DISQUS

mtlbbg · 3 months ago

Problem is, brands are looking at it more than agencies. Least the agencies can spot the crap. Mostly. ;-p

Tom Kasperski · 3 months ago

The reality is the best ("most creative") agencies have always been "Great Curators". Does anyone really believe agency A has so many more creative people than agency B?

Ideas are a dime a bushel, and brands never pay agencies for ideas anyway. Brand Managers quickly learn the three letters that can get them lots of ideas for free: R F P

Idea selection, incubation, optimization, and execution is ultimately what winning brands from the losers - assuming product performance parity.

rukallstar · 1 month ago

the most creative agencies do often have better creatives, better overall people, but most importantly they have the right collective attitude. good enough is simply not allowed. problem is that most people think their shop does great work. wrong, there are maybe 5 shops that do great work, another 10 that do pretty good work. the rest suck. a large part of it is attitude and not talent level, but at the 5 great ones, it's talent level as well. think about it?

jvini · 3 months ago

Isn't Web 2.0 a form of Crowdsourcing? Sites like TripAdvisor, a great and popular site, use people's reviews of places as their content. They make money from advertising on the site. As you've stated, people no longer rely solely (or much at all) on traditional advertising, but rather look for peer reviews and comments. Seems like crowdsourcing is the same thing?

Name · 3 months ago

It takes Two to Tango. Crowd Sourcing - Just Say No.

Josh Copeland · 3 months ago

I hate to disagree with you, but I don't know if that many agencies are all over crowdsourcing just yet. The "creative" side of the house may be getting all hot & bothered by what crowdsourcing could accomplish, but my colleagues at some big agencies are actually pretty cautious about trying it out still... They're concerned about things like:
- What if we don't ask the right questions of the crowd? It'll be a waste of time and the crowd's talent.
- What if my client's brand is small and not that interesting yet? Is it really only the big brands that the "crowd" is interested in contributing to?
- If the ideas are crowdsourced online, what if my brand's competition sees crowdsourced ideas and steals some insights for themselves?
- Is crowdsourcing right now tailored only to millenials? What if my client's brand has an audience of baby boomers that aren't so active online in a place to contribute their ideas?

Sure - some agencies and brands are testing out crowdsourcing, but I wouldn't go as far as to say most big agencies are doing it. They've still got managers who aren't ready to give up that much control over the creative process...

Alan Wolk · 3 months ago

@Jeff (jvini) and Josh: Apologies: I should have been more clear here. What I'm referring to is crowdsourcing creative, e.g. logo design and whatnot. It was heavily discussed/promoted by Mullen's Edward Boches and CPB's Alex Bogusky on blog posts - http://bit.ly/2l0VXo - and it is likely to be used by more and more agencies.

In a nutshell: the agency contacts a crowdsourcing "wrangler" that they're looking for a logo for Client X. The wrangler puts out the word. Dozens of freelance designers work on a logo. The agency picks a winner and that person gets paid and gets credited for the logo.

Hope that clears things up

edwardboches · 3 months ago

Why you cynical @#$%^ ;-) Admit I agree with some of your points, *but* crowdsourcing in its best iteration is not only to get a free creative idea (which by the way takes a lot of time and work on the part of the sourcer) but more importantly to create participation and propagation. I don't need anyone to come up with a better idea than I can come up with (kidding) but I do need people to join me in co-creation and spreading. Good thoughts here. Keep thinking.

Alan Wolk · 3 months ago

@Edward: Crowd sourcing is not evil or wrong per se. And having no idea how Mullen (which is not a big agency) uses it, I can't comment on your particular experience with it.

But for big agencies, which thrive on the notion of "more is more" the idea of being able to tell their clients that they had hundreds of designers working on the logo rather than just one, has their eyes lighting up.

And your point on the amount of time and work on the part of the sourcer is at some level the crux of my argument: despite the time and effort put forth in managing the crowdsourcing --or the creative gang bang-- the end result is rarely (if ever) any better than it would have been by tasking one or two people whose talent you trusted. The main benefit is the dog and pony show for the client, which may have been what you were referring to by "creating participation and propagation" two up and coming buzzwords ;)

@waqueau - the companies that manage the crowdsourcing usually have some sort of "I relinquish all rights" document that people sign before they submit. Which is not to say that lawsuits won't happen, but my understanding it that there is usually some CYA mechanism in place."

waqueau · 3 months ago

OK, what do you do about lawsuits from people who claim you "stole" their crowdsourced idea? How do you prove its provenance? And ultimately the legal hassles may make crowdsourcing not worth the effort... or outcome. Anyone had any experiences with this?