crowdsourcing
Posted by Sheila Shayon on September 3, 2010 12:30 PM
Consumers are doing it for themselves — but designers and creatives don't have to quit their day jobs just yet. A checkered path of twists and turns has led to an unholy alliance: brands soliciting user-generated content, incentivizing users with prizes, and essentially doing an end run around agencies and specialists trained in the arts of creating and selling.
Has UGC run amok? Let's take a look at the latest fad in crowdsourcing: contests for product labels, as exemplified by Chiquita and Knorr, Unilever's largest brand, as MediaPost points out.
Chiquita's sticker design contest is inviting consumers to put their spin its 50-year-old iconic blue sticker. Narrowed to 50 finalists’ submissions, Chiquita fans are voting through September 12. Eighteen winners will be chosen and featured on bananas in November.
EatAChiquita.com has seen more than 500,000 visitors since the contest's October 2009 launch. Users create and post their versions of faces in the oval brand sticker, with some 25,000 faces were posted in the first six months.
Chiquita's Facebook page has almost 20,000 fans, many of them clamoring for their favorite stickers. And over at @ChiquitaChatter, 400 or so Twitter fans are doing the same.
The most committed fans can apply the stickers on their photos and posts, or “Shop A Peel” on Zazzle.com and buy products sporting those custom stickers. There’s also a "Banana Boogie Battle" video game.
The second example: Knorr Bouillon, a 100-year-old brand is soliciting consumer-generated content for its labels – in the form of recipes. Launched earlier this year, "Recetas Arrozísimas" targets Knorr's Latino consumer base of Hispanics – 50% of whom use Knorr in cooking four dishes daily from scratch, of which 14% are rice dishes.
The Spanish-language community site, KnorrSabor.com, received thousands of rice-centric recipes from which three semifinalists won $2,000 each and the opportunity for their faces to appear on Knorr's 2.2-pound bouillon jar labels. Their personal recipes will appear on on-cap stickers, in-store signage, danglers and flyers, as well as the website. A grand prize winner will receive $5,000.
"Recipes with Knorr products have been passed down from mother to daughter, from friend to friend — it is a multigenerational, everlasting tradition," comments Knorr Marketing Director Donna Barker.
"This has become more apparent with the explosion and growing influence of the Latino blogosphere — and our efforts, like Recetas Arrozísimas, are conducive to taking these conversations and recipe-sharing online."
With all the interest in crowdsourcing, it isn't suprising that ideation platforms like Salesforce Ideas and Lithium Ideas have attracted major brands like Dell, Starbucks and Best Buy.
As the practice grows – the question remains: does crowdsourcing, which is relatively cheap, cheapen a brand ... or expand it by putting it in the hands of customers? We'd love to hear your thoughts in our debate forum.
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