Archive for the 'crowdsourcing' Category

21
Apr
13

colossal spark

cosp

www.colossalspark.com

Their Service Description: BRAND-BUILDING IDEAS FROM THE ADVERTISING WORLD’S LEADING CREATIVE MINDS

Our Impression: is biased. ‘Cause it’s us, I mean, from us. Jawohl, Colossal Spark is our brain-child and it just launched. Since it doesn’t feel quite right to talk about it here, like any other crowdsourcing site, it’s best if you just checked it out yourself. (In a nutshell – it’s designed to become the destination for brand managers who are used to “Madison Avenue levels of creativity”.)

Colossal Spark operates out of New York.

17
Apr
13

Boom Ideanet – a contestant’s perspective

The brains and doers behind Boom Ideanet belong to the good guys in the Crowdsourcing industry. Steve Wood, the man in charge, communicates brilliantly when it comes to briefs and very timely when the results are in. Boom Ideanet has a very fair compensation structure and I am happy to say that I have been compensated for most of the contests I participated in. It’s one of the few sites where there are regular contests with participation payment.

Boom mostly has TV script briefs, but every now and then there are Selling Idea Briefs and Mood Board Briefs. The client is a Fortune 400 Retailer and working on this brand regularly is very different from other Crowdsourcing sites where every contest you enter is a different brand/product/company/service. You get a hang of the brand and your ideas improve with every brief. Of course, there have been other clients as well and Boom is doing well to attract more.

There are tons of Logo Contest sites out there for Designers, but very few that writers can regularly take part in – Boom is one of them. Tongal is there with its Idea Stage in Contests, but it is more directed towards filmmakers and all aspects of production. Alternative Genius has TV briefs, but they aren’t too regular.

Boom’s payment system is very good. They are assigned creators and open participants. The assigned creators get a guaranteed participation amount provided they enter a minimum number of ideas that satisfy the brief. The open category contestants don’t get a guaranteed amount, but for those that win from this pool, the award amount is higher than that of the assigned creators. In all cases though, if yours is one of the few early bird entries you get a nice participation prize, usually around $250. The total award pool per project varies from a $5-20k and sometimes even more. Before the entry deadline participants don’t get to see what others have entered, but Boom’s portfolio page lists the produced videos later on, so everyone can see and be inspired by all the ideas in the running.

03
Apr
13

Slogan Slingers – a contestant’s perspective

SloganSlingers focuses exclusively on Slogan/Tagline contests. They get enough clients to keep the contestants busy. In my experience with them, I’ve seen around 5 new contests happen every week. There are a very few other sites that run slogan contests – like SquadHelp and CrowdSpring. Apart from the word of mouth, if someone is looking to get a slogan/tagline through Crowdsourcing and decides to Google for a site, SloganSlingers’ SEO and top listing in Google results will ensure that they will find them first.

I had joined this site when they launched, but I had regrettably deleted my account after seeing that the first 2 contests I participated in got cancelled. At that time I felt that this was yet another scam site. But recently I came back to the site and am happy that I did, in a span of 2 months I’ve won 3 contests.

The contest process is very simple and straightforward. The client comes, deposits money, answers questions in a brief and the contest is launched. New contestants are limited to 3 entries and at some point (either after winning the first contest or when the site admin approves your entries) you get to enter a maximum of 6 entries per contest.

The great thing about SloganSlingers is that they pay the winner within 2 days instead of prolonging the payment like many other sites. The best thing is that they reveal the winners so you can see which entry won and compare it to your own entries. This makes the contestant trust the site more and it seems more transparent. Their entry template is very fast, you can enter 6 slogans within a minute as compared to SquadHelp’s entry box which takes 10-15 seconds to load for each entry.

Even though they mention “Guaranteed Prize” on every contest there are many that get cancelled. But they have many contests that get completed – i.e. winner chosen and paid, so one doesn’t feel like complaining. CrowdSpring on the other hand has a higher ratio of cancelled contests.

SloganSlingers email notifications are also very simple and straightforward and you end up reading them and acting on them rather than just marking them as read or deleting them.

Overall, SloganSlingers is a better choice for clients & contestants over SquadHelp or CrowdSpring.

23
Nov
12

Adhack

http://adhack.com/
Their Service Offering:
Adhack works with agencies and brands to develop nimble, responsive, compelling digital campaigns and movements.
Our Impression: Adhack has positioned itself well as an agency that understands clients with the need for fast, lean, progressive online campaign solutions. Even mentioning “movements” implies an expertise in non-advertising smelling, relevant WOM triggers designed to gain a following. What sets Adhack apart from other agencies that tout their expertise in co-creation initiatives, real-time feedback loops and all that other good sounding stuff, is their community sourced creative department, a la Victors & Spoils… unfortunately it looks like Adhacks doors will be closing pretty soon, judging by the date of their last blog entry.
Operation is based out of Vancouver, Canada.

24
Sep
12

Boom Ideanet

 

http://www.boomideanet.com/
Their Service Description: Boom Ideanet is an online platform for idea sourcing and execution. We offer businesses a project-based, budget-friendly creative resource for ideas. We offer creators a source of challenges that delivers clear ground rules for participation, fair compensation and prompt payment. To both businesses and creators, Boom Ideanet represents a low-risk, high-reward proposition.
Our Impression: A true agency killer in-the-making. Just like the big ad agencies, Boom Ideanet focuses on ideas first and executions second. The founder has an informed ease to express his entrepreneurial vision and promotes transparency as an important business mantra. Yet above all – fairness in terms of creative compensation and the acknowledgement of flaws in most creative crowdsourcing models. So it feels like Boom Ideanet is run by creatives, not business folks, which in theory should lead to better results for marketers willing to give them a shot. However, what is impossible to get a good sense of, is what’s really behind these walls. The site provides no evidence as to how big the crowd is, who’s in it (including the management team) and what kind of experience the creatives have. It drops a few hints pointing to an extensive commercial production apparatus, which unfortunately leaves a taste that Boom Ideanet could just be a promotional tool to catch clients way upstream with the sole intention to produce commercials.
Operation is based out of Kansas City.

01
Jun
12

Slogan Slingers

http://www.sloganslingers.com/
Their Service Offering: Let Talented Slogan Writers compete To Create Your Catchy Slogans And Taglines. From Ad Slogans And Taglines To Company Slogans, You Can Start A Slogan Contest In Minutes!
Our Impression: The founder makes a few good points of how involved and costly it can be to produce good taglines. Just like with graphics, it is a great luxury of our times to be able to crowdsource ideas and simply pick what fits best. That said, Slogan Slingers is definitely a promising idea and if they are able to deliver quality, it’ll be quite a blow to ad agencies who pride themselves to be masters at distilling a brand’s purpose down to a few memorable words.
But for now, Slogan Slingers is targeting the small business world and that is exactly the space they belong into. The site and all featured results are far from being at par with the kind of writing any talent employed by Madison Avenue agencies delivers.

27
May
12

eYeka

http://en.eyeka.com/
Their Service Description: eYeka leverages the world’s creativity to enable organizations and people to create a better future together.
Our Impression: Creating a better future? Leveraging the world’s creativity? Really? Not sure why eYeka has to lay it on so thick. It comes across rather amateurish, even though eYeka is everything but. This company has the kind of client list and creative community size (over 200K) to make a serious dent into the French, or even European, ad business. With over 40 employees and tentacles reaching as far as Japan, eYeka is a serious agency killer in the making. The company’s service offering is broad, but for the time being, the vast majority of clients are seeking out eYeka to crowdsource video ideas/content and graphic designs.
Operation is based out of Paris, France.

30
Apr
12

TopCoder

http://www.topcoder.com/
Their Service Description: TopCoder is the world’s largest competitive Open Innovation Community of digital creators with over 400,000 members representing algorithmists, software developers and creative artists from over 200 countries.

Our Impression: TopCoder receives a lot of love out there. Plenty of people have lots of good to say and the fact that Topcoder has been in business for over 10 years, earning over 35 Million, speaks volumes. But why is it mentioned here, as an agencykiller? Well, it is not because Topcoder likes to refer to its community as “Elite” (heh?), but because we see a lot of potential for strategic alliances, say between 99designs and Topcoder.  This would allow clients to crowdsource the entire process, from logo, to web or app design, to development.

Operation is based out of Glastonbury, Connecticut.

03
Apr
12

Victors And Spoils

https://victorsandspoils.com
Their Service Description: Everything an ad agency does.
Our impression: Traditional agency model with a handful of people on staff, but a crowdsourced creative department. V&S’s creative director makes sure the work is solid and on brief.

This just in: Today, French advertising company Havas has acquired a majority stake in U.S.-based Victors & Spoils, for an undisclosed amount.

Since its humble start in 2009, V&S has added the following blue-chip clients to their roster: Chipotle, Coca-Cola,  Converse,  Crocs, Discovery Channel,  Dish,  GAP,  General Mills,  Harley Davidson,  Levi’s,  Mercedes Benz, Oakley, PayPal, Unilever and Virgin America. Havas said that one of the first joint projects between the two companies will be to use Victors & Spoils technology to “create a 15,000 person professional Havas ‘crowd’ to source ideas from”.
Questions arise. How will the “crowd creatives” react? Will V&S’s pioneering culture vanish? Is V&S about to enter a world of client conflicts? Will V&S’s CEO John Winsor be fully absorbed by the challenges of holding the new title of Chief Innovation Officer for all of Havas?
Operation is based out of Boulder, Colorado, US.

05
Dec
11

quirky

http://www.quirky.com/
Their Service Description: The easiest way to bring your product ideas to life.
Our Impression: Well, Quirky is not an ad agency killer. The reason it fits this blog however, is that even the most traditional agencies pursue to work with clients as upstream as possible – all the way up to product innovation. In fact there’s an increasing number of clients and their agencies reaching equity agreements for brand/product related ideas, rather than retainer or fee-based compensation of straight up marketing services. If Quirky decides to target brands with their crowd of innovators doing brand specific thinking, it will not only give the industrial design shops a run for their money, but also claim a piece of the pie that ad agencies have been trying to get their hands on.
Operation is based in New York.

28
Nov
11

hatchwise

http://hatchwise.com/
Their service description: Getting your logo, website, brochure or pretty much any other graphic design or writing project done is easy.
Our Impression: Formerly known as eLogo Contest, hatchwise has been around since April 2008. Over 10,000 creatives have serviced close to half a million contests. Currently there are 46 live briefs, so it seems hatchwise is doing just fine. What’s a bit misleading is their just $29 dollar per custom design headline, but what it really means, is simply the idea that if a customer is unhappy with the logos, which start at $100, the money is given back, except for the $29 set-up fee. Part of the name change, is their addition of naming and writing contests, which aligns their service offering with crowdspring.com and an ever growing number of other crowdsourcing companies.

05
Nov
11

chaordix

http://www.chaordix.com
Their Service Description: Chaordix is a market intelligence solution provider helping the world’s leading companies and organizations to gain business insight and competitive advantage through the power of crowdsourcing.
Our Impression: It seems that Chaordix’s Crowd Intelligence approach lets companies go beyond research to also co-create new products and services, clarify the opportunity / competitive landscape and map out the best launch strategy. A nice service package, so it comes at no surprise that Chaordix has established itself rather well… and because it is obviously all crowdsourced digitally, companies do see the benefit compared with the old, limited model of market research.
Operation is based out of London and Calgary.

26
Oct
11

mofilm

http://www.mofilm.com/
Their Service Description: Inspiring filmmakers create videos for big brands and social causes. Our revolutionary new process is transforming the video creation industry by connecting brands more directly with film-makers and eliminating multiple layers of beauracracy and administration which waters down creativity and inflates costs in traditional processes.
Our Impression:  A very interesting concept. Most other crowdsourcing businesses simply connect clients with creators, but mofilm wraps its idea around existing film festivals for added exposure. Winning directors get to travel to the festivals. But because there probably isn’t a lot of money in that model, mofilm’s end goal seems to be to build a divers stable of film makers who can service clients directly, without the idea-generating ad agency middle man.
Operation is based out of London, Bangalore and Los Angeles

24
Sep
11

pomegranate

http://pom8.com/
Their Service Description: Pomegranate is a digital marketing and creative agency structured to function as dynamically as our clients require. Pomegranate’s mission is to organize the world’s best creative talent, and make it available to clients in a scalable, collaborative form.
Our Impression: While the site and descriptive video are put together quite well, it is impossible to tell how successful or miserable Team Pomegranate is. Given the lack of news and site updates it sure seems like the latter. The reason we mention Pomegranate as part of Agency Killers, is because of their ambition to create a vast and functional creative community, rather than having everyone on staff. Verdict is still out…
Operation is based out of New York.

18
Sep
11

crowdlanced

http://www.crowdlanced.com/
Their Service Description: Crowdlanced is an online marketplace for website design. We offer website design and coding services, custom logo design and banner ads. We differ from traditional website design agencies in that we help you host contests on our platform to get the most creative and affordable designs.
Our Impression: The only reason we’re dedicating a blog entry to Crowdlanced, is because we feel for the ambitious, but seemingly naive entrepreneur behind it. The idea to be a crowd sourced one-stop-shop for small businesses’ web needs isn’t very inspired, but it has potential. Crowdlanced however has not been able to convince enough clients to try them out, which comes as no surprise, as the site lacks professionalism and decent work samples, to gain anyone’s trust.
Operation is based out of Toronto, Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

03
Sep
11

mycroburst

http://www.mycroburst.com
Their Service Description: Need a design that stands out? Just post your requirements to our community of 1000’s of designers. Watch as entries arrive from all over the world. It’s that easy.
Our Impression: This two year old business seems to be doing well. It services around 10 design contests per day and is in the same league as 99designs and crowdspring. In fact, logocontestreviews.com gives Mycroburst its highest rating by scoring a few points for having lowered the cost barrier to start a contest to a minimum. The quality of the work is at par with its competition – meaning 95% of the proposals are a waste of time, but the occasional, smart and well-crafted solution is what keeps the crowdsourcing design model alive and an unbeatable deal for clients.
Operation is based out of Langhorne, Pennsilvania, USA.

28
Aug
11

Ludvik + Partners

http://ludvikplus.com/
Their Service Description: Full service advertising & marketing agency built 100% on crowdsourcing model.
Our Impression: Ludvik doesn’t know what it really is. It claims to operate on a new level of crowdsourcing principles, while it also describes itself as a community of freelancers, or in Ludvik’s words “ a network of hundreds of experienced and highly talented art directors, creatives and account representatives from across the country”. Ludvik isn’t shy to beat it own chest either “Think of the best agency you’ve ever enjoyed working with. Now subtract the expensive Class A office space, the expense account lunches, the dead weight that nobody knows how to fire, the suits and the commutes and you’ll begin to understand Ludvik’s enormous advantage.” and as a result comes off as immature, bordering on desperate. While clients may get a good deal and service from founder Epirot Ludvik, they will most likely also hear the occasional rant of a frustrated ex-agency guy.
Operation is based out of NY.

 

 

 

04
Jul
11

48hourslogo

http://www.48hourslogo.com/
Their Service Description: 48hourslogo is a place where small business owners can have their company logos created in just 48 hours.
Our Impression: Well, it’s yet another resource to compete in the crowded logo design space. This one strikes us as the very low end of all the options. With design contests starting at $89, it attracts the kind of, well, let’s call ‘em designers, who are able to pump out submissions in under 15 minutes to make it worth their while. Crowdsourcing with 48hourslogo can only be recommended for projects where quality and any real thought into the visual communication aren’t expected.

 

 

 

 

27
Jun
11

Jade Magnet

http://www.jademagnet.com
Their Service Description: Jade Magnet is a crowdsourcing platform for creative services. First of its kind in India, it is an ecosystem where services range from branding, advertising, animation, communication, graphic design, and product design across various media.
Our Impression: Not unlike other sites in this directory, Jade Magnet is still trying to figure out its core offering. Their services seem to cover absolutely everything, but the business clearly revolves around logos and webdesign, similar to crowdspring and 99designs, its U.S. siblings. Never-the-less, Jade Magnet has only been in business for about a year and a half and delivered on over 700 projects.

Operation is based out of Bangalore, India with a small outpost in California.

 

18
Jun
11

appswell

http://www.appswell.com/
Their Service Description: A crowdsourcing platform for mobile apps. Appswell powers actionable conversations between brands and their fans. It also builds brand loyalty and awareness by showing that you are a brand that listens.
Our Impression: Let’s first clarify what Appswell does. The company lets the crowd make suggestions for apps they would like to see in the market and then lets the community vote on the best ones. Appswell and its community then promote the winners to get their ideas made into programs, a cash prize and a cut of profits.
Appswell is a great idea. The company’s communication is a little confusing, because it fails to separate its two audiences (clients/contributors) in simple terms. But that should be an easy fix. Again, a great idea to engage and leverage the crowd in the world of apps with a tremendous potential for success.
Operation is based out of Boston.

 

07
Jun
11

freelancer

http://www.freelancer.com/
Their Service Description: Freelancer.com is the world’s largest outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace for small business. We have hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers from all over the world.
Our Impression: As of yesterday, freelancer.com has added logo crowdsourcing to their services. In doing so, it’s quite likely that a great number of their 600,000 registered graphic artisits (yes, 600K!) probably do not support the company’s move, which in the end, however, was to be expected. 99designs and crowdspring have been marketing their logo contests so aggressively to leave freelancer little choice, but to adapt their model. With this move by freelancer, the general marketplace has further cemented the value and price of a logo to be under $300. Crazy.

Operation is based out of Sydney, Australia

 

22
May
11

Logotournament

http://logotournament.com/
Their Service Description: Get the logo that you really want by choosing from 50-200+ custom designs, instead of settling on a design from a handful of options that a traditional design firm provides.
Our Impression: A design service not unlike crowdspring and 99designs, but with a 100% focus on logos. Logotournament’s international management team, is attracting clients and designers from all around, with the majority coming from the U.S. A nice feature is the ranking and easy access to all designers and browsability of their past submissions. The leading designer comes from Indonesia with over 2800 designs and just about 200 wins under his belt.
Operation is based out of Calgary, Canada.

08
May
11

Poptent

http://www.poptent.net
Their Service Description: Poptent connects brand advertisers with talented videographers to produce low-cost, high-quality commercial videos for use online or for television.
Our Impression: Clients who are looking for a user-generated-type video or rudimentary animation, will be happy at Poptent. Running a brand promotion like “Help us create the next TV spot for your beloved brand” is a lot of work and doesn’t attract that many participants, since only a niche group of consumers sees itself as being capable. So if a brand manager’s main objective is to get his/her hands on a variety of interesting and non-polished commercials or virals, Poptent will probably deliver. They’ve completed over 160 assignments tapping into their 31,000 strong community of filmmakers, directors, animators, and actors.

Operation is based out of Wynnewood, PA and San Clemente, CA, USA

04
May
11

Talenthouse

http://www.talenthouse.com
Their Service Description: Talenthouse is a platform providing opportunities to the world’s creative community – a place to participate in projects with artists and brands, collaborate, gain recognition and compensation.
Our Impression: Hard to believe, but thanks to Talenthouse crowdsourcing has a real chance to become cool. It doesn’t really fit into this directory, as Talenthouse primarily services the music, film and fashion industries. However, it deploys the same principles and it’s therefore quite plausible that their offering will extend into other, agency killing, industries sometime down the line. Not sure though what their strategic alliance with BBH London tells us…
Operation is based out of Palo Alto, CA, with representation in LA and NY.

24
Apr
11

jovoto

http://www.jovoto.com
Their Service Description: 1. Provide fair, challenging opportunities for creative people, particularly those starting out, to earn money, learn, get their work seen and build their reputations. 2. Enable organizations to create better communications, products and services by taking advantage of technologies to access talent spread around the world.
Our Impression: Jovoto is more than crowdsourcing. It is also a collaboration platform to tap the crowd’s collective intelligence. Each new client has the option to customize the approach and team to best address their creative challenge. We see a lot of potential in jovoto’s model and hope its somewhat complex service profile isn’t overwhelming too many potential clients, who are just looking for a quick “ad agency alternative” experiment.
Operation is based out of Berlin, Germany with a small office in NYC.

23
Apr
11

Shop For Designs

http://www.shopfordesigns.com
Their Service Description: Shopfordesigns.com is a design crowdsourcing marketplace where businesses can meet 1000′s of high quality graphic & web designers who compete for their design projects. Some common design projects found at Shopfordesigns include: web design, logo design, corporate identity, icons, buttons, brochures, sales sheets, business cards, and much more! Our mission is to help businesses receive the highest quality graphic design work from world class designers at reasonable prices.

Our Impression: We didn’t want to waste our time and spend more than two minutes with the site, so we have no insights to share. Just judging by the design, especially their god-awful logo, this has to be one of the worst places to trust with any graphic design jobs. Our advise: Stay away!

Operation is based out of Omaha, Nebraska, USA

10
Apr
11

choosa

http://www.choosa.net
Design made easy.
Their Service Description: Our unique platform provides a space where both creative designers and project owners can participate in the creative design process. Choosa.net takes care of a wide range of processes efficiently.
Our Impression: Choosa is the Latin American version of crowdSPRING and 99designs (see Previous Entries). Having their site fully translated to English however, signals that it is open for business to North America. The great majority of the 15,000 registered designers are Latinos. So far, the Choosa crowd has designed over 700 contests, mostly logos. The design quality, or lack of, is at par with its global competitors, but like with any crowdsourced solutions, there is always a small number of surprisingly good submissions to pick from.

The founder is Dutch, but the operation is based out of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

01
Apr
11

Tongal

http://tongal.com
Where the best ideas find the best film makers.
Their Service Description: Tongal facilitates the creation of video content by bridging the gap between those who create it and those who need it.
Our Impression: Tongal has put a lot of love and thought into its model. It appears a bit complex for creators to participate, but it actually just mimics how a commercial is born and executed in an agency environment. Different people accomplish different tasks, like the initial idea, the message, the shooting, the graphics, etc. We believe Tongal’s success will depend on the reel of finished commercials. If potential clients like what they see (ideas & production values), they’ll give Tongal a try.
Operation is based out of Santa Monica, US

24
Mar
11

Mypitch

http://www.mypitch.com/
Their service description: Welcome to a world of ideas. Mypitch is a global tool and meeting place where ideas and inspiration are given free scope and made a reality. We are a leading provider in ‘creative crowdsourcing’ – our network of creative minds develops ideas for both local and global brands.
Our impression: With a recently improved site, Mypitch is well prepared to grow into a real agency killer. For the moment however, the services they promote are more based on traditional needs, like print ads, but that is not say that their 4000+ strong creative network isn’t able to tackle all kinds of projects. Mypitch claims to have worked through over 1000 pitches since their “doors opened” in 2008.
Operation is based out of Stockholm, Sweden

18
Mar
11

idea hunting

http://ideahunting.net
Their Service Description: Idea Hunting offers a set of services that enables brands and companies to get creative solutions for their brands and products in an easy, fast and safe way, using the creative skills of a huge creative global community.
Our Impression: Great potential. The management team has the credentials, the concept is unique and the site is beautifully simple. What hasn’t happened yet are traffic or business transactions. As of 3/9/11 they’ve had only four pitches. It’s unclear what the problem is, but maybe it’s just a hobby for the founders with little commitment or the credibility to operate out of Portugal is representing a hurdle.
Operation is based out of Lisbon, Portugal.

18
Mar
11

blurGROUP

http://www.blurgroup.com/
Blur Group is the world’s largest Creative Services Exchange.
Their Service Description: Our 9,500 creatives and exchange staff, our unique business model and advanced technology radically alter the marketing services space – delivering the most cost-effective, real time and relevant design, marketing, advertising, media and ideation services.
Our impression: A very ambitious organization with a very broad service offering positioned to make a real dent in the agency world. Quotes like “No more agency beauty parades, no more hefty retainers.” on their site are clearly trying to position blur as a valid, full-service alternative. Their single largest reward of $130,000 is no pocket change either, which proves that their reputation and credibility is growing.
Operation is based out of London, England.

10
Mar
11

veeel

http://www.veeel.com
Their Service Description: Veeel offers product- and brand development services. We have the experience of a traditional design firm, combined with an unrivaled level of creativity by working with more than 1200 designers.
Our Impression: Veeel is a young and progressive design studio. Its founders both graduated in industrial design at Delft. They’ve embraced crowdsourcing in 2010 by launching DesignRider which has been attracting a steady inflow of design collaborators. So their model is curated product design, but it seems they are pushing to diversify by adding package design and brand identity to their repertoire.
Operation is based out of Amsterdam, Holland.

 

08
Mar
11

zooppa

http://zooppa.com
people-powered brand energy
Their Service Description: Zooppa is the world largest source for user-generated advertising.
Our Impression: Advertising is a big word and by digging a bit deeper it becomes clear that zooppa focuses on commercial and video production. However their concept seems like an interesting one. The idea is to launch a fully user-generated campaign rather than just airing a video on local TV or online. The zoopa platform promises to promote the entire brand through its strong member base.
Unfortunately, this “spec” based concept produces a lot of creative waste product, just like crowspring and 99designs do in the design process.
Founded in Venice, Italy, now operated out of Seattle, US.

08
Mar
11

redesignme

http://www.redesignme.com
bringing ideas together!
Their Service Description: The word’s largest crowdsourcing agency for marketing and design.
Our Impression: Product innovation, package design, creative writing, marketing ideas, logo design, websites, company or product naming… every creative challenge can find a solution here. Impossible? We think so. At least at a quality that rivals specialized shops. It seems to us that Redesignme hasn’t quite found their niche yet. The claim of being the “world’s largest” may be correct, because they might be the only one trying to combine everything. As of 3/1/11 the company has attracted about 100 active jobs.
Operation is based out of Eindhoven, Holland.

08
Mar
11

ideaCROWD

http://www.ideacrowd.com
Crowdsourcing agency helping you create a splash
Service Description: ideaCrowd is a creative crowdsourcing agency, helping inspire businesses like yours. We specialize in crowdsourcing, product naming and business naming services and take advantage of our 10,000+ network of creative people.
Our Impression: Clearly a naming and not a graphic design resource. The blurry glass with a “splash” on their homepage makes a cheap and uninspired visual connection to their tag line. But hey, that is not what you’d be hiring them for. The team of ideacrowd makes a very approachable and easy-going impression. So far only smaller brands have tapped their services.
Operation is based out of Solona Beach, CA.

08
Mar
11

idea bounty

http://www.ideabounty.com
Unlimited Creativity
Service Description: Ideabounty is about marketing ideas, not executions. Awards range from $1000 to $5000 dollars.
Our Impression: So far, the site has attracted few clients, which maybe because of its location and reach.
Operation is based out of Durban, South Africa

08
Mar
11

GeniusRocket

http://www.geniusrocket.com
The first curated crowdsourcing company.
Their Service Description: GeniusRocket delivers brilliant, rich, creatively captivating media quickly and under budget. Think commercials, viral and tutorials. With our Creative Director at the lead, we can help you with your creative brief and communicating with creative artists.
Our Impression: Genuis Rocket lets creators pitch their ideas first without the creation of creative waste product when business model is “spec” based. This makes it more acceptable and fair for the artist unlike most other crowdsourcing solutions. Clients get more out of the relationship with GeniusRocket than with traditional production houses, because the in-house creative director makes sure any idea is properly communicated and expressed.
Operation is based out of Bethesda, MD, US

08
Mar
11

edge amsterdam

http://edge-amsterdam.com
Elite-sourcing creative network.
Their Service Description: Creative companies hire us to gain new and fresh insights and creative output which can serve as inspiration and can be used for further creative development.
Our Impression: If approached with an American mindset, the service offering and description seems a little confusing. Edge is open to any kind of creative challenge and with that comes the doubt that the product with be truly excellent. We like their site and collaboration with intl. art schools, but we suggest Edge should first get an elite writer to formulate a better service description for themselves. And since when have students been elite creatives? Innovative minds maybe, but it takes experience to deliver results.
Operation is based out of Amsterdam, Holland.

08
Mar
11

DesignCrowd

http://www.designcrowd.com
Their Service Description: DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.
Our Impression: To claim that 100+ designs are posted per brief is a bit of an over promise when the actual number is around 60, as per their own project tracker reveals. But in general they seem like a very ambitious and solid management team with 28,000 registered designers to back up their claims. One notable feature is a client’s ability to browse individual artists’ portfolios.
Operation is based out of Sydney, Australia.

08
Mar
11

crowdSPRING

http://www.crowdspring.com
Their Service Description: Saving entrepreneurs and businesses millions of dollars on logo design, web design and writing services.
Our Impression: Not unlike 99designs, crowdspring claims to produce 110 submissions on average from a community of 85,000  designers and writers. Logo designs and naming services start at the bargain prize of $200, which makes crowdspring a great option for all budgets.
Operation is based out of Chicago, US.

08
Mar
11

BootB

http://bootb.com
Unlimited Creativity by the word’s best creative department.
Service Description: 31,000 creators from around the world are providing an average of 200 creative solutions per brief.
Our Impression: BootB is a Europe-based giant and crowdsourcing pioneer. The model is build to provide the same results as ad agencies, but without the customer service and strategic guidance. All kinds of projects are welcome, ranging from TV commercials to logo designs.

08
Mar
11

99 designs

http://99designs.com
Design done differently.
Service Description: Logo, stationary, web and product design.
Our Impression: A good resource for small businesses and their graphic needs. The average contest produces about 90 designs. A total of over 65,000 projects have been completed to date by 100,000 registered designers.
Operation is based out of San Francisco, US.

08
Mar
11

12designer

http://www.12designer.com/en
Design Your Day. Style for everyone.
Their Service Description: We are conceptual artists, designers and project managers from the agency world to produce your logo, flyer, visiting card, writing paper, diagram, sticker, poster, web page, illustrations and banner.
Our Impression: Undoubtedly a good design resource in Germany with over 12,000 registered contributors. Beware of posting English language based projects, as the site itself has had its translation challenges. Their own tag “Design Your Day” raises more questions than it provides reassurance of creative quality.
Operation is based out of Berlin, Germany.




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