Will Teens "Flip" or Just Stick to MySpace?

Conde-Net, the interactive arm of Conde-Nast, is jumping into Web 2.0 with Flip and they're taking the advertisers along with them.

Flip will basically be a Conde-Net version of MySpace (if perhaps a bit cleaner in layout). The promise of access to the 'tween and teen market has attracted major advertisers, like Nordstroms and Clean and Clear (a J&J brand) who, in keeping with the spirit of the site, will allow users to choose where and how they view the ads. These ads will appear in each user's image bin. From there, a girl could place this brand's chosen image anywhere on an any of her Flip pages.

First of all, these companies will be surrendering a huge amount of control over their brand to 13 year old girls who will be able to not only create the content surrounding the image, but also, will be able to digitally doodle on the image itself. Companies like J&J (you know, A Family Company) do not take the idea of objectionable material lightly and must be counting on a traditional media company like Conde-Nast to keep things in line - monitors have been hired to examine sites and remove anything objectionable.

Second, unlike traditional advertising, no one has to view these ads. The onus will be on these companies to create images that are attractive, interesting and hip enough to be chosen by the users. Perhaps in response to this challenge, many of the images will be largely unbranded. Nordstrom will offer clips of their clothing that viewers will only be able to identify by clicking on the image. Clean and Clear will not place its brand anywhere on word-play icons, like "Fresh!"

While this seems like a huge sacrifice of control and visibility on the part of the advertisers, I think that they are bending over backwards to seem genuine and, thereby, find a foothold in this explosive market that seems largely resistant to any intrusions by the market.