Last week, I came across an interesting creative website called IdeaBounty.com. This online social think tank “provides a secure channel for the world-wide creative community to offer solutions to creative briefs. A reward or ‘Bounty’ is offered for the Idea that best answers the brief and the contributor of the Winning Idea gets the cash.” Brands such as Red Bull, BMW, Castle Lager and most recently Peparami have all posted briefs on the site and awarded money prizes to winning creatives for their ideas. This new form of mass collaboration is now being referred to as “crowdsourcing.” It’s a relatively new concept but one that’s starting to generate a lot of buzz in the advertising world. Most recently, musician Tommy Lee, IBM and Woot.com have received attention for their crowdsourcing efforts. But what does the future hold for this innovative creative brainstorming phenomena and why should people care? Before I try and answer these questions I thought it might be a good idea to first define the term“crowdsourcing” since it’s relatively new term.
So, what is crowdsourcing?
Jeff Howe originally coined the term “crowdsourcing” in 2006 in a Wired magazine article to describe a new form of creation that was carried out not by an individual, but by a community of people. Another helpful definition is the one provided by Wikipedia, which was one of the first hugely successful crowdsourcing platforms ever created. Ironically, the definition below has been created, revised and edited by dozens of people so it epitomizes the true essence of crowdsourcing.
“Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production model. Problems are broadcast to group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. Users — also known as the crowd — typically form into online communities, and the crowd submits solutions. The crowd can also sort through solutions to find the best ones. These best solutions are then owned by the entity that broadcast the problem in the first place — the crowdsourcer — and the winning individuals in the crowd are sometimes rewarded. In some cases, this labor is well compensated, either monetarily, with prizes, or with recognition. In other cases, the only rewards may be kudos or intellectual satisfaction. Crowdsourcing may produce solutions from amateurs or volunteers working in their spare time, or from experts or small businesses which were unknown to the initiating organization.”
Why should a brand care about crowdsourcing?
While some brands have had projects in the past that have contained crowdsourcing elements, readily available emerging social media platforms and online tools that are largely free and easy to use means crowdsourcing is becoming a beneficial strategic approach, not to mention a cost-effective one. Additionally, customers these days almost expect to participate with brands. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and blogging have all been successful because they involve people having the ability to co-create and lead their own creative experiences. The sheer volume of people within these social communities has forced brands to create innovative and engaging solutions in order to reach and interact with customers. Starbucks, Dell, Best Buy, LG and Nike have all created digital platforms that allow customers to help them create new products and message.
What are some of the benefits of crowdsourcing?
- Get creative work done for relatively cheap
- Able to select creative work from a large talent pool
- Ability to improve productivity and creativity
- Use the Internet to gather valuable feedback from an active and enthusiastic community reducing research expenses and time spent sifting through focus group data
- Involve willing and passionate customers in collaborative process reducing staffing costs
- Provide an opportunity to promote upcoming marketing initiatives and products, hopefully generating brand “buzz” through social media channels
- Able to build relationships with creative talent for possible future fulltime hire
What is the future of crowdsourcing?
First off, if you think crowdsourcing is only popular because of the poor economic times you’re gravely mistaken. The recession will eventually go away but crowdsourcing is here to stay. Like anything it will evolve with the times but the founding concept will be used for years to come. As crowdsourcing continues to build momentum several challenges and questions will need to be addressed. The biggest challenge will be to figure out how to fairly compensate people for their ideas. While I myself am a fan of crowdsourcing, I recognize the obvious issues it presents when it comes to salary and wages for anyone pursuing a career in advertising, marketing and graphic design. I wish I had a magic answer to this dilemma but crowdsourcing is so new that no one really has an answer at this point.
The biggest question facing the use of crowdsourcing is how will it affect all business models no matter the industry. Major changes will need to take place within all business models but creative agencies will need to make changes first as they are the ones most directly affected. Agencies that embrace the crowd community and figure out how to incorporate crowdsourcing into their overall business model will be the ones that are seen as industry leaders and will be the ones that gain the most in the new brand world we are entering into.
What are your thoughts on crowdsourcing? Looking at successful uses of crowdsourcing, which industries do you think are prime candidates for a crowdsourcing solution?
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