Crowdsourcing Creativity

The following is also my column this week on AdAge.com...

The phrase outsourcing is not one you hear discussed often in the advertising industry. It's largely taboo since it generally refers to the decentralization of more routine work. In our business, most of us are paid to be creative  - and we're proud of it.

However, a fundamental shift is taking place in where creativity originates. No longer is it centralized. It's decentralized. The masses now have access to the same distribution channels that we do and they're using it to flex their creative muscles. Therefore, it is critical that the advertising community embrace crowdsourcing as a model for the future. Can we? Only if some of us check our egos at the door.

Crowdsourcing was first coined by Wired Magazine earlier this year. It's a process where businesses faced with tough challenges don't try to come up with all of the answers themselves. They tap into the collective wisdom of millions of amateurs around the world to come up with a solution. Naturally, this is enabled through digital technology. For example, Procter and Gamble researchers post about their particular research challenges on InnoCentive.com, offering rewards to hobbyists and amateur scientists who come up with the best solution. And they do.

In the creative disciplines of advertising, marketing and public relations, however, we're just beginning to see the fruits of such collaboration. Crowdsourcing is one reason YouTube was such an attractive acquisition for Google. Marketers by the boatload are rushing to launch campaigns where consumers, not the advertising agency alone, determine what goes into a television ad. The TV nets have been at it even longer. Reality television and text-message voting for American Idol are at their heart, crowdsourcing.

All of this is just a start. Now is the time for the industry to commit to crowdsourcing as not a nice-to-do but a must-do that permeates the bloodstream of our business. It needs go go beyond "upload your video here and maybe we'll let you into our hallowed halls" to a process that that is far more strategic and integrated. Give individuals the creative brief. Let them guide you.