That’s the opinion of Ed Kim, interactive guru now on Unilever’s Slimfast brand. “2007 was the year of the consumer,” says Kim. But the next move will be where marketers create a more structured context in which consumers can participate.

He cites J&J who is launching a documentary, essetially transforming from Pharma into Studio. Also Dove. “What Dove did was to give consumers teh tools and the contect,” says Kim. The Dove campaign allowed users to contribute their own video or use a set of pre-defined movies to develop their personal commercial for Dove Cream Oil.  

Kim also sounds a jaded note on the constant pursuit of the next hot thing. “For marketers,” he says, “HTML is so last year. This year it’s all about video and UCG. Next year it will be something else.” He reminds marketers that user-generated content has been around for years. “Diet brands have been doing it for decades. It’s call ‘success stories.'”