Perhaps it started with the Doritos ads on the Superbowl over a year ago. It appears that "user generated content" is everywhere. There is a site called ExpoTv where consumers have created thousands of video product reviews. Consumers get paid $2 to $10 per review and the opportunity to win bonus money, but that seems like a small incentive for the amount of work that goes into the videos. There must be something uniquely embedded into our American DNA that takes us away from TIVO and friends to spend time in front of the camera reviewing the  most mundane of products. Here's one recent example for Hanes panties Expo TV Hanes Panties ad  that might not get you clicking to Walmart.com to buy them any time soon.  Or how about this one for Hanes socks. This guys got it going on! Hanes Sock Consumer video

These consumer video reviews are enough to make you long for the good old days of three TV network mass marketing. But wait a minute. There are some hidden gems out there. Heinz ran a YouTube contest for the best consumer ad where the winner would get $57,000 and they got hundreds of entries. Here's one they did not pick but should have; I worked on Mad Ave, I'd be worried.

It seems marketers are listening and recognizing that if consumers can have fun creating web YouTube videos, maybe they can, too. Rolling Rock used the medium well, recognizing that what might not pass the network regulator standards for TV is fair game in the wild web.  They ran brilliant teaser ads on TV that drove millions to the web to view the full ad show here.

Another great example of the promise of social media for brand building is the Vaseline Sea of Skin video.  It launched on YouTube on the home page for 24 hours and got 3 million hits, and many viral shared hits after that.  It's a simple promise. Your skin is amazing. Help keep it that way. But again, the ad was just a bit too racy for TV, which drove millions to view it. Have a look for yourself:

I know much has been written about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. And I think at it's core is a great idea that strikes at the heart of the beauty industry, that girls and women should be happy with their own real beauty, and their inner beauty. It's highly differentiation. How  Dove delivers on this promise of this idea with breakthrough product and the philanthropic charity is critical.  Their ProAge product video (again, internet only, too racy for TV) is brilliant, as is the tag line, Beauty Has No Age Limit.

With all this new user generated media, the role of marketing communication shifts from trying to saturate or burn a message into the minds of consumers to one of facilitating the conversation about brands and how they fit into the lives of consumers. If brands are in their essence relationships formed between a product or service and the consumer, then social media is building communities of interest, then it should be ideal for brand-builders.   Just remember that you no longer control the conversation, you are part of it, facilitating it, influencing it perhaps.