The Purpose of User Generated.

The world is changing. It is becoming a Consumer-Centric World. Consumers are in control of when they engage with media, where and in what format they engage, and more importantly they're starting to create more of the media themselves.

The Internet was created as the first self-publishing format, allowing anyone and everyone the ability to create content for the world to see. Personal websites emerged and morphed into blogs, which launched community sites, and now we're seeing video as the new wave, the next generation. As analog media slides into the past, digital media is enabling the users to generate the media.

And by the way, they're pretty damn interesting.

As brands are launched into the world, we see the concept of Brand Democratization emerge. This is the concept of the users being in control of the brands. The simple fact is that once your brand is in the public eye, brand perception becomes brand reality. The way a brand becomes succesful is by ensuring that there is a positive experience with the brand, and that the message of the brand matches the experience of the brand. If it doesn't, then the users expose the brand for what it truly is and it flops. If it does match, then we see the power of the consumer as they evangelize the brand. This is where word-of-mouth marketing becomes so important, and in a world where the mouth of the consumer is so easily broadcast for the world to hear it, the brands MUST be listening!

This blog is going to expose and highlight some of the best, and the worst, in the trend towards a consumer-centric, user-generated world. If you want to know whats going on in this space, come here, 'cause I like to think I am paying the MOST attention to this category.

Its my personal epiphany to share with the world.

So thanks for reading and best of luck!

CTreff