Everyone Loves [the consumer]

Atom Films is launching a new channel, focused on consumer-generated content. Good for them, although its interesting that the general sense here is that they are playing catch-up. Clearly, Atom must be a little surprised by sudden excitement around YouTube. But Atom, to be fair, has actually reached out to consumers in the past, with clever ad programs.

Many years ago, Atom launched a program with Sony, soliciting film ideas. The best ones, as voted by the community, were rewarded with a bunch of killer Sony gear.

This seems like the approach that they are continuing that thread. The idea of having an open playground where anyone can post anything which is separate from a vetted section is a good idea. Atom seems to think that the vetted section is the one for advertisers, but I don't that necessarily their only space. Someone like Maxim magazine or Axe may have the tolerance for risk to dive into that space.

Either way, it's once again clear to me that the mandate for a lot of business is to inject consumers directly into the business as many ways as possible.