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By Hugh Jordan. Creative soup. Idea generation meets social networking on Zooppa, a website turning the advertising world on its head. The concept behind the destination is as ingenious as it is simple – brands pay Zooppa a one-off fee to post a creative brief online. Users then compete to develop the best creative solution to that brief, with prize money on offer as an incentive.
“Zooppa is a good place to launch a brand and a good place to take an established brand and get a fresh perspective,” says Wil Merritt, CEO at Zooppa. “Typically a brand will get one or two [advertising] options from its creative agency. With Zooppa it gets hundreds, if not thousands of options.”
A bastardisation of the Italian word for soup, Zooppa went live two years back, launching in the US just six months ago. It already boasts over 40,000 users from 125 countries.
“Some of our members are full-time freelancers,” says Merritt. “Others are accountants by day and moonlight as creatives by night. Some are still at school. We’ve got a whole range.”
Providing user-generated content across five platforms – video, print ad, radio ad, online banner – the Zooppa community votes on the eventual winners. Additional prizes are given by the client and Zooppa’s expert panel to ensure parity for late entrants who haven’t had time to accrue votes.
And the prize money is not to be sniffed at, sometimes adding up to as much as $5,000.
One 17 year-old from Texas recently found himself several thousands of dollars richer after winning a competition run by Jones Soda to design a TV ad for its new energy drink.
“[The final ad] was something only a 17 year-old would think of,” says Merritt. “The drink was being targeted at video-gamers and he designed an ad in the style of an arcade. It was really well done.”
So, does Zooppa spell the end for creative agencies?
Merritt doesn’t think so. “Agencies will still be essential for strategy, branding and overall content,” he explains.
In fact, a lot of smaller agencies use Zooppa as a way of getting work noticed by the big brands, and the larger ones as a way of scouting for talent or inspiring creativity.
“Agencies find it incredibly exciting and refreshing going on Zooppa,” says Merritt. “They might have been working on the same briefs for the same brands for years. It’s a great way for them to get inspiration.”
The ‘concepts’ area of Zooppa is an example of inspiration in action. Members post ideas for ad campaigns, no matter how outlandish. If somebody follows up and wins a competition, any prize money is split between conceiver (20%) and creator (80%).
And this kind of collaboration is actively encouraged. Once content is posted online, the Zooppa community feeds back on how it might be improved and, if a member feels they can, offers their services to do so. Like a global creative consciousness, ideas spark off each other to produce further ideas.
But is there a danger in all of this? What if users generate negative content, couldn’t the whole thing backfire on brands?
Merritt dismisses such concerns.
“People used to say blogs were dangerous,” he reminds us. “They were scared that people could write anything about anybody, but blogs are now fairly mainstream. It’ll be the same for user generated content in a few years.”
Over 60 brands have taken advantage of Zooppa’s creative workforce so far, including the likes of Nike, Nestle and Google.
According to Merritt, it’s too good an opportunity for them to miss. “It’s very cost-effective and the turnover of ideas is really quick, sometimes just two days. Nothing else can compete in terms of idea generation.”