Less than a decade ago, a new
phenomenon of marketing and advertising hit social media circles and rode the
waves created by Facebook, Twitter and other forums. It was termed crowdsourcing,
as it relied on the general populace for content, ideas, marketing campaigns
and even funding. Since then it has caught on the imagination of marketers,
advertisers, event organizers and even finance companies alike.
A decade ago, it was inconceivable
that a company would ask the general crowd at large to work out its campaigns.
However, that hesitation seems to be a thing of the past now as companies have
started opening themselves to the idea of crowd-sourcing their marketing
campaigns. In fact, there have been many brilliant marketing campaigns that
have been crowd sourced and the results have been phenomenal. Here are a few
examples.
A New York publication called
TimesSquare.com ran contest for designing its logo via this online marketplace
called DesignCrowd. It provided designed logo services by giving the crowd at
large access to its design team. It is done by posting design challenges where
they ask people to send in logo designs. Any person can send in his entry and
the winner receives a monetary award. In this case, TimesSquare.com offered
$10,000 to the winning entry and announced the winner on a smart, strategic
date 12/12/12 in Times Square, a la New Year’s style. Surely, a way to choose
an awesome logo and promote your organization in a single masterstroke!
Singer Jason Mraz is regarded as
a crowdsourcing Guru first and a lyrical poet later, given his genius for
crowdsourcing. Humor aside, Jason Mraz actually masterminded a social media
crowdsourcing campaign where he asked his fans to capture a photograph
epitomizing the words of his single ‘I won’t give up’ and put it up on the
social media website Instagram.
Gone are the days when marketing
campaign managers were divorced with reality. Now, the mantra of success is to
keep your hands on the hub of activity. The idea of contribution of the
consumers as to what attracts them, is nothing less than sheer genius. After
all, why wouldn’t the consumer feel flattered if the company or organization
asks their opinion on what is more attractive?
Also, the organizations can find
out creative ways of coming up with crowdsourcing marketing campaigns like
TimesSquare.com or even the potato chip giant Frito Lays that offered $1million
for the ‘perfect new recipe’ for Lays and also a chance for the winner’s
photograph to be plastered on every packet of production of that recipe.
Still confused about your new
marketing campaign? Just ask the social media peeps to come up with one. You
would be pleasantly surprised by the results.
