Unilever has waved goodbye to longstanding creative agency Lowe and decided to ask the public to help create a new TV ad for its Peperami brand.
Campaign reports that the firm is using crowdsourcing site Idea Bounty to attract ideas for a new Peperami ad, offering $10,000 to the winner of the contest. The brief will be published on Friday, and the contest runs until late-October.
Lowe had held the Peperami account since 1993, when it created the ‘Animal’ character alongside Unilever. It will be interesting to see whether the client retained the rights over the ‘Animal’, and whether it will permit the crowd to use it in their TV ads.
Idea Bounty has been used by other top brands recently, including BMW and Red Bull, which paid $3,000 and $5,000 respectively to their chosen winners. Idea Bounty also claims the same amount again as its fee. If you like the idea of co-creation then you might want to check out my recent post called 10 kickass crowdsourcing apps for your business.
So is it a brave move by a global brand like Unilever to ask the crowd for ideas? I'm not sure I'd call it 'brave'. Considering the relatively low amount of money on offer - and the sheer amount of ideas it will see - it seems like a bit of a no-brainer, especially in a difficult market climate.
But is this growing trend towards crowdsourcing a threat to agencies? Possibly, but the winner of the BMW contest runs an agency, so maybe these events are simply open opportunities for interested agencies and amateurs alike?
The threat is certainly real in terms of budget though. $10,000 doesn’t buy much time at a creative agency. Crowdsourcing seems certain to drive down costs.
There are other reasons too. John Winsor outlines some of the common complaints in a post called ‘Will agencies suffer death by 1,000 cuts through crowdsourcing?’. The key areas for concern are as follows:
- Spec work is bad
- Crowdsourcing is unethical
- It’s only freelance
- Work will suffer because client’s don’t know good work
- It will only work for small stuff like logos
I’m not sure I agree with all of John’s points but his post is certainly worth reading, along with the comments.
So is this a smart ROI-driven move by Unilever, or does it reflect a trend that may do untold damage to the bigger agencies? What do you think?
Chris Lake is Director of Product Development at Econsultancy, an entrepreneur and a long-term internet fiend. Follow him on Twitter, Google+ or connect via Linkedin.
Recommended reports
Online Advertising Survey
The Online Advertising Survey Report, produced in association with the Rubicon Project, is a useful overview of the online display advertising environment. It contains information about spending trends, the use of ad networks, types of targeting and use of data. The research also examines the impact of real-time bidding and the increasingly important role played by online advertising exchanges, demand-side platforms (DSPs) and trading desks.
Online Advertising Networks Buyer's Guide 2009
This guide is relevant for publishers, advertisers and agencies, with profiles of 23 leading online advertising networks, the latest trends in digital display advertising and tips for buyers. A UK focus but relevant globally.
2:13PM on 25th August 2009
I'm the Peperami Marketing Manager and, along with Matt Burgess (Managing Director), made the decision to take a new approach to generating advertising for Peperami.
Which we are extremely grateful to Lowe for creating The Animal and producing some excellent Peperami ads over the years, we believe Crowdsourcing offers us some great opportunities to improve the quality of the work and the value we get from it.
Infact, it's because Peperami's Animal character has been so famous and well defined that it's possible to ask a wider group of creative people to write ads for him. We believe that the key to outstanding Peperami adverts now lies in a larger number of creative minds, whoever and wherever they are, rather than a traditional agency team of 2.
We chose Idea Bounty to host the brief because they make the rights of their creative community their first priority. People's intellectual property is very well protected and there's a clear transaction between the client and winner when the IP gets bought. For more info, see www.ideabounty.com. From this perspective, our Crowdsourcing is as ethical as buying ideas from any agency.
I find John Windsor's views unjustified and extremely defensive. No good work would ever reach the public without a skilled client who recognises it and is prepared to buy it. We're extremely proud of the outstanding work we've bought at Unilever and we will only buy the very highest standard of advertising through Idea Bounty. The comment about clients being incapable of recognising good work is both patronising and dangerous for the industry.
I sincerely hope John is in a minority in his attitude to Crowdsourcing. Unless traditional agencies adapt to meet different briefs and client needs, their days could be numbered.
3:47PM on 25th August 2009
I think it's a wise decision for Unilever to move towards a crowdsourcing model for their TV ad and any other creative/non-creative project. It provides added value to them (as the client) and the global creative community. I also appreciate and respect that they are taking the competitors rights into strong consideration.
Noam - As far as John Winsor's list of crowdsourcing complaints, these are statements that he has heard but did not state himself. If you read further into his post, you'll see that John addresses each of the common crowdsourcing complaints, but isn't justifying or supporting them. He even states at the end of his blog post that: "The bottom line is that great ideas come form everywhere."
Thanks.
7:20PM on 25th August 2009
Hey Jason - thanks for stressing that IdeaBounty and Unilever are putting the creatives' rights first. I believe this is critically important to the success of any crowdsourcing platform, and something we have worked exceptionally hard on at IdeaBounty. Creatives who participate on IdeaBounty have exceptionally tight IP protection for their ideas, and will only cede these rights to the client if they win and chose to accept the bounty offered.
If you are interested in reading a detailed review of the pros and cons of the crowdsourcing debate, we wrote a post on it here: http://www.ideabounty.com/blog/post/2070/is-crowdsourcing-evil
Thanks.
11:27AM on 26th August 2009
I guess it's only natural that traditional agencies and creatives will be resistant to the idea of crowdsourcing as it has massive potential to undermine their businesses.
However, overcoming that inertia should not be viewed as a bad thing. This is just the next stage in the evolution of marketing: it is inherently more sensitive to market-forces, it levels the playing fields as far as creatives are concerned (giving them the opportunity to communicate their ideas to global brands) and it opens brands to a limitless number of new, innovative marketing ideas. And it doesn't remove the need for traditional agencies, as the ideas generated will still need to be implemented.
Instead of griping about crowdsourcing, agencies need to recognise its huge potential and adapt their businesses to use crowdsourcing to their advantage, in much the same way as the music industry has adapted to embrace music downloads.
7:04PM on 26th August 2009
Chris, I applaud Unilever for experimenting with crowdsourcing. At the very least, it's a good PR move drawing attention to both the brand and to the product Peperami.
As far as cowdsourcing's impact on larger agencies, I think we'll have to see but for now the process seems to be opening up the door for smaller shops and talented freelancers to get noticed.
David
http://www.supercoolcreative.com