How Will You Survive the Digital Tsunami?

As many of you know, we've been experimenting with all sorts of new social media tools including crowdsourcing and co-creation, that have been coming at us all like a digital tsunami. There's been quite a reaction. Last night, Alex wrote a great post offering his perspective on some of these issues. It's worth a read. Here's an excerpt:

We recently crowdsourced a logo design for Brammo. They are a brilliant bunch of folks making electric motorcycles. We received over seven hundred submissions which I think blew everybody’s mind involved. But when I think about myself as a young designer who had to make up fake projects to work on anything remotely as cool as motorcycle company logo it makes sense. The idea that I could have access and an even playing field -- plus I could make 950 dollars more than the lady who designed the Nike logo -- would have had me designing in my sleep.

Some designers are obviously frightened by the current spectacle that is crowdsourcing, but as an optimist I think it will work out. I see several possible scenarios. The first is that this young micro-economy that is crowdsourcing evolves in the same way the off-line economy evolved. The designers with the most success begin to create tiers and depending on which tier the customers engage, the prices and fee structure changes with the level of quality. My guess is this will happen and different communities will develop different rules. Another and more radical change would be if the model followed more of what happened in Hollywood with scriptwriters.

As I wrote in BusinessWeek a few months ago: "The question for creative agencies is whether they can wake up, react to what's going on, engage the crowd, and make themselves a part of the new reality."

This is not a new question that is exclusive to the creative industries but is a question that every business must answer.

Are you ready for the digital tsunami? What will do you to survive?

Comments

[edwardboches]

John:
Funny that we should all be advising our competitors out here, but that's the new way of working. Any agency that doesn't embrace crowdsourcing in one way or another will be gone in a few years. This is not about competition for logos: this is about the single biggest trend in marketing ever. The consumer's desire to participate. Tap into it for God's sake and stop the whining.

[John Winsor]

Edward:

I couldn't agree more. It's time to wax up the surfboard and get ready for one hell of a ride.

[company logo design]

This list will be EXTREMELY useful!
Thank you very much.