Wary marketers avoid user-generated media

ROI-driven marketers are wary of using user-generated media and new media, finds a new report, and many aren’t confident about letting consumers have more control.

by Helen Leggatt

With larger chunks of marketing budgets moving online and more and more consumers attracted to user-generated channels it would be easy to assume that marketers are embracing new media channels. However, the 2007 “PRWeek/MS&L Marketing Management Survey”, which polled 279 U.S. chief marketing officers, VPs of marketing and marketing directors and managers, found this is far from the case.

The survey, which grouped user-generated media and new media together, found that only 12 percent of senior marketers thought user-generated media to be “very important” to their marketing plans. While this is still a low percentage it’s still 7.5 percent up on 2006. Forty-five percent thought user-generated/new media to be “somewhat important” and 14 percent said it wasn’t at all important.

So what is putting marketers off using new media and user-generated content? An unwillingness to give consumers more control, the potential harm it could cause to business and a lack of clear ROI, found the survey.

"Despite the increased awareness of the power of consumers in a digital age on brands and sales, marketing executives are reluctant to loosen their grip on marketing content, unwilling to give too much control to these empowered consumers," said Mark Hass, global chief executive officer of MS&L.