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Not too long ago, Unilever dropped its long time agency partner Lowe to produce a crowdsourced TV commercial for its Peperami brand. The experience saved it money and left it critical of the ad industry's reluctance to try new ways of working, said the company. Coca-Cola-owned Glaceau brand for vitamin water gave its fans the vote with a 'flavor creator lab' on its Facebook page. For food and drink brands, crowdsourcing new products and flavours makes perfect sense; thanks to social media, it has become easier. But why do Indian agencies appear cold to the idea even in a down year?
It is impossible to throw out the agency
Is the Peperami initiative the beginning of a trend or just a passing fad? On the face of it, crowdsourcing sounds sexy; it promises the democratisation of creativity. Why should the brand be hostage to a limited pool of creative people in the agency, when it can potentially tap the creative talent of thousands of people?
The first basic fallacy in this argument is that a larger number of options equals better creativity. If larger numbers resulted in better creativity then India and China should have been the most creative nations, especially given their large populations. When it comes to creativity, the wisdom of crowds does not work.
People who don't understand brand heritage and don't have any idea of how the communication process works can generate tons of garbage. Agreed that if you get 2,000 responses from the crowd there may be one or two gems in that pile. But how many days will it take the marketing manager to sift through these ideas and what are the chances that she will be able to identify the right needles in the haystack? Whose creative judgment will be used to shortlist the winning ideas?
Chances are that clients would like to pass on this burden to someone else whose judgment they respect. And this might well be then ad agency partners. The second basic fallacy is to believe that ad agencies only provide a creative product. This is far from the truth. An agency's role spans across an ever increasing arena: idea generation, concept creation, strategic planning, consumer connection and then forming the creative product. Even if you assume one can crowdsource creativity, it is impossible to throw out the agency.
The third factor to be considered is the quality of the output. No doubt technology is enabling easier production of videos, virals etc. But how many people in the crowd have the technical domain of expertise when it comes to execution? For a great idea to stand out, you need an ad agency to execute it well. A consumer may be good at producing an idea on social/digital media, but that is as far as it goes. Unilever's sacking of Lowe in London is mindless, I think.
Crowdsourcing may be a good way to generate ideas but you still need an agency to sift through good ideas, pick out what works for the brand, execute it, measure its impact etc.
Unilever has sent a test balloon up in the air - and the jury is out. I would be interested to see where it lands.
Pranesh Misra,
chairman and managing director, Brandscapes Worldwide
No brand should be closed to crowdsourcing
As far as people go, participation is one of the most powerful ideas ever: it is the secret behind democracy's inexorable march. When I joined the industry, the idea was finding its way in management. The participative style of management was just coming into fashion. Companies had started deploying employee suggestion boxes. A few of the employee suggestions were very good and company managements took them on board for implementation.
However, a lot of them were mediocre. The management thanked the employees nonetheless for their participation and engagement.
Today, we are in the era of two-way communication and the idea of participation is taking a strong hold in managing brands. Participation is key to bringing consumers closer to a brand. Participation results in the creation of brand advocates. Participation by consumers helps magnify brand buzz. In my view, crowdsourcing is a somewhat misplaced and misdirected label for what should be thought of as a tool for enhancing consumers' participation in brands.
Having said that, the notion that with consumers willing to contribute ideas, agencies or advertising/ creative professionals will be redundant is as flawed as the idea that with workers contributing ideas, management will be redundant. I can think of a dozen examples of really outstanding crowdsourced creative ideas globally. For example, 'Earth Hour' by Leo Burnett, Sydney or 'Design your own car' for the Fiat 500 by Leo Burnett, Italy. Take the 'Name it' campaign for McDonald's in Australia where people were invited to name a new burger that was about to be launched or closer home, the 'Share your Tide story' for P&G in India. However, the generation of ideas is only a part of the whole game. What really counts is what comes before - defining a brand's purpose - coming up with a broad creative platform that inspires lay consumers to say, 'I can do more ideas like that, actually better'. And what comes after - picking out the gems from a mass of ideas, polishing them and making sure that they are produced to excellence - remains an advertising/creative professional's job.
No brand should be closed to crowdsourcing but the primary objective should be to drive a sense of participation and shared brand ownership with consumers. Defining a brand's long-term purpose, arriving at long-term creative platforms, picking or coming up with the best ideas, making sure that they are produced well and that they are amplified across contact points will always remain the domain of a close partnership between a client and an agency.
Arvind Sharma
chairman of India subcontinent, Leo Burnett
A good idea can come from anybody
Crowdsourcing has proved to be a great tool to tap into the talent of our consumers - those who actually use our products and are affected by our brand. The advantage of this method over others for instance, going to a consultant/creative agency is the freshness of ideas and getting a chance to think beyond fixed parameters. However, it depends on the objective of the brand/corporate whether they can make use of this tool effectively and repeatedly, or not. This can easily be extended to communication and product development. There are many prevalent examples of brands using this to co-create their advertising and product variants. At the end of the day, a good idea can come from anybody.
When the Indian government can take up crowdsourcing to get the rupee symbol with the help of crowdsourcing, it makes it easier for youth brands like ours to take this forward. Today there are a number of brands that are taking this route for various requirements whether it is a chips giant which had used it to create new flavours or a car manufacturer soliciting script ideas from consumers to create their TVC or a music channel seeking its tagline. This is right up the alley of several big brands and companies. However, it is a different ball game when you open up your corporate identity or your logo to such a platform as we did. Simply put, it is a gutsy marketer that takes this forward.
Micromax has always worked in close association with its customers. It was then, natural for us to invite consumers (through a contest) to co-create a new brand identity in the form of a logo. We believe that the changing preferences of customers require upgradation of not only the technology but also everything that represents the brand. The logo revamp contest was a great opportunity to connect with them to understand their perception of the brand.
In addition, the consumer also feels a sense of 'belonging' and is better engaged through such initiatives. For our logo redesign, we could have gone to experts and, in fact, it would have been easier for us to approach our own creative agency; however, it was our conscious decision to reach out to our customers and take their views on how they perceived our brand. We wanted to go for a design that reflected the brand's personality. The 'punch' logo was a true reflection our brand's personality.
Shubhodip Pal
chief marketing officer, Micromax
