Today I’d like to talk to you about crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing is basically a problem-solving and production model. Problems are put-out to an unknown group in an open call for solutions.

More and more businesses and brands are looking to consumers to generate content either in the form of adverts or virals — which are then shared among a community of friends and brand advocates. And it’s a really good way of developing long-term engagement with a brand and product, as the audience actually has some form of emotion / time invested in the output.

One really good example of this is the current Doritos King of Ads campaign — inviting the audience to make the next TV ad for the brand. Having started in March, the competition has run across TV and online (including Facebook and YouTube), and is now in the final stages with the last 3 ads being put up for public voting. The winner will get the glory of their ad on TV and £200,000 in the bank — Doritos get an original idea, limited production costs and will probably have made their money back with interest from all the people buying the corn-based snack for ad-making purposes.

You can see the judges’ final 15 videos here – http://kingofads.doritos.co.uk/#/gallery/selection/type=userSubmission

And you can see the ad Dan and myself entered here – http://www.youtube.com/doritoskingofads#p/u/29/X1COmp74jqE

Sadly we didn’t make the cut, but it’s Doritos’ loss if you ask me.

Benefits of crowdsourcing include the following:

• Problems can be explored at comparatively little cost, and often very quickly
• Payment is by results or even omitted
• The organisation can tap a wider range of talent than might be present in its own organisation
• By listening to the crowd, organisations gain first-hand insight on their customers’ needs and requirements

Possible pitfalls of crowdsourcing:

• Added costs to bring a project to an acceptable conclusion
• Increased likelihood that a crowdsourced project will fail due to lack of monetary motivation, too few participants, lower quality of work, lack of personal interest in the project, global language barriers, or difficulty managing a large-scale, crowdsourced project
• Projects can fail to attract participants and sometimes require the agency involved to create and seed their own films
• No written contracts, non-disclosure agreements, or employee agreements
• Difficulties maintaining a working relationship with crowdsourced workers