Crowdsourcing site the antithesis of traditional ad agency model

Crowdsourcing was coined by Jeff Howe in his June 2006 article in WIRED magazine. It is the process of appealing to the general public in an open forum to reach a goal as an alternative to delegating the task to an employee or outsourcing to a specific third party.

The traditional model for purchasing creative output, in the form of creative expertise and ideas, has dictated that a brand pay based on how many people and hours have been used to create the end product. So it's rare that a budget allows for more than two or three resources to be allocated to solving a brief.

"Open ideas economy"

"In this model, injecting new energy and diverse thinking by using hundreds of hungry experts, would mean the costs grow exponentially," says Stokes. "We believe in the concept of an open ideas economy driven by incentive. Simply put, the better the reward, the better the quality of contributions.

"It's very important that we allow Idea Bounty users to set the value of an idea upfront. Creatives who contribute ideas do so knowing what their idea is potentially worth. We have established legal protection of the idea exchange, ensuring creative's retain ownership of their ideas until they are paid for them. We have to be conscious of exploiting the crowd so we ask for ideas, not finished work. You can't expect people to devote hours and days of work without compensation," he continues Stokes.

Idea Bounty represents a new way for clients to source creative solutions and the team say that their solution is risk-free for clients.

"Diverse and surprise thinking"

"Clients only pay for ideas they choose to use, and if no ideas are used, no money is paid. We are really confident in the diverse and surprising thinking Idea Bounty will deliver for clients. We want brave clients and so far the response has been fantastic. We are launching with a truly innovative brand that really gets the web so we're excited."

Speaking to Bizcommunity.com, Matt Riley, senior planner at Quirk and "Idea Guy" for IdeaBounty.com [read project manager], says that the reception has been fantastic so far. "We have had hundreds of registrations since Wednesday [29 October 2008]. There has been some lively debate , which is what we expected - this is new and it's going to ruffle a few feathers and challenge conventional wisdom, but as long as it's a transparent process, all involved will benefit. We've had quite a few mails thanking us for creating the site."

Riley says they've had a few enquiries from brands since the launch. "Surprisingly, reaction from the advertising industry has been slow, at least formally. A few individuals have expressed support, but on a whole its delicate territory for agencies. We can never replace their complete function , not even close , but we hope to take that small moment in time when two or three minds tries to crack the 'big idea', and flood it with hundreds of diverse solutions. The ad agency should be a brand custodian and shape communication accordingly. Idea Bounty is a new way of sourcing the raw materials at the heart of that process - ideas.

First off the mark

First off the mark has been FNB Premier Banking, which is hosting the first brief - to change the perceptions of South Africans of FNB's Premier Segment and get them to adopt online banking -with a bounty of US$2500. Says Robert Keip, CEO FNB Premier Banking, of its involvement with the project, "Banks are there to respond to the needs of their customer base. Crowd-sourcing is an ideal way to involve our customers in the development of new value propositions, and takes the "How can we help you?" proposition to another level."

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