Chris Schreiber leaders marketing at Sharethrough, a new type of video distribution company built from ground-up to deliver organic views and maximize sharing of branded content. We invited him to share his thoughts on creativity and how ads actually get shared. (Chris has worked in content and communication roles for Google, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and CBS Sportsline)

‘Ads Worth Sharing’ sums up some of the most important themes in advertising today: the power of creativity, the increasing role of choice and the socialization of media. Thanks to social media, anyone now has the power to help a brand’s content be seen and shared. This has not made advertising easier, quite the opposite, but it also means there are much greater rewards for truly creative brand content than there ever have been.

So why would someone share an ad? On-demand media channels and the viral power of social networks have democratized media and given much more control to consumers – doesn’t this mean that we should be skipping ads and avoiding unwanted commercials altogether? Yes. But the burgeoning role of social media in our lives also means that we increasingly define ourselves by what we share. And that’s where creative branded content comes in.

We share content with our personal networks to help express who we are. We share content to share the emotion that it gives us. We share content to inform. When an authentic, original, creative piece of content comes our way and moves us, we share it, regardless if it was produced by a brand. If the content was created by a brand we already like, all the better.

Great content is the currency of the sharing ecosystem. With each share we are constructing our identity to the outside world, giving us an insatiable appetite to discover new content that we love. Brands that create content that captures our imagination and helps us define who we are and want to be will reap rewards from this media environment. We will CHOOSE to share their creativity. We will CHOOSE to become a partner in spreading their message.

Brands that choose to only produce bland ads that single-mindedly tout their product features will see the power of choice in the opposite direction – brand messages that are ignored and irrelevant. While interruptive advertising models will still continue to put these ads in front of you, interruption has now reached a point of diminishing returns. More interruption no longer guarantees relevance – there are just too many media options to choose now.

More creativity is the only way to sustain a brand’s place in modern culture. What will you choose?