Jean-Marie Dru, worldwide chief executive of TBWA Chiat Day on user-generated content: I don’t believe in it too much, to be honest. . . . I don’t think you can have consumers telling you what you should do. We believe our best campaigns have been done with our clients, not our consumers.”
Make those words the epitaph for him and his business: ” don’t think you can have consumers telling you what you should do.” That is precisely what you should do.
The Reuters story that reports his sentiments also says: “However cutting-edge the idea of crowd-sourcing may be, companies that tap the public for content risk losing control of the message.” Yes, we hear that from controlling marketers: Our efforts might be off-message. Which only means that your message is off.
