brand-e

By Steve Mullins. Validating community. GeniusRocket has been moving and shaking in the ad-crowdsourcing business for a couple of years and has more than 200 competitions under its belt. But that doesn’t mean the US-based outfit is jealous of all the media coverage newcomers to the scene are getting.
“What’s good is that all this crowsourcing activity shows that the market is starting to mature,” Mark Walsh, the outfit’s CEO, tells brand-e. “Some of the larger agencies have sniped at us, but something like the launch of [crowdsourcing-only player] Victors & Spoils really validates what we do.”
And what GeniusRocket does is get its community of over 12,000 videographers, graphic designers, copywriters and other creative artists from more than 180 countries working on new advertising content for brands such as Heinz, Pepsi, Nutrisystem, and South by Southwest.
“Not long ago, a brand went to agency and asked it to sell more of its product, and the agency came up with idea,” Walsh says. “And the agency said ‘pay me to create an ad and pay me to create the time’. Now clients are finding out that they can do it far more cheaply, and that they syndicate viral videos on multiple platforms, and that they pay nothing for that medium. This is an new appealing model.”
But are the creatives happy with it?
“Some people are complaining that this is spec work,” Walsh says. “But the people who work with us get decent cash, and often other people reach out to our collaborators. … What we don’t have is people bidding against each other. We have a set price and the cash is there.”
Aren’t crowdsourced ads on secondary platforms small beer?
“Well, in the short-term we are a supplier of viral videos, and that kind of content,” Walsh says. “But brand managers do want to hear fresh ideas and the agency of record is often not there.
“And it’s very easy for the ad agencies of the world to say this is very peripheral and that they will carry on making big ads on big [TV] networks for big bucks, but pretty soon you will see us on a smaller network, and then larger… .”
Does this mean traditional agencies will be in trouble?
“Some people says that agencies are dinosaurs, that they are dead,” says Walsh. “I disagree. If a large global agency is doing good work, it’s not going to go away. … But the [big agency] structure is coming under lot of pressure and duress.”
And if we flash forward a few years, how will crowdsourcing fit into that structure?
“Every major agency will have a crowdsourcing department and will need to answer client questions on this,” Walsh believes. “They will have to show that they offer crowdsourcing. … Crowdsourcing and the people who do it will be more institutionalized.”