Crowdsourcing the sales force

If crowdsourcing can be used to improve product design, music promotion and sports team management—to name just a few of the examples we've written about—why not the process of finding sales leads? That question is about to be tested through a new site that aims to put the crowds to work as a sort of community sales force.

Source: Springwise

Crowdsourcing: Everything Old is New Again, and Again

Back in 2000, a tiny brand named Jones Soda used its website to ask its mostly teenage customers to suggest new flavors, names and labels and let other customers vote on which should make it into stores. Since then, they've posted 676,653 user-created labels and become a nationally distributed brand with a cult following.

Source: Advertising Age

Co-creation, communities and researching the benefits

EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands - I stopped by the Beta Labs blog this morning, and it was great to see the team actively supporting and encouraging its community to engage in a new cross-industry study about co-creation. The research is being performed at the Eindhoven University of Technology and a Dutch research institute, and is being led by a lady called Kim op den Kamp. She'll be interviewing active participants on the Beta Labs site (so if you're one head over), asking interesting simple questions such as "what are the benefits of participating?". I'm intrigued to find out what findings the study uncovers. Doubly so because with Beta Labs users engaging in the study (already a bunch have come forward to help), it's clear that the investigation into co-creation is helping to be fuelled by what I believe to be one of the most engaged and progressive online environments currently active in co-creation.

Source: Nokia Conversations

More Craft Videos: Radiohead

This is a quick follow up on the previous post about the use of craft we spotted in video. This time we see craft employed in this stop-motion animation video for Radiohead. It makes you wonder - in this world where the computer and the web have democratized creativity, given production tools to everyone for almost free and allowed access to a never-ending flow of (also free) content to use and remix - artists seem to be differentiating themselves with the work they produce with their hands.

Source: PSFK

The Faces of Crowdsourcing

Long time user of crowdsourcing marketplace Mechanical Turk Andy Baio decided he wanted to know more about the people using the service. In particular, he wanted to answer two questions: what do these people look like, and how much does it cost for someone to reveal their face?

Source: PSFK

Co-creation and zombification « Neoco’s blog - keep up to date with the best digital marketing agency in the world!

Speak to some of Neoco’s big global brand clients and you will soon hear them going on about the ‘co-creator generation’ and how to engage them. Co-creators are a group of people who share a similar love for something and work to create or progress the ’scene’. Have you seen the Kill Bill special ‘fan’ edition (The Whole Bloody Affair)? Or what about the Lego Mindstorm development studio or any of the Lego scenes on Google Images or You Tube…

Source: Neoco

Management Imperative #2: Make Listening An Enterprisewide Skill

Companies need to operate in environments that are more dynamic than ever before. What’s causing all of the changes?

• Shifting consumer needs: Increasingly, Baby Boomers are getting closer to retirement while Gen Y are becoming a more important segment of customers and employees. The combination of these demographic shifts and the unique needs of both aging consumers and younger consumers creates a shifting set of demands on companies.

Source: Customer Experience Matters

Welcome to the Idea Cloud

Why is crowdsourcing important?
In the industrial marketing era, product development and marketing were two distinct domains. PD made the products, marketing sold them and ne'er the twain shall meet.

* Management Imperative #2: Make Listening An Enterprisewide Skill
Companies need to operate in environments that are more dynamic than ever before. What’s causing all of the changes?

* Law 1 - Empower employers and customers to own the brand ...
Part of the feature series: The 7 Laws of Youth Marketing by Graham Brown. ...

* Paul Dunay: Crowds Have No Leaders!
The Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost and time. Social tools like blogs and social networking sites are helping crowds form around very discrete topics.

* Nokia Pilots customer co-design programme kicks off
Customer co-design takes many shapes and forms:

* Customization: Building A Brand Advantage
First came Nike iD, a customization concept that enabled consumers to design their own pair of Nike shoes.

*Trend Hunter and John de Mol (Big Brother, Fear Factor) Want to Pay For Your TV Idea (VIDEO)
Hello Trend Hunters: John de Mol is working specifically with the Trend Hunter community to tap into creative minds like YOURS. John explained to us, "I am certain that someone with little connection…

* Jones Soda also innovates with myJones

Jones Soda not only has great beverages, but a great way of packaging them. Case in point — pun intended — is myJones.com. You can get a case of Jones with your own selected labels. They also provide some, like these lolcats. ...

 

* Walkers “Do us a Flavour” at 800k entries

I blogged about Walkers “Do us a Flavour” campaign just last month, and was at the time I was excited about both the idea and the massive marketing support they were putting behind it.

*Crowdsourced Club Music - The Tony Player (GALLERY)

It was only a matter of time before crowdsourcing hit the dance floor, and Tony Player is at the head of this soul train. Tony Player utilizes Twones, a program that collects music from Last.fm, YouTube,…

* Our Teen Lab Members Have Innovative New Ideas for James Bond
With the release of Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie, we asked our teens from all over the world to tell us what cool technology innovations they would create if they were James Bond.

* Crowdsourced Sneakers - 'RYZ Wear' Makes YOU a Designer (VIDEO)

RYZ Wear empowers everyday people to design sneakers. They provide you with a Photoshop template in which you can go wild and creative. When you’re finished creating your shoe design, you simply upload… 

* Get your own car logo, make your own stickers -- co-creation is everywhere
This is my Scion crest. I don't actually drive a Scion, but in the interest of keeping you well informed, dear reader [and avoiding real work, of course] I went to their site and designed one. It has several symbols that make sense to me. I had a lot of trouble picking the animal for the top, but the crest just didn't look right without it.

* Scion Uses Widgets to Promote Three Models
Rich media firm Interpolls created and is distributing a shareable widget for the car maker.

Ask Employees How to Improve the Experience - They Know What to Do!

We continued our benchmarking of retail companies today and headed off to The Bay. I periodically shop at The Bay and am often underwhelmed by the entire experience. Today was no exception.   I decided to go to the toy section to compare prices with Wal-mart. As I browsed the aisles, I was amazed to find that very few of the toys actually had prices displayed making it very difficult to compare between the two stores. So I decided to pick up a few toys and took them over to the counter and

Source: Technorati Search for, wom

*Jones Soda* also innovates with myJones

Jones Soda not only has great beverages, but a great way ofpackaging them. Case in point — pun intended — is myJones.com. You canget a case of Jones with your own selected labels. They also providesome, like these lolcats. ...

Source: Smart People I Know

Trend Hunter and John de Mol (Big Brother, Fear Factor) Want to Pay For Your TV Idea (VIDEO)

(TrendHunter.com) Hello Trend Hunters: John de Mol is working specifically with the Trend Hunter community to tap into creative minds like YOURS. John explained to us, "I am certain that someone with little connection…

Source: Trend Hunter- The Latest Trends

Buzz Words - Crowdsourcing

Why is crowdsourcing important?

In the industrial marketing era,
product development and marketing were two distinct domains. PD made
the products, marketing sold them and ne'er the twain shall meet.


The problems with this model are:
* slow time-to-market to improve and release new versions of product
* attention is your biggest cost - consumers who dont have a stake in the product are unattentive
*
disconnect and ivory tower problem; eg. product development creates a
"problem" that marketing needs to solve as opposed to a joint team
effort


Source: Youth Marketing Buzz

Customization: Building A Brand Advantage

First came Nike iD, a customization concept that enabled consumers to
design their own pair of Nike shoes. Then Jones Soda offered a
customization platform: bottles became vehicles for consumers’
customized labels, Jones Soda even guaranteeing brand fans that their
bottles would be distributed in stores. Shortly thereafter,
Build-A-Bear broke new ground in the teddy bear game inviting kids to
use their imaginations and construct their own bears. Imagine the LEGO
factory enabling kids to design their own LEGO sets. Consider
Mercedes-Benz’s design-your-own-car option and, of course, the hundreds
of clothing web sites that offer consumers the chance to design their
ideal streetwear. These consumer lures have all been exercised in
parallel with the online world to which the very concept of
customization is fundamental and in which the potential for
customization has yet to be fully exploited.

Source: Branding Strategy Insider

Scion Uses Widgets to Promote Three Models

Rich media firm Interpolls created and is distributing a shareable widget for the car maker.

Source: ClickZ News

Get your own car logo, make your own stickers -- co-creation is everywhere

This is my Scion crest. I don't actually drive a Scion, but in the interest of keeping you well informed, dear reader [and avoiding real work, of course] I went to their site
and designed one. It has several symbols that make sense to me. I had a
lot of trouble picking the animal for the top, but the crest just
didn't look right without it.

Source: Customer Experience Crossroads

N-Gage gamers direct future developments

Back in July we talked about the birth of the N-Gage Feedback Forum, a fresh approach that encourages anyone to make suggestions and vote on ways to make N-Gage better. It was a little sink or swim back then, but this next-gen suggestion box has turned out to be a great tool that the mobile gaming community has keenly adopted, and most importantly is actually affecting real changes and developments.

Source: Nokia Conversations