11/24/2009 03:33:14 PM 
(3) 
(3) It's very easy on this site for designers to find jobs and post their responses for all to see. I found it incredible that on the site a private equity firm received over 500 entries for its brief for a logo design, but more than that, 500 entries for a $600 prize!
Clearly we've reached a point where there's a surplus of creative talent in the world; the barriers to entry have been reduced so dramatically that a laptop, an internet connection and an Adobe program is all you need to compete.
While this type of crowd-sourced competition would have been frowned upon years back and people would critique the quality of the creative solutions, this is probably no longer the case as you can tell from the standard of the entries for the logo. While they might not quite be up to the standard of the "best-in-class" creatives, they are way better than average.
It's a far flung concept to imagine all kinds of creativity being disintermediated from its current home. All that's needed is some scale, some names and a track record and this will happen.
While the surplus of creative talent is one factor, another reason for the appeal of this type of solution is the requirement for more creative content for less money.
Agencies need to think twice before dismissing this stuff, it's a real threat and you can see clients who are increasingly finding their responsibilities stretch beyond marketing finding the simplicity and straightforwardness of these solutions very attractive.
In such a world, it's imperative for agencies to prove their value across disciplines and show how they can transcend the perception that creative is just about executing.
Posted by Ed Cotton
the marketplace is booming
I've listed a whole whack of other crowd-sourced marketing sites here: http://hernaturehisnurture.com/2009/02/10/the-user-generated-market/
Posted by sean on 12/01/2009 06:30 PM
I've listed a whole whack of other crowd-sourced marketing sites here: http://hernaturehisnurture.com/2009/02/10/the-user-generated-market/
Posted by sean on 12/01/2009 06:30 PM
creative marketplaces
Ed, think the most important point is to look at the value of an interlinked process. Yes, you can outsource brand modules, but the real value of a brand is its constellation of knowledge embedded in relationships (human relationships) which will always need an element of stewardship. Think of Google as the most modern of branding agencies. It out sources the majority of what it does, but it also does much more than "do skins." Agencies, like Google, have to understand the world as a series of pollinating and dynamic marketplaces. The agency's job is to work with their client brands in navigating these marketplaces... not to just create the latest brand module (or in Google's world, application).
Posted by Jonathan Field on 12/01/2009 07:19 PM
Ed, think the most important point is to look at the value of an interlinked process. Yes, you can outsource brand modules, but the real value of a brand is its constellation of knowledge embedded in relationships (human relationships) which will always need an element of stewardship. Think of Google as the most modern of branding agencies. It out sources the majority of what it does, but it also does much more than "do skins." Agencies, like Google, have to understand the world as a series of pollinating and dynamic marketplaces. The agency's job is to work with their client brands in navigating these marketplaces... not to just create the latest brand module (or in Google's world, application).
Posted by Jonathan Field on 12/01/2009 07:19 PM
It appears you don't have Flash installed.
Great point about the threat these markets pose to agencies. Still, I found something even more interesting and sobering here. On the contest page, I clicked the individual designers' links. Their profiles show their "win-loss" records as participants at 99designs. The leading designer in this contest? 1 win in 233 attempts. 2 for 101. 0 for 35. The best one I saw was 30 for 526. As a creative, the scariest prospect of the crowdsourcing trend is the thought that a market that only pays for 5% of the work created could possibly sustain itself.