The PCR section of IAMCR successfully organized a 1-day seminar titled, Participatory Advertising: a global approach with a Latin American focus, at Uniminuto headquarters in Bogotá on the 14th July 2017. The event was organized as a part of the pre-conference activities of the IAMCR 2017 conference to be held from 16th to 20th July 2017 in Cartagena, Colombia. The main organizer of the seminar was Prof. Ana Melo Duarte, University of Minho, Portugal, who is also the vice-Chair of the PCR section and the event was hosted at the Uniminuto headquarters in Bogotá, Colombia. The pre-conference event brought together representatives of the industry, advertising agencies, consumer and citizen associations and members of the academia in a lively discussion about the changing landscape of participation and advertising.
A synopsis of the event
Being one of the most influential institutions of our times, advertising has been enduring structural and conceptual changes that open new possibilities for consumer participation in the advertising process and its outputs. Driven by new technologies and a media ecology that is changing how we engage in society, fuelled by consumer awareness and agency on one side and by the advertising industry unending quest for new and impactful forms of communication on the other, participatory advertising involves co-creation and shared contents between all stakeholders. The participants of the seminar reflected on the following questions –
* How is consumer-citizen participation changing advertising?
* What power (in) balances does it convey? Is it more effective?
* Does participation question the power of brands or, on the contrary,
makes them stronger?
* What challenges does participation pose to the advertising industry? And to consumers?
A brief of the proceedings
J. Ignacio "/Iñaki/" Chaves G., Director of the Masters Degree in Communication, Development and Social Change, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Uniminuto Bogota welcomed the international audience of the seminar. Opening the event, Alejandro Bermudez, General Creative Director of McCann Colombia, presented the famous "Balígrafo", a bullet transformed into a pen with which the 2016 peace treaty was signed, putting an end to more than 50 years of conflict in Colombia.
The 1-day event featured thirteen presentations from different stakeholders reflecting upon questions of participation and advertising. Each presentation was followed by a question and answer session between the presenter and the audience.
The first session provided a theoretical framework for understanding participation and advertising and to reinvigorate advertising studies by focussing on advertising [TYPO] as a breaking ground for citizenship, social interaction and and consumer participation modes, without giving up on more critical approaches.
The second session focused on alternative models of socially responsible advertising towards the community, with examples of critical observation, memory preservation, urban art and collaborative economy.
The third session provided disruptive examples of citizen action in and through advertising, whether by appropriating and reconquering urban spaces, local languages and forms of advertising expression or by proposing behaviour and attitude change towards a post-consumption culture. The last session of the day was devoted to an open dialogue between the presenters.
In their closing statements, Ana Duarte Melo, Vice-chair of the PCR section, and Nico Carpentier, Chair of the PCR section, appreciated the hosts, Uniminuto, for their help in organizing the seminar and thanked the presenters for providing inspirational insights into the present and future of Participatory Advertising.
The evening had a cultural surprise in store for the participants who were treated with Andean songs performed by Makawara, a music group of the students from Uniminuto Bogotá.