I was going to add this as a comment to the last post, but this is incredible enough to get its own spotlight:

UMB, one of the US’s largest independent banks, launched a beautifully consumer-driven campaign a little over a month ago. American Copywriter, a podcast* and blog by employees of ad agency Sullivan Higdon & Sink explains:

The campaign is called My Ugly Room and it centers on myuglyroom.com. At the site, registered users upload photos of their ugly rooms and fill out a profile. Other users vote to give the rooms the “thumbs down.’ Each week we give a $100 to a random winner from the top ten ugliest rooms. At the end of the contest, the top ten rooms, as chosen by users of the site, will be placed in a drawing for $10,000 to redecorate. Along the way, we give everyone a chance to redecorate now with a little help from UMB. We’ve promoted the site in a host of borderless ways, including redecorating some of the bank’s lobbies with ugly furniture and signage like the mock-up you see here.

In addition to this, they have launched My Ugly Blog, which keeps up with the campaign and its issues, including The Ugly vs. Messy Debate.

And if all of that isn’t enough, UMB is educating with a "Basics of a Home Equity Line" podcast.

This is a perfect example of empowering, demonstrating and involving the market to create a meaningful experience.

* Probably my favorite podcast of all time.