Crowdsourcing, like innovation, is a term both heavy with meaning and shrouded in ambiguity. Knowing the general stuff — like that it’s somehow connected to business or that it has something to do with ideas — isn’t enough to use crowdsourcing as a strategy. But that’s what’s necessary in current markets, where competitive companies need to constantly adapt, evolve, and investigate opportunities to get ahead of emerging trends.
In-Depth Insights
The State of Crowdsourcing in 2015, a report developed by global creative community Eyeka, analyzes corporate crowdsourcing trends from the early 2000s through today, exposing valuable insights into how the practice is successfully used in business innovation. Some findings from the report:
- 85% of the 2014 Best Global Brands have used crowdsourcing in the last ten years.
- The Best Global Brands are three times more likely to use crowdsourcing platforms than websites and social media for their crowdsourcing efforts.
- Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) giants increased investment by 48% in 2014 compared to 2013.
- The most crowdsourced type of content by the Best Global Brands is video content (45% of all initiatives in 2014) followed by ideas (22% of all initiatives in 2014).
Crowdsourcing Companies: A Practice in Innovation
According to this in-depth research, crowdsourced innovation is the key differentiator for internationally dominant brands, including giants like Procter & Gamble, Nestle, and the Coca Cola Company. They cite one especially telling example of a major company’s crowdsourcing efforts and how they changed the face of engagement and innovation across the organization.
"Unilever Foundry bygger på mycket arbete som vi redan har gjort - och kommer att fortsätta att göra - för att engagera oss i nystartade företag", förklarade Marc Mathieu, Global SVP of Marketing, i en intervju med Rafe Ring för Campaign Asia. "Vi har haft ett nära samarbete med eYeka och Mofilms i den här världen [och] Unilever Foundry tar dessa "experiment" och förankrar dem som ett kontinuerligt arbetssätt. Unilever Foundry fungerar nu som ett centralt nav för alla crowdsourcinguppdrag från företaget, med målet att bättre organisera outsourcad verksamhet som ett åtagande för effektivare marknadsföring. I februari 2015 meddelade Unilever att man strävar efter att tiofaldigt öka användningen av crowdsourcade innovationer globalt fram till 2020."
For the complete report, click here.
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