Event recap: Crowd sourcing/user generated content with John Winsor

What is crowd sourcing, you may ask? It’s like a new-fangled online contest combined with an old-fashioned cattle call – where project-based jobs are posted, creative-types submit their entries and the winner(s) receive the prize: compensation for the time and talent they invested. It’s a new paradigm, with the potential to revolutionize the way creative services professionals work, and the way businesses utilize creative services.*

Crowd sourcing is the act of making social media productive

This according to MIMA’s June’s speaker, John Winsor, a leading strategic marketing and product innovation thinker especially known for his work in collaboration, co-creation and crowd sourcing.

He is a serial entrepreneur who has started and sold successful businesses, a respected author of four business books and the CEO of Victors and Spoils, the world’s first creative/ad agency built entirely on crowd sourcing principles. And he had the 200+ MIMA members and guests present at the Calhoun Beach Club the morning of the 16^th alternately nodding enthusiastically with approval and recoiling in horror. What could create such a dramatic range of responses?

Crowd sourcing may democratize the creative class and displace the agency model

As Winsor observed, technology is driving change in the workforce. Transparency is flattening organizations as walls become more porous. A digital workforce has the latest tools and can work anywhere at any time. The rise of the curator class has created a new generation of social and creative directors and editors. And the economy has accelerated the death of the middle man.

Together, these disruptive forces could spell the end of the old agency model, which is based on bringing talent and resources together in one room to get the job done. For example, Winsor said one of the top performing graphic designers in his agency’s emerging crowd sourcing network is a young, stay-at-home mother from Serbia, who is “beating” many of the experienced agency professionals who submit entries.

Crowd sourcing has the potential to liberate you or destroy you

Winsor shared a personal story from his background in publishing. In the mid-80s, he spent $30,000 annually on professional typesetting services. A $2,300 investment in a Macintosh Classic and a laser printer allowed him to reinvest the savings in other magazine properties and grow his businesses. He also pointed out that many successful agency designers got their start by taking advantage of tools developed during the “desktop publishing” revolution.

These technology changes created opportunities for some, while putting a whole industry of highly skilled craftsmen – typesetters, key liners, camera operators – out of work. Today, we are at a similar point, where only those who adapt to changes will remain working in their chosen field.

Crowd sourcing is gaining in popularity

Chief marketing officers are under pressure to perform. They want the best work AND the best value. Winsor gave one recent example. For his client’s previous brand campaign, their agency of record had four creatives, who came up with eight ideas and delivered two campaigns. Victors and Spoils brought 1,000 creatives onto the job. They came up with 105 ideas and delivered nine campaigns. All for 25% of what was billed by the agency of record.

Businesses aren’t the only winners, though. Entrepreneurial creatives (read: disciplined, talented freelancers) appreciate the freedom and independence the crowd sourcing model offers. And because no one can be an expert in all the new and evolving roles people play in the creative/marketing world, crowd sourcing gives creatives and marketers alike the freedom to diversify and specialize without pressure to be a jack of all trades and a master of none.

Crowd sourcing is …

How would you finish the sentence? Which concepts do you agree with? What don’t you like about it? What other “take aways” made an impression on you. Please leave your comments.

* Tip of the hat and a nod to one of my former employers, a leading innovator in staffing and project outsourcing called Creatis, Inc., whose former tag line/brand promise was “changing the way creatives work … and the way businesses utilize creative services.” We had some great clients and truly amazing people who were committed to the business model.

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This entry was posted by Mick Dyer on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Advertising, Agency Topics, Best Practices, Copywriting, Design, Industry News, Interactive Marketing, MIMA Events, User Experience.
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