a student for the iPod touch was picked up by Apple and run in major television spots. I think we are in an age where amateur content is frequently superior (at least in ideation) to stuff professionally produced. In his brilliant Ted Talk from 2007, JJ Abrams (Creator of Lost and Cloverfield) talks about the democratization of media. Specifically, Abrams suggests that whereas he used to tell aspiring writers to “go write� now thanks to advances in technology he can tell aspiring directors to “go make movies.� According to Abrams, innovations in technology have leveled the playing field to such an extent that consumers can access equipment rivaling that of the directing elite for affordable prices.
All this got me thinking that it would extremely cool if someone put together a video voting site that was specific to branded commercials. Users could upload UGC videos of commercials they produced on behalf of brands. Whopper Freakout is a great example of what can be accomplished with video. The hope would be that brands, a la Apple, pick up the rights to some of the commercials. From a crowd sourcing perspective, a brand would already have good idea of of a commercial’s potential viral success since the community would be voting on the commercials. Brands might even upload concept videos and allow users to “make suggestionsâ€� for improvements
Has anyone done something like this yet? Thoughts?
