As was mentioned in this blog's Thoughts and Predictions for 2010, crowdsourcing (or cocreation as it is also known) is increasingly being used in everything from helping in the case of the Haitian disaster to a new platform, Grogger for crowdsourcing contents for your blog. Pepsi is even using crowdsourcing in place of ads at this year's Super Bowl with their Refresh Everything initiative.
So it looks like crowdsourcing is becoming a popular trend. Why are so many people using it? Well advantages include the fact that you are getting all your design work and customer research done for free. Pepsi's prizes of $250,000 might sound like a lot, but they are a drop in the ocean compared to the budgets that an advertising campaign might usually have for the campaign design and research. (Although it could be claimed that the Refresh Everything campaign is itself a campaign and any cost saved used crowdsourcing would be have been made up for with the development of this campaign.)
A crowdsourced idea is going to be popular with the public by its very definition - well they did choose it. This should mean that the campaign or idea will have a head-start when it does go live. Also any target audience research will be minimal, although it shouldn't be assumed that everyone has taken part in the campaign - remember it could have just been the digital geeks who took part in the campaign and then you'll have a product aimed at digital geeks - most of whom will already know about the campaign.
It looks like brands are embracing the idea of getting the public to do the work for them and it's going to be popular for a while. Will we start to see film posters designed by the public? What about ads or trailers? Or entire outdoor campaigns? We'll have to wait and see how far this is taken.
http://www.nma.co.uk/news/unilever-to-use-social-media-to-aid-product-development/3010319.article
EDIT:
Crowdsourcing is even being used to find the next bestseller!
http://springwise.com/weekly/2010-03-03.htm#tenpages
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