Crowdsourcing 2.0
Just read a great article by my friend John Winsor on crowdsourcing and Victors & Spoils' approach to the new advertising model.
There are a number of excellent nuggets to be found. I particularly like John's view that brands deserve an alternative to the current advertising agency model.
He talks about the ad agency holding on to its legacy - basically in my book they are generally too fat to change. "Agencies are trying desperately to protect the old way of doing business while bigger cultural trends are shifting the sand below their feet."
He also makes the point that it's about the quality in that achieves the quality out. "It still comes down to the strategic and creative direction to make sure the work produced by any crowd, either internal or external, pushes the work forward in the right direction to accomplish a client’s objectives." An obvious statement perhaps yet we still see client briefs that are just lazy in their effort and agency teams scratching their heads trying to work out what is really needed for a brand.
John supports the rigor required behind good crowdsourcing on his blog “Brands need an alternative to current ad agencies and crowdsourcing platforms. One that offers the strategic direction, engagement and relationship management that agencies deliver today but one that also delivers engagement, connectivity, creativity, and ROI that crowdsourcing platforms have the potential to deliver.” I think a point here is that it's not smart to jump in to crowdsourcing as the solve all solution to the current ad agency model frustration. You have to look to the quality of the crowd and the initiator of the exercise and assess these before making any commitment.
While on a completely different subject, I completely agree with John's view on the silo sickness that industries and agencies are suffering. The silos have always been there but I suspect our sensitivity to them has increased thanks to technology's ability to show us the benefits of being able to cut through existing walls. There's a long way to go for sure.
"When Alex Bogusky and I were doing research for our latest book, Baked In: Creating Products and Businesses that Market Themselves, we noticed that the biggest stumbling block to being more innovative for most companies were the internal silos that have been created.
Marketing is a silo.
Product Design is a silo.
Innovation is often its own silo.
To be more innovative companies must knock down the internal silos and start to get everyone working together."
I have one concern with John's interview/pitch on the V&S model. There's too much emphasis on the cost benefit versus the genetic truth that quality rises to the top. He makes both points but for me right now the battle should be focused not on the cost aspect but the ability to get to great ideas. Great ideas are worth the price.
In my opinion, John's right that crowdsourcing has a far stronger potential to deliver great ideas than the traditional model right now but great ideas, great thinking, great creativity should be able to come from anywhere even an ad agency. I would say the enemy is legacy not price but legacy is cursed by overheads and silos.
John will not hate me for saying this because I know he would agree and also because his passion is for great work no matter where it comes from.
Check out the article here http://bit.ly/dkONYO
