The term crowdsourcing, first introduced in Howe and Robinson’s 2006 Wired Magazine article, is a relatively new term that refers to the process of outsourcing the activities of a firm to an online community or crowd in the form of an “open call.” More specifically, Howe said that “crowdsourcing is the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the province of a specialized few.” Though crowdsourcing has existed in some form for a long time, it is only recently with the tools & technologies available to 21st Century marketers that we've seen a surge in crowdsourcing campaigns.

I'd like to walk through three different forms of crowdsourcing, along with examples of how each are being used in the marketplace. The three forms are: Crowdfunding, Crowd Marketing, and Crowdsourced New Product Development.

NOTE: Originally written November 2010

It’s hard to stay positive all the time. Unread econ chapters stack up next to case studies that you have yet to begin analyzing. Calculus conundrums make you woozy as group projects overload your schedule. It’s so easy to just throw up our arms in frustration. It’s so easy to complain that we didn’t get the 85% we were going for. It’s so easy to lose track of what’s actually going on in the world.

Our problems are trivial. I don’t wish to demean anyone in any way, but the majority of us have trivial issues. In the grand scheme of things, a failed midterm is nothing. I’m not saying that you should stop studying, that you should stop aspiring. Trust me, a failed midterm will crush me as much as the next person. However, I think we all need to take a little more time every day to soak in the good things in life. It might seem like our days are cram jam packed with work and stress, but there’s always a little bit of joy squished in there. Maybe it’s just laughing about a nerdy joke with your project team. Maybe it’s avoiding that huge puddle on your way to class. Maybe it’s listening to Beach House as you breathe and attempt to collect yourself by blogging. Whatever it is, every day holds joy. You just need to be able to recognize it.

It feels good to realize how lucky I am to be right here, right now, calm with a cup of tea, good indie music, and the steady rhythym of my keys. It feels wonderful to realize that we always have time to do the things we love. It’s just a matter of talking ourselves out of our stress and negativity. What’s the point of doing my Calculus homework when I’m distracted and tired? Rather fill the time with joy, writing in my case, and then dedicate a smaller fraction of time for true concentration. Yes, I have a million things that I could be doing right now. But for now, I’ll just hit replay on the same song and let myself soak in these minutes of freedom.

I’m lucky that I’m receiving an education. I’m lucky that my hard work in the past is allowing me to pay for this privilege. I’m lucky that I’ve acquired a vocabulary that allows me to adequately express my gratitude. I’m lucky in so many ways and yet, I catch myself spilling negative phrases day in and day out.

We need to stop this. We need to believe. We need to be positive, to accept that we are capable, if only we stop constructing these mental barriers. We can acheive what we want; we can live freer, happier, and more successful lives if only we think it and will it. Good things happen to people who believe. It’s not some magic voodoo like they try to tell us. It’s the fact that when you’re positive, you’re more energized and able to work towards your goals.

Never forget that there’s always time to do what you love. There’s always time, no matter how many deadlines you have. If you love something, let yourself do it. It’s the only way to stay positive. Negativity breeds failure; positivity fosters success.

I know that every time I write, I’m a little bit happier and a little bit more capable of achieving my goals. So, if you’ve made it this far (hopefully I’ve managed to hold someone’s attention), consider taking up a challenge. Whether you love drawing, playing guitar, reading novels, cooking, dancing, solving math problems, just do it! You’ll be amazed how great you feel when you let yourself love life for a few minutes every day.

The Digital Age has brought a myriad of both issues and innovations to the music industry. While countless articles are dedicated to exposing how the Digital Age will lead to the death of the music industry, we can also look at the marketing innovations that bands are taking advantage of due to the rise of social media and online business.

Let’s take a look at a few New Release campaigns that have come across my radar. The good, the bad, and the ugly; it’s all here.

The Killers fall under the ugliest of the bunch. They launched a Facebook campaign to unveil the cover of their album cover. Though the premise doesn’t seem all that terrible, the execution failed to create much buzz. Instead of creating an innovative contest, the contest required fans to go through an exhaustive list of requirements that included liking and sharing the page, before you could unlock the image. The campaign failed to excite me for a couple fundamental reasons.

1) It was an inauthentic “Like” grab: At no point did I feel motivated or engaged by the campaign. It didn’t even attempt to pretend to be looking for engagement or loyalty. It simply called out for “Likes”, which as most marketers should have realized by now, don’t always equate to much equity.

2) It was too easy to bypass the requirements: Once one person liked and shared the page, they had access to an image that could be easily copied and shared across the web. Why jump through hoops to gain access to the album cover when you could Google it at this point? This made it impossible for the actual campaign to go viral.

Mother Mother took a stab at a similar contest, by creating an album cover reveal campaign that required social media followers to collect puzzle pieces to assemble the album cover. Though this one didn’t seem to gain a ton of traction either, it avoided becoming redundant too quickly by requiring the task to be completed over time. It was also more engaging because it required fans to follow the band’s social media in order to keep track of the pieces. This made the campaign more authentic, and most likely, more successful than that of The Killer’s.

Green Day recently made use of Chirpify to promote their upcoming trilogy. The campaign simply required twitter followers to reply “buy” to their account in order to gain access to an exclusive $30 deal for the full-set of albums. Given that it was a limited time offer and so easy to participate, they were able to quickly secure 250 purchases in four hours. Never mind the 9000 new twitter followers they earned within ten hours of launching the campaign. The only flaw I’d point out is that the consumer still needed to go and actually pay for the deal later on, which blocked the path to purchase a little bit.

The XX had one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen in awhile. They sent a stream of their new album to a single person and set up a website to track their sharing from that point forward. It could have awkwardly failed at that point, but instead, it went on to actually map the virility of the campaign in real time. How cool is that? At this point, it’s already hit major music media sites, and has been listened to by people across the globe. All that from one initial fan and the power of the Digital Age. Check it out here: http://coexist.thexx.info/

Of course the Digital Age has disrupted the way that the music industry used to work. Bands now have to realize that by embracing the power of social media and by finding new, authentic ways to engage their listeners, they might actually be able to reach new heights with the way the industry behaves today.
What other campaigns have you seen kicking around? Which ones blew you away with innovation and which ones fizzled?