Don't know if you caught the article in USA Today that "Doritos Ad Contest Raises The Stakes: Winners Could Earn $5M", not that it was groundbreaking but rather food for promotional thought....
"The real goal for Doritos: create social-networking buzz as users view the entries online, recommend or send favorites to friends, post links, etc. ? so-called viral buzz. That and, of course, to sell lots of chips during its biggest season of the year.
"This is a new world where one person (online) can make a difference to millions," says Ann Mukherjee, group vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay. "If we can trust them with our brand, they become better ambassadors than we can ever be."
The barriers to entry are substantial, says Kathy Sharpe, owner of digital agency Sharpe Partners. It takes time to film the ad and money for production. A payoff is assured only for Frito-Lay, she notes. "Even if (the ads) don't win Ad Meter, they still get buzz and engage consumers with their brand."
Yet in the last Super Bowl, two unemployed brothers from Batesville, Ind., won Doritos' $1 million prize by finishing first in Ad Meter ? and beating Madison Avenue's big-budget pros ? with an ad about a guy who shatters a vending machine with his crystal ball after predicting free Doritos for everyone in the office."
Have you had a hard time thinking of a good campaign for a client that could become a heavy hitter in billing? Doing a contest with a desirable prize for consumer generated content could be a way to break the writers block plus generate a lot of "viral buzz" for your property. You could do audio, video, or even interactive concepts that combine all 3.