Crowd Sourced Marketing: The Internet is the World's Democracy

Democracy: Invented by Greece, Popularized by America, Perfected on the Web.

The internet is a virtual web of democracy that covers every nation and plagues even the most tight fisted administrations. It is the ultimate platform for equality. At the heart of its democratic fabric is crowd sourcing. Anyone, anywhere can contribute to or consume information, goods, or services from anyone else. This thinking is working its way into just about every industry there is. And advertising is no exception.

Websites like poptent.com  host a network of creative minds with willing video cameras, lighting equipment, storyboards, and computer savvy, all willing to make advertising content for your company. 

 All you have to do is submit your assignments and let the masses go to work. In return you will get polished, finished material that is web and broadcast ready. At last year's Crowd Conference in San Francisco, Photobucket VP of Marketing, David Toner, played a video spot that he had commissioned from Poptent. He said that he had purchased this, and four other video ads for 1/7th the price of a traditional advertising agency fee.


Crowd Conf 2012: Changing the Future of Work - David Toner (Photobucket) from CrowdsourcingDE on Vimeo.

This new model is cost effective and is beginning to be embraced by big name players. Poptent's first client was Nestle, but now that list includes the likes of General Mills, Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, American Express, LG, Vizio, FedEx, and many more. Crowd Sourcing may just be an integral part of the future of content creation. The question is, how will traditional agencies adapt?