It's been a long time since I last posted. My blog 'cohort in crime', Fred Petrick, passed away a few weeks ago. Although the ideas and opinions have been there, guess the energy and time haven't been. Sorry about that. Been reflecting on the many things he taught me about marketing, asking the right/tough questions and expressing a point of view.
After being recently identified as a crowdsourcing thought leader by Forrester, I realized it was time to put fingers to keyboard again. We've written a post on crowdsourcing before, time for another.
Crowdsourcing. Flash mobs. Virtual communities. All are 'large' groups of people with a single 'cause' or purpose. Crowdsourcing is not new. Traditional promotion marketing in the early 1990′s used to call for communities of creative people to create the next ad for Jim Beam. Clients like Pepsi, P&G and many others had calls for ideas from advertising and marketing agencies to submit the next great idea. We call it spec work. Sounds a bit like something now called crowdsourcing. Don't get me wrong. Crowdsourcing can be a great tool for both agencies and clients alike.
We use it and test it frequently. We've 'tested' a few of the logo/brand identity communities. There are hundreds of them. They're cost efficient for small businesses and downright cheap for big business. But don't expect miracles. Most of what we've received and have seen has been pedestrian at best. Designers from all over the world submit ideas. Some must be talented. Some must be all out work. Some most be bored. You might get lucky, though. Some people think Twitter did.
Yet the tide did turn when we utilized a community to create video content for a few clients. The communities (here's one) seemed more qualified and interested. They asked questions on the brief via chat and webinars. They submitted ideas in raw and more complete forms. They challenged the brief and delivered more than just '30 second ads'. These communities added value to our clients and us. Our creative department, threatened at first, saw the value in this type of crowdsourcing quickly. They embraced it....well as much as they could. Our clients loved it. Their ('traditional') agencies may have felt differently.
We've also tested crowdsourcing for idea generation. Much like an online brainstorm. Results have been terrific. Ideas from around the globe came in and came in quickly. Many led us in new directions. Others helped our creative teams build better ideas.
So why all the rambling? Crowdsourcing is not new, only the name is. Crowdsourcing has value, for clients and agencies that embrace it and learn how to use it. One big question is what will happen when the job market for creative and innovative individuals picks up? Will the crowdsourcing communities be a bunch of old hacks and creative wanna be's or will they be picky high level talent who's tired of the agency world? Will it commoditize our creative product? What do you think?