Successful creative crowdsourcing combines diverse creative talent with the right brief, approach and follow-up to generate fresh ideas and turn them into stronger innovation concepts.

In an interview with Forbes innovation author and speaker Warren Berger said: “Now, more than ever, creativity is the competitive tool that’s going to make a difference. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a large company, or a solo creative person, it’s what makes you stand out.”

Creativity is in high demand but unlocking it within your organisation comes with many challenges.

First, there is scarcity, as creative people are a rare breed, and second, there is the problem of homogeneity. The latter means that people that work (or live) in the same environment are likely to adopt a similar frame of reference, similar values and grow shared biases.

A solution to this ‘creativity scarcity’ and homogeneity issue can be found in a practice called ‘creative crowdsourcing’.

By collaborating with external stakeholders, such as creative consumers, brands can access a continuous supply of fresh ideas and inspiration.

Our proprietary creative crowdsourcing network eÿeka has been supporting brands with their creative challenges since 2001. Based on our 20+ years of experience, we have identified three success factors for creative crowdsourcing.

1. The right people

Involving the right people for your creative challenges is the first critical success factor.

It’s about involving individuals who can think out of the box and have a hungry mind for creative solutions. But it is also a matter of diversity, involving a diverse set of people to get to ideas that spark.

This is why our eÿeka network includes people with different skill sets, from copywriters and illustrators to packaging designers and many more. It also includes different levels of expertise, from students who want to experiment and develop their talent to professionals taking their passion further.

Creative crowdsourcing is all about embracing the intelligent naivety of a diverse group of outsiders to enrich creative processes.

Creative tasks can benefit from fresh cultural and international perspectives, so we also cater for cultural diversity by inviting creatives from different regions across the globe to participate in challenges.

Good ideas can literally come from anywhere, irrespective of a creative’s experience with the specific market, brand, category or even product.

A limited experience with the topic might even free people from certain modus operandi, allowing them not only to think outside the box but to completely lose the box.

In fact, based on our experiences with eÿeka, we know that 90% of global contest winners, or entries identified as most relevant by our clients, are located outside the target market.

2. The right approach

Our second factor is all about using the right approach.

Typically, creative crowdsourcing is organised as a contest, with brands challenging creative consumers to come up with original solutions to a business problem.

In the eÿeka network, each contest starts with a straightforward brief that is ideally built on a strong consumer insight. It’s all about triggering creatives with challenging, fun exercises that help them open their minds and let their creative ideas flow freely.

As top graphic designer AnnaNThang says: “Don’t even get me started on how much eÿeka has made my brain explode in the creative category. I am continuously challenged. I’m always so excited to see which new contest are posted.”

As this quote shows, the joy of creating and learning new skills motivates eÿeka members to participate in creative contests.

To fuel their learning process, we can organise a ‘Feedback circle’. If allowed by the challenge’s confidentiality level, we invite participants who submitted an idea to browse through the other ideas and exchange feedback.

This peer-based feedback allows people to learn from each other and grow in their creative work.

Yet, alongside this intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivators should not be overlooked. In creative crowdsourcing contests, the best ideas usually get rewarded with a prize.

This is often monetary compensation, which research from the University of London suggests can be effective in stimulating greater participation in crowdsourcing initiatives and motivating participants to create more useful ideas.

Similarly, the winning creators in our eÿeka network share the agreed prize pool after the contest winners are identified.

3. The right follow-up

The creative crowdsourcing journey does not end with the selection of winning ideas. On the contrary, it is a starting point.

Our final success factor is all about the right follow-up.

To come to integrated product, brand or experience concepts, we need to merge the power of the creator network with internal intelligence.

Typically, this is done via an ideation workshop, where stakeholder teams ideate and build further on the eÿeka ideas by analysing, clustering and evaluating them.

Together, they then transform them into ‘winning’ business concepts, ready for market launch.

It’s about internalising the outside perspective and making sure the final concepts are ready to be tested on desirability, feasibility and viability.

Collaborating with everyday and engaged consumers helps in this final step by adding relevance to the initial ideas and preparing for a successful launch.

The key to running impactful creative crowdsourcing initiatives lies in combining the right people with the right approach and the right follow-up.

Are you ready to apply our success formula?

The creative crowdsourcing formula

• The right people: Bring together diverse perspectives, skills and experiences.
• The right approach: Create a clear, engaging challenge that gives people room to think differently.
• The right follow-up: Combine external ideas with internal expertise to turn promising ideas into concepts.