Austin, Texas, based company Genesis Today a company that provides nutritional drinks has partnered with Collective Bias a crowdsourcing/conversation starting agency that describes itself as the conjunction of Social Media and Shopper Marketing. The product of this partnership is a competition to submit ideas to the company that will form the basis of an online Social Media campaign.

Something For Nothing or Nothing For Something?

They are being generous with the prizes, 5 each of $1000 plus a trip to Austin and a $10,000 first prize for the winner. So a total of $15,000 for a new idea on how they can best interact with their customers and potential customers. This is likely what they would have spent with a small to mid-sized agency so they have stayed within the realms of reality and not tried to get something for nothing, but are they likely to get nothing for something?

I have several alarm bells ringing when I think about this competition, firstly, they are likely to be sent an awful lot of ideas that are either unimaginative reworks of other companies previous campaigns, run of the mill “use twitter” type suggestions or just those that are unworkable.  The rules, which I am not allowed to republish here without prior approval, specifically state that these types of entries will be eliminated.

Online Only?

So what does that leave them with? Mostly it leaves them with the hope that someone will care enough to provide them with an idea that is so original and uses Social Media in a unique way that they will get a return on their investment. I’m not saying that won’t happen, and I’m not saying crowdsourcing is a bad idea, I think if a company has a high tolerance for risk this is an interesting way to get your Social Media campaign rolling. However, the other alarm bell that rings for me is the fact that they are specifically stating that this is for the “online” Social Media. I think this limits their thinking, it limits their openess to the fact that Social Media takes place both on and offline and that a good Social Media campaign will include both elements.

Personally I say good luck to them, I hope this works out and I for one will be watching the story as it unfolds to see what happens and where they go with the idea.

Would you crowdsource your next campaign?

image from www.psfk.com