My partners at Catalyst are always cautious about my tendencies to invite participation in the online portion of ad campaigns for customers. You need to make sure your model doesn’t have big hole in it, and they are good at pointing out holes.

I think there is much to be gained by inviting your target audience to do more than stare. Be careful though, because, as this example shows, sometimes things don’t work out as intended. Chevy’s agency decided it would be a good thing to allow website visitors to make commercials for the Tahoe. Activists got wind of it and did their own thing, which entailed making video spots against the SUV format.

Check out some of the results…