What products would you make smarter? That's the question General Electric is asking in its bid to create consumer-facing products with GE patents. 

No stranger to the Internet of Things, GE has once again partnered with Quirky, a type of social network for inventors to license thousands of its patents to Quirky community members for development.

“There are a host of consumer applications that we haven’t had the ability to focus on,” Beth Comstock, CMO GE told the The New York Times. “That just isn’t our core business.”Continue reading...

When it comes to crowdfunding NASA, the sky's the limit. 

At least that's what a group from the aerospace industry was hoping for when it created an IndieGoGo campaign to fund a NASA PSA to be aired before showings of this summer's Star Trek Into Darkness. 

“NASA recently made an inspiring new online video narrated by Mr. Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, to show the progress being made on these new systems, but the agency is barred by law from buying advertising time for such a spot,” states the campaign page. “Today we’re running a crowdfunding campaign to edit this video into a 30-second spot, and place it in over 50 movie theater screens around the country.”Continue reading...

My Starbucks Idea is now five years-old and remains the gold standard of crowdsourced tip boxes that have actually worked for a brand and delivered ideas from customers (150,00 plus) with innovations (277) that have actually been implemented.

Customers today can order a “skinny” beverage and a cake pop, garner digital rewards for using their Starbucks Card and enjoy free Wi-Fi – all thanks to suggestions from fans.

“For five years, our passionate customers and partners have been sharing their ideas with us on My Starbucks Idea, and we have listened and acted upon many amazing innovations that we have received from this online community,” said Alex Wheeler, VP global digital marketing for Starbucks.Continue reading...

What do Veronica Mars and Patrick Robinson have in common? Kickstarter—their platform of choice for rebirth.

The power of the crowd just amped up as "Veronica Mars, the single best TV show about a smart-ass teen detective," may finally become a movie thanks to loyal and generous fans.Continue reading...

What does PepsiCo believe in even more than Beyonce? The answer might be crowdsourcing.

Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show served as the main kickoff to its huge investment in the globally popular entertainer with a concert that some felt usurped the game itself. But the walkup to her much-anticipated performance used a highly populist approach that underscored PepsiCo-Frito Lay's faith in the crowd as much as any pop star.

The bulk of the ad, produced by NYC-based Mekanism, featured a lightning-fast succession of Pepsi enthusiasts culled from more than 120,000 photos submitted to the brand via New York-based Olapic and Crowdtwist. Olapic collected and curated the pictures while CrowdTwist rewarded uploads through a point-based platform. Mekanism, as TIME puts it, took that material in a bid to manufacture "viral on demand" for the Pepsi brand.Continue reading...

Today's the day that NBC late night host Jimmy Fallon is crowdsourcing material for a Ford TV commercial for its relaunched Lincoln brand. Ideas are being gathered in real time, starting at noon ET, via tweets using the #steerthescript hashtag; more details are at steerthescript.com.

As anyone who spends two minutes on YouTube, Buzzfeed or I Can Has Cheeseburger? knows, you can't go wrong with pet videos. P&G's brand stewards at Iams were hardly surprised at the response they got when they asked consumers to select on Facebook their favorite heart-tugging true stories about pets' relationships with their owners, and then aired the winners as TV ads beginning today.

The Procter & Gamble brand, which falls under its P&G Pet Care division along with sister pet food brand Eukanuba, invited its Facebook fans, for the first time ever, to vote on five commercials based on true stories to choose the pair (one dog story, one cat story) that would air first by asking them to "like," "share" and "comment" on the stories that most moved them.

"At Iams, we trust our fans and value their opinions a great deal, so we wanted to give them an opportunity to participate in choosing our  next commercial," Iams brand general manager Ondrea Francy said in a press release about the new "Keep Love Strong" campaign.Continue reading...

"Crowdsourcing" was coined in 2006 by Wired's then contributor Jeff Howe, evolving into a marketing tool by 2010 for brands of all sizes — and it's still going strong. Harnessing and rewarding user-generated contributions to your brand or project is no longer a trend but a way of life, as brands large and small embrace the technique for monetary gain, product identity, entertainment and social good. The latest iterations of inviting the masses to weigh in:

• Heineken has launched its second Open Innovation Challenge, asking fans to 'Reinvent the draught beer experience' and employing comedians Adam Fields and Samba Schutte pull it all together. Users are asked to submit ideas and an accompanying ‘elevator pitch’ to the Ideas Brewery website and six finalists will participate in an ‘idea-enhancing’ workshop in Amsterdam in November.Continue reading...