..put more faith in user participation and innovation before ? (Walkers gets 1.1m entries to it's 'Do Us a Flavour' Challenge?

I love this.

I love the fact that the brand reached out to it's audience and asked for help.

And it did it in a way that made them truly feel part of the product development giving them 1% share of any future royalties and prize of £50k up for grabs.

This is proper Hawthorne Effect marketing.
They'd expected 250,000 entries. they got 1.1m.

The website went into overload with 2.4m sessions, averaging nine minutes per session. we saw this type of activity start with genuine web2.0 collaboration, content and community activity with the likes of Jones Soda, Boeing World Design Team and others. But this is big business using fans and brand ambassadors (And I'm sure reaching new ones) with something truly interactive.

And the winning flavour :- CHEESE AND RICE.

Ok I'm joking, you'll find out the final 6 in Jan, and the eventual winner (as voted by the public of course) in May.