Crowdsourcing creative needs- innovative options for budgets small and large

Over the past two years, a number of creative services crowdsourcing sites have emerged providing services you would typically find at an ad agency - everything from logo design, advertising development, website design, video creation, to brand naming and tag lines. The more well known of these sites includes 99design.com, genuisrocket, and Victors & Spoils.














So how do these work?

99design.com and Geniousrocket have a similar approach.

1. You develop a creative brief which is posted on their site. You select a reward/prize anywhere from $100 upwards depending on the scope of the project . A flat fee is charged by the site (20% on the prize at GR or a project brief fee $39 at 99D)
   
   
2. Your project is uploaded to the website and designers from around the world submit their creations. During the ideation phase, there's an opportunity for creators to correspond with the client in order to get more clarification or info
3. select the winner
4. rights transfer

Victors & Spoils works differently from the two sites mentioned above. It's model seems similar to an ad agency but with a big difference in that it harnesses the principles of crowdsourcing to develop work. In a very real sense, they end up with a virtual, hand-picked creative department. In this case, you play the more traditional role of the client. The CCO at V&S is Evan Fry, an ex-Crispen & Porter.

Here's a little more on them, edited from their website:

".... it’s our goal to provide businesses with a better way to solve their marketing, advertising and product-design problems by engaging the world’s most talented creatives.

...companies need an alternative.., one that offers the strategic direction, engagement and relationship management that agencies deliver today, but one that also delivers the engagement, cultural relevance, results and return on investment that crowdsourcing {if managed and directed well} can deliver".

Two very interesting approaches that serve different audiences and needs.

Have you crowdsourced any of your projects - or submitted creative work? I would love to hear about your experience.