The great social media experiement of 2007

I was working for the advertising agency for a major sporting league when I came up with a concept I call the "event blog time capsule."

I got the idea when I was standing directly in front of the stage at a U2 concert - the band was two feet in front of me with thousands of fans shouting, dancing, and screaming around me.

What I noticed was a phenomenon that was extremely interesting. Everyone around me was taking pictures and short movies on their cell phones. There must have been hundreds of them - all with their own angle and point of view.

And I thought - how cool would it be if all of these people took the extra time to send those pictures to their blog...or even better, the same blog?

Which got me thinking about chronicling huge events - sports, concerts, political rallies, ect on an open blog that is available for the duration of the event.

Imagine capturing something like the Indy 500 or Ozzfest from the unique perspectives of not just 1, 5, or even 10 people - but from hundreds of people!

The result would be an online phenomenon...an event blog completely broadcast by the fans attending the event - from each unique perspective and experience. Instead of trying to bring all the unique experiences together from a multitude of personal blogs - it would be collected in one spot - raw and unfiltered.

I think that a smart marketer could really generate buzz about it - by handing out exclusive invitations (blogging email addresses) to event goers and anticipating a whisper campaign where those people hand it out to their friends. The result would be hundreds (thousands?) of people posting to an event sponsored blog that then becomes a time-capsule for the event.

There are challenges of course...

• The volume of posts and concurring posting could bring a server to its knees
• The content is raw and unfiltered - Ozzfest pics could get interesting...
• Many televised broadcasts will have restrictions on publishing event content
• Approving posts if necessary could be overwhelming

I am absolutely positive that there a many more than those. The deal breaker for my initial pitch to the sporting venue was broadcast restrictions on event images.

So I'm throwing down the gauntlet.

What marketer can make this happen? I have made the pitch and everyone I know loves the idea and think it would be an awesome spectacle. The benefits are as intriguing as the challenges...

• Competely viral - the buzz would be amazing
• Get perspectives that no other camera can get - unique and individual experiences
• What better advocates for the event than the fans that love them
• Get those people who missed the event to see what they are missing
• Give the event goer the power to dictate the story (was the race the best part of the Brickyard 400? Or was it the party that Tony Stewart threw the night before?)
  
• Go places the media doesn't know about

There you have it, I gave my idea away. Nothing would make me happier than to see some marketing guru build out the first major "event time capsule". It would be awesome. So take part in my great social media experiment and prove to me that it CAN indeed be done!

Good luck to you all!