We're friends and all, but I don't like you that much
Just as any real friend can wear on an individual, so too can a brand overestimate the strength of its friendship. At least, that's the word of caution Fay has for marketers looking to run MySpace campaigns.
"You can certainly ask too much of them," Fay says, "And you need to be careful of that."
One successful social media effort that may have stretched the limits of the brand/user friendship dynamic was a 2006 Super Bowl campaign by Doritos that asked fans of the chip maker to produce 30-second spots for the brand. The winning ad was aired as the Doritos Super Bowl commercial.
While Fay says the contest certainly gets high marks for engagement, it may have asked too much of the Doritos-eating crowd.
"I think they got about 1,000 submissions, which is actually pretty great; in that sense it was a home-run for them," she says. "But the problem is that they're asking a lot, and most people simply won't make the effort."
According to Fay, a better tactic -- one employed in the adidas campaign -- might be to assemble the elements for users to make their own commercial by making a few personal choices on the site and executing in a few mouse clicks, rather than asking users to swing into full-scale production.
One recent example of ready-made tools that ask users to make their own commercials without exerting themselves is an action hero saga put on by Verizon. In that campaign for Verizon's broadband service, the brand provides users with a digital kit to write, direct and edit an action film starring the user.
Next: Keep your friends close, and your advocates closer still