Brands Keep Asking Us to Vote. What Are We Really Voting For?

You enjoy voting for more than the fun of joining the crowd

Voting shows up in more and more marketing campaigns. Some, like user-generated content (UGC) and crowdsourcing projects, sound faintly "democratic." Others are pure stunts, or a bid for attention (come and see how everyone else voted).

Think back: weren't you happy to join in too? Not only did the ads not annoy you, you found them fun.

The main reason is that voting makes you feel involved. Once there is a vote, marketing stops being "I sell, you buy (or don't, see if I care)" or "I talk, you listen (or don't, whatever)." It becomes a conversation. As a consumer, it feels good when someone wants your opinion and lets you take a side. Who doesn't like being taken seriously?

Some votes you can't join; you can only watch. Even so, they can be compelling. You may wonder: do other people think the way I do? Why did they pick that one? If you are curious about humans (and how they behave), you will probably enjoy watching the results. Some campaigns built around a vote also put the process, and everyone else's participation, on display (in 7-Eleven's red-versus-blue coffee cup contest, for example, you could watch the numbers update in real time). An open question has its own pull.

Those of us who like voting can thank the internet, and social networks in particular, for making it possible. More important, though, companies and brands are putting the consumer at the center more and more. Call it a little democracy in the business world.

We have sorted some of the better-known voting campaigns into categories. Let's take a look.

Drumming up buzz (attracting attention)

One kind of vote simply plays to people's love of a spectacle. JetBlue, 7-Eleven, Tomb Raider and Cards Against Humanity, all covered below, are examples. These campaigns tend to draw the curious. They may not get to vote, but they want to know the result. Onlookers never mind a bigger show.

Of course, to pull this off, the vote has to be worth talking about. Otherwise nobody will bother with it, let alone vote.

1. JetBlue: 150 passengers win a free round trip only if they all agree on where to go

This was an experimental campaign the ad agency MullenLowe made for JetBlue, a US low-cost airline.

On a flight from Boston to Phoenix, the 150 passengers were told they had a chance to win a round-trip ticket. The catch: before the flight landed (in under 6 hours), every one of them had to agree on the destination. Every single one.

They first chose between an international and a domestic destination, then voted on destinations one by one. After round after round of haggling and voting, they all agreed on Costa Rica.

Why run this "social experiment"?

"This is one of the most politically divided times in (American) history. We thought it was a good opportunity to show the side of people that comes together," the narrator says in the video. MullenLowe creative director Tim Vaccarino said JetBlue is one of the clients unafraid to tie itself to the wider mood and context of the times.

2. Cards Against Humanity: you decide whether to cut a Picasso into 150,000 pieces

This is an odd company that does not play by the usual rules. It describes itself as "as despicable and awkward as you and your friends," and the Q&A section of its website is titled "Stupid questions you might have."

In short, it knows how to stage a stunt. Its latest shameless marketing move: the company bought Picasso's Tête de Faune for 14,000 Swiss francs (about 92,500 yuan). What to do with it? It let the 150,000 customers who bought its Hanukkah card pack decide: cut the painting into 150,000 pieces and give each of them one, or donate it to the Art Institute of Chicago.

The result: it went to the Art Institute of Chicago. 71.3% voted against cutting up the masterpiece!

3. 7-Eleven: a red cup for Romney, a blue cup for Obama

During the 2012 presidential election, 7-Eleven in the US ran a campaign called "7-Election," asking customers to vote to "predict" the result. Anyone buying coffee at a 7-Eleven store chose between a red paper cup (for Romney) and a blue one (for Obama), and the running tally was posted on a website.

It fit the election neatly, and it got customers more involved by letting them show their politics while they shopped. 7-Eleven ran it as an integrated campaign, promoting it everywhere from its website to social networks to its stores.

4. The Tomb Raider game: an invitation to torment real people

When Rise of the Tomb Raider launched in the UK, Xbox found 8 "masochists" for an experiment. They had to stand on a giant outdoor billboard in London, strapped in place and unable to move for 24 hours. Viewers voted between two kinds of foul weather to make things harder for them, such as high wind or snow. This probably gave viewers who lacked the chance or the nerve to sign up for the "torture" a stronger sense of taking part (voting can give you the illusion of power over someone else). Voters could also win a free digital copy of the new game.

Crowdsourcing: don't they say the real talent is out among ordinary people?

In these campaigns the vote was always part of crowdsourced content. The audience not only creates content but also judges what others have made.

They usually target die-hard fans. Is it true love? If it is, don't just buy our products; rack your brains for us too: make merchandise, design products, make ads.

A brand or company that runs this kind of campaign needs real confidence. It needs a sizable base of customers, and a brand culture that is strong and distinctive. Only a few people win prizes, so most take part out of passion.

Whether it is Lego Ideas, L'Oreal's makeup contest or Doritos' ad contest, each sets a certain bar, but each also gives amateurs a good chance to join the ranks of the professionals.

For example, a winner of Crash the Super Bowl, the contest in which consumers shoot ads, got the chance to work with Transformers director Michael Bay; in another year, the prize was a year working at Universal Studios. L'Oreal's makeup contest also gives its winner a year-long contract, in effect a big platform for becoming a beauty influencer.

1. L'Oreal's makeup contest: looking for the next beauty influencer

L'Oreal ran this global campaign in 2015. Entrants uploaded a 3-minute video showing how they applied their makeup and designed the look.

The judging was fairly rigorous. In the open-call round, the judges were L'Oreal executives and beauty "influencers" from YouTube. Once they had picked the 50 best clips, the contest moved to a public vote.

L'Oreal seems to want the public's eyes to help it find, among ordinary people, the next beauty star like Michelle Phan.

2. The Lego Ideas contest: looking for the next best-selling set

Any talk of voting in marketing has to mention the crowdsourcing platforms for product ideas. Lego's Lego Ideas is one of them.

Lego Ideas gives Lego fans around the world (aged 13 and over) a chance to turn their own DIY creations into mass-produced Lego sets. Fans upload a design to the website; Lego reviews any design that gets more than 10,000 votes, and the ones that pass go into production. Lego Ideas launched in November 2011.

Sets that have come out of Lego Ideas include Wall-E, and the main characters of The Big Bang Theory with their apartment. Fan-designed sets such as the Minecraft set and NASA's Mars rover have sold out.

3. Doritos Crash the Super Bowl: looking for great Super Bowl ad ideas

Doritos, the corn chip made by PepsiCo's Frito-Lay, has run its Crash The Super Bowl contest ten years running: fans shoot their own Super Bowl ads and the public votes. Frito-Lay guarantees that at least one fan-made ad airs during the Super Bowl every year. In 2006, the first Super Bowl ad made entirely by consumers aired, and it came from Crash The Super Bowl.

One of the winning ads from Crash the Super Bowl 2016

The winning ads are strong in both ideas and overall quality. Vetted by the public and by PepsiCo, they hold their own against agency work. In USA Today's Super Bowl ad poll, ads made by Doritos fans have come first in three different years.

4. Star Wars fan films: it looks like a treat for fans, but it is really marketing through them

Star Wars is probably this year's hottest franchise. Fans of a hit like this will always dream up and make their own work, and nothing can stop them. To put that energy to use, Lucasfilm set up the Star Wars Fan Film Awards, inviting fans to make films and videos set in the Star Wars universe, including short films, CG animation, Flash animation and more. Lucasfilm then picks the best entries and hands out awards.

Given how popular Star Wars is worldwide, this is not strictly marketing. Judging by who the awards are aimed at, they are a way to keep the fans' enthusiasm high.

Handing the decision to consumers

The last category comes down to letting everyone's sharp eyes pick the best. A product or an ad is ultimately aimed at consumers, so letting them choose the one they like seldom goes far wrong.

"Who Can Represent KFC" took a company decision that had reached deadlock and turned the decision into a marketing event, letting consumers pick which product stayed on the permanent menu. McDonald's menu vote amounted to hiring a public jury; it too handed people some power to decide, and it brought the brand and its audience closer.

1. Intuit: you tell us which small business we put in the Super Bowl

Intuit is a financial software company that serves small and medium-sized businesses. In 2014 and again this year it ran the "Small Business Big Game" campaign.

Any US company with fewer than 50 employees could enter by recording a video about its vision. The small company that won the vote of Intuit employees and the public got Intuit to sponsor its ad in the Super Bowl. The aim was to help small businesses become better known. In 2014, Goldie Blox (a toy designed to build engineering skills in girls) came out on top; after its 30-second Super Bowl spot, its sales grew fivefold within a year. This year's winner was Death Wish Coffee, which claims to be extremely strong in both flavor and caffeine.

Death Wish Coffee's Super Bowl ad

Goldie Blox's Super Bowl ad

2. McDonald's: you tell us which burger to sell

What saves more on product and user research than letting consumers choose the product they like and then mass-producing it? Many industries have used this trick.

McDonald's Canada did exactly that last December. It invited people to pick their favorite from burgers its own employees had created. Choosing products this way is nothing new, but the campaign's tone was playful. It made a viral video in which a "Director of Non-Communications" earnestly denied everything: no, what secret menu? Don't visit this website (don't come and vote!). It was pretty funny.

3. KFC: you tell us whether to keep Original Recipe or Golden Crispy Chicken

In the winter of 2013, Ogilvy China planned a "Who Can Represent KFC" campaign for KFC. Only one of two products could stay: the old Original Recipe chicken or the new Golden Crispy Chicken. They asked consumers to vote on KFC's website, and the vote count decided which one stayed. They also brought in Chen Kun and Kai Ko to front the two kinds of chicken.

Why run this campaign? Reportedly, KFC and Ogilvy found in early research that each product had strengths and weaknesses and it was hard to choose, so they simply came up with this campaign to show that KFC puts consumers first. It was probably one of KFC China's most successful campaigns. It promoted the new product (you have to taste it before you can vote), generated plenty of buzz, set off heated discussion on social networks, and prompted consumers to make up plenty of jokes of their own.

Cover images from JetBlue, Lego Ideas and FitsNews