Chevrolet and Doritos will buck the trend during the commercial breaks for the Super Bowl on February 4, airing advertisements produced or influenced by their customers.
The American football extravaganza is a key marketing spot for US companies as it will command an estimated 90 million viewers’ eyeballs and commercials costing around $2m each.
Visitors to Doritos’ “Crash The Super Bowl” can select from five clips the advert used to promote the snacks between plays.
Reuters reports Chevrolet has asked university students to submit proposals for its ads, while Alka-Seltzer, too, has asked its customer base to compose a new jingle to be used for the occasion.
Toyota’s recently-launched hybrids site, said to be a “social networking” site, encourages drivers of its Prius car to submit their affections for the model. The submissions serve as a campaign in which conventional methodologies are thrown out in favour of real people’s stories.
The moves are indicative of a growing realisation amongst blue-chips that the kinds of guerrilla marketing tactics once employed only by the likes of open-source software fans are now worth taking a big bet on.