Regardless of whether you think of it as Open Innovation V2, or just smart use of digital media Firefly Tonics, Peperami, Mountain Dew are all using Crowd-Sourced Creativity to generate buzz and build consumers connections for their brands.
Some are tapping freelance creatives, some design students and some real, live consumers … but all are generating interesting outputs.
Peperami (Unilever) and Mountain Dew Pepsi have both got their advertising agencies worried because they are crowd-sourcing ideas and even executions for their media campaigns.
NPD is being Crowd-Sourced too. In a bid to identify new flavour and product innovations Mountain Dew are tapping into a a group of on-line consumers they call their Dew Labs Community as part of a progamme they call Dewmocracy.
Firefly Tonics, a small but highly visible UK company have gone one step further. On 26th October they kicked off an online competition to design a new pack and flavour. By 4th November they had received 400 entrants and set up an on-line vote to choose between 5 finalists. On 9th November they announced the winner. Fast, cheap, smart and impressive use of Crowd-Sourcing by a modest player in a crowded category.
Ignore Crowd-Sourcing or Open Innovation at your peril. But dont think it is a complete substitute for structured, strategic innovation. There is such a thing as giving away too much control!
