User-generated advertising has become a hot space lately. Sony, Toyota, L'Oréal, Converse, MasterCard, Chevrolet have or are flirting with user-generated ads. Comcast Interactive Capital and Turner Broadcasting invested in ViTrue, "a startup providing technology to enable user-generated advertising campaigns."

Yaadz joins the space, announcing on Oct 31, 2006 a service specializing in user ads. Corporations have held their contests either on general video sites like Current TV or on their own sites like Chevrolet Apprentice (contest over so now redirects to Chevrolet sales). Yaadz would be the first site to exist expressly for user ads. Yaadz is a French venture but certainly they can host English language ad campaigns. If they fail to bridge the language or culture divide, at least the model can serve as an example for someone considering the idea in the US.

Here’s my cleaned up translation of Yaadz’s main objectives:

(I cleaned up the English. You'll have to read the French for the original intent)

The Yaadz's Concept in 3 Points

What Is YAADZ?

YAADZ proposes that the advertisers entrust the creation of their videos viral to the Net surfers. YAADZ holds contest all Net surfers in which can take part. YAADZ focuses on those advertisers seeking to reach the new social networks, videos site or blogs. YAADZ proposes completely original and creative content.

How YAADZ contests work?

To launch a YAADZ CONTEST, the advertiser proposes a brief (short scenario of the video) to the community of the creative users registered on YAADZ. The creatives can register with the YAADZ CONTEST and can then submit their videos. The advertiser announces the winner at the end of the contest. The contests can be public, the members of the YAADZ community can then take part in the selection of the winner as voters.

Are contestants paid?

Yes! Prizes are paid on YAADZ. The awards start at $1,000 (presumably EURO not dollars) and can go up to $10,000 per winning video. Other prizes are also awarded according to the success of the video.

This is a very interesting concept. Corporate contest sponsors have had to co-ride programs like the Apprentice or advertise the contests on their or other websites, traditional media or indirectly through PR. YAADZ proposes to be a contest nexus, a YouTube for contests. In contrast to YouTube's increasingly becoming a generic junkyard for all kinds of content, a well-focused contest site can thrive. Corporations, creatives, and interested viewers could have one central place to go for user-generated ads, and the winning videos can be distributed virally to other sites. The million dollar question is how well YAADZ executes. Key issues will be signing up corporations and getting sponsorship for juicy contests. Long term issues will be whether companies will want to commingle their marketing efforts in one location, outside of their comfortable open silos and whether YAADZ can draw a breadth and continuity of sponsorship to make the site worth returning to. Given the enormous marketing budgets of large corporations, even sponsoring one contest a week is a piddling sum. The ROI on a viral winner is huge. The downside is limited by the selection process. Ad agency created advertising sometimes seems too slick and misdirected and it would be nice to see a platform for the creation and viewing of user ads. Let's hope for YAADZ' sake, enough corporations demonstrate boldness.