Crowdsourcing seems to be a bit of a free-for-all, doesn’t it? A brand or agency puts out a call to action and the teeming hordes descend to fight over the prize. Nothing particularly distinguished about that enterprise, is there? Those issuing the challenge look a bit desperate and those answering the call, well they look a bit more desperate.
Ah yes, but the ends justify the means, don’t they? Let’s take a look at two recent examples – Victors & Spoils and Pepperami:
Victors & Spoils opened their doors back in the early fall, touting a new agency model (strapline: The world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles), and one of their first actions was to crowdsource themselves a new logo. They got themselves one (reactions here, here and here), courtesy of Andrea Bigiarini, a talented Italian graphic designer (Great analysis and interview here).
Peperami recently ran a contest for new advertising creative. More than 1,000 entries were received via IdeaBounty and the winners were Kevin Baldwin and Rowland Davies, two ordinary Joes who between them have something in the neighborhood of 30+ years in the advertising business.
Peperami's 'Animal' character in action
So, for V&S and Peperami, this whole crowdsourcing thing is looking pretty good. Quality results for pennies on the dollar. And right now there is a glut of talent on the market so this is going to work well. But at some point down the road this is all going to go pear-shaped. Consumers who wanted to genuinely participate are going to be frustrated as they can’t compete with the professionals like Bigiarini, Baldwin & Davies. Creatives are going to feel resentful as their training, skills and expertise is being grossly devalued.
A solution? How about forming something similar to an old fashioned Guild. What if brands and agencies, rather than shout into a megaphone for a ‘come one, come all’ cattle call, created a professional pool of talent that they had access to and who in turn had exclusive access to new opportunities? It would look something like this:
A creative would pay a yearly fee to be part of the V&S creative Guild. For this fee (say, $5000) the creative would be on a shortlist of talent that would receive briefs from V&S. Now here’s where it gets interesting: When a member of the V&S Guild submits an response to the brief, they get some cash back. The amount to be determined based on number of total entries and some sort of quality criteria established by the CD and V&S. Proactive participation in the Guild is thus rewarded and potentially a creative could make his $5000 back.
Now V&S has a pool of qualified, talented and motivated creatives to choose from who don’t feel like they are being treated like a lowest common denominator commodity. Is this an ideal situation for creatives? No, but I think it beats the current alternative.
Brands and agencies may still want to hold ‘open casting calls’ for consumers to participate, but that could be a separate sort of contest in which ‘professionals’ would be prohibited from participating.
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LEBOW
on Dec 9th, 2009
@ 11:54 am:
A business model very similar to that was launched back around 7-8 years ago.
It was called HighSpeed Creative.
Needless to say, it’s not around anymore.
Rick
on Dec 9th, 2009
@ 11:56 am:
Thanks for the info, wasn’t aware of that. Perhaps current factors – Social Media, crowdsourcing, economics – that werent’ in play earlier in the decade would make it more feasible (or necessary) now?
anibalcasso
on Dec 9th, 2009
@ 4:12 pm:
RT @eyecube A More Civilised Approach to Crowdsourcing: http://bit.ly/81OMXQ
Zak Walsh
on Dec 9th, 2009
@ 4:14 pm:
RT @Aerocles: Reading – A More Civilised Approach to Crowdsourcing: http://bit.ly/81OMXQ Via @eyecube
chokha
on Dec 9th, 2009
@ 9:53 pm:
A More Civilised Approach to Crowdsourcing | eyecube http://bit.ly/7kfxp8
Rick Liebling
on Dec 9th, 2009
@ 10:13 pm:
Thx for the RT @chokha A More Civilised Approach to Crowdsourcing | eyecube http://bit.ly/7kfxp8
Twitted by SeanMoffitt
on Dec 9th, 2009
@ 11:24 pm:
[...] This post was Twitted by SeanMoffitt [...]
Sean Moffitt
on Dec 10th, 2009
@ 4:21 am:
The maturation of crowdsourcing @eyecube @chokha A More Civilised Approach to Crowdsourcing | eyecube http://bit.ly/7kfxp8
Twitted by JeffreyVeffer
on Dec 10th, 2009
@ 7:10 am:
[...] This post was Twitted by JeffreyVeffer [...]
Jeffrey Veffer
on Dec 10th, 2009
@ 12:07 pm:
RT @SeanMoffitt The maturation of crowdsourcing @eyecube @chokha http://bit.ly/7kfxp8
Eris
on Dec 10th, 2009
@ 2:06 pm:
It has become an irritation for me to see “crowdsourcing” being used by people looking to get cheap/free graphic design. I don’t know if this is the most authentic or respectful form of crowdsourcing. For instance, I’ve seen a number of advertisements for “contests” where people supply countless logo designs and the requester has only to “award” the winner $250 or some credit. It seems like this is one way of devaluing the worth of graphic designers.
On the other hand, crowdsourcing can be used with a different goal, as in the case of Yair Landau, creator of Mass Animation, who used Facebook as a portal for animators to collaborate on a short animation. They supplied Maya to all the animators and gave some real benefits to participating.
Personally, I am involved with Fandom, a collaborative filmmaking project, that is using crowdsourcing to create an interactive experience. The difference is that we aren’t looking to fund a production, but to make the entire process of film production open to the audience. Do you think that there are better/worse ways of using crowdsourcing as a business model?
Rick
on Dec 10th, 2009
@ 2:10 pm:
Eris,
Great, and intriguing, point you make. Crowdsourcing as a means, rather than an end has fascinating creative possibilities.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
dannonraith
on Dec 10th, 2009
@ 6:11 pm:
A More Civilised Approach to Crowdsourcing | eyecube http://ow.ly/Kx5e
Experience Fandom
on Dec 10th, 2009
@ 7:10 pm:
RT @dannonraith: A More Civilised Approach to Crowdsourcing | eyecube http://ow.ly/Kx5e
Crowdsourcing: Lesssons from the World Series of Poker | eyecube
on Dec 14th, 2009
@ 9:03 am:
[...] right now the pros are still going to win (see: Peperami) but the ‘amateurs’ will catch up as they particapte more, become savvier and have [...]
Crowdsource eBook – Everyone is Illuminated | eyecube
on Feb 22nd, 2010
@ 5:33 pm:
[...] 2. A More Civilised Approach to Crowdsourcing [...]
Ibrahim Nehme
on Feb 23rd, 2010
@ 2:05 pm:
Reading "A more civilised approach to crowdsourcing," but not sure how 'civilised' the approach suggested really is- http://is.gd/90cwi
Sana Tawileh
on Feb 23rd, 2010
@ 2:14 pm:
RT @eebz: Reading "A more civilised approach to crowdsourcing," but not sure how 'civilised' the approach suggested really is- http://is.gd/90cwi
The Consumer Generated Ad Model Backlash is Approaching | eyecube
on May 20th, 2010
@ 4:44 pm:
[...] written a bit about Consumer Generated Ads (CGA) in the past, and what is has to offer as an agency model. In general, I’m not sure that [...]