Deezbox et Rankseller, deux start-ups qui débutent en France

deezbox-rankseller

Ceci n’est pas un billet sponsorisé mais un coup de pouce à deux entreprises qui viennent de débuter en France. La première est Deezbox, tout juste créée par des amis de l’ESSCA, qui offre la possibilité de commander en ligne des créations graphiques de manière abordable et rapide. La seconde est Rankseller.fr, une plateforme mettant en relation des blogueurs et des annonceurs pour l’échange de billets sponsorisé, qui vient de se lancer en France sous la direction de Maël Roth. J’espère qu’en les présentant ici, je peux modestement contribuer à leur développement. Présentation.

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Comment Heineken utilise le crowdsourcing pour l’innovation et le marketing

How beer brands are driving growth

J’ai récemment lu une interview de Ellen Bark, responsable innovation chez Heineken, parlant de la stratégie d’innovation ouverte au sein de l’entreprise. Cette interview est publiée sur PSFK, en anglais, et je trouvais intéressant de la traduire en français pour la rendre accessible à davantage de personnes. Ce qu’elle dit est intéressant dans le sens où Heineken utilise le crowdsourcing via divers plateformes, comme je soulignais déjà en septembre 2011. Depuis, d’autres plateformes ont été lancées, et l’interview révèle bien la maturité de la marque lorsqu’il s’agit d’utiliser les idées de la foule pour le marketing et l’innovation. Voici la traduction de l’entretien (les illustrations ont été ajoutées a posteriori). Continue reading →

Video contests have shifted away from consumers, says Hugh Mitton

Hugh Mitton during the shoot of his Coca-Cola Valentine's Day ad for a Mofilm contest

Hugh Mitton during the shoot of his Love Is In The Air ad for a Mofilm contest

After speaking to Jared Cicon (aka Video Contest King) and Brett Slater (aka Slater’s Garage), two succesful video contest participants, here’s another interview of a talented filmmaker: Hugh Mitton. Actually we’re talking about a very talented filmmaker, who has a proven track record since he won various contests in the last years, including Coca-Cola’s Energizing Refreshment contest on eYeka and the same brand’s When Will Happiness Strike Next? competition on Mofilm.

The spot that got him the first prize on the Mofilm competition, called Love Is In The Air (see below) even got aired on Valentine’s Day during American Idol telecast, before reaching other countries around the world. Hugh had the kindness to answer some of my questions about himself and the video contest landscape. Here’s what he said. Continue reading →

A review of “Crowdstorm: The Future of Innovation, Ideas and Problem Solving”

The crowdstorm book cover

If you’re a reader of this blog, you know my interest for marketing, innovation and the internet (see also my twitter words). In recent years, I’ve been increasingly blogging about co-creation and crowdsourcing, the latter being an innovative way to use the internet for marketing and innovation-related business issues. Crowdsourcing has become a widely applied technique, used in a variety of ways and for different organizational needs… but testimonials from those who actually do crowdsource are scarce (they exist, but there are still few of them).

Ross Dawson’s Getting Results from Crowds is one of the latest books… but the latest piece to fill the puzzle is Crowdstorm (“The Future of Innovation, Ideas and Problem Solving“), a book written by Shaun Abrahamson, investor and advisor, Pete Ryder, investor, athor and former director or Jovoto in America, and Bastian Unterberg, founder and CEO of Jovoto.

Shaun was kind enough to send me a signed version of the freshly pressed book (I love personalized stuff!), and here’s my review. I received Crowdstorm on Monday and finished reading it on Tuesday evening, that’s how much I liked it. Here’s my review.

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“The video contest space is getting very competitive” – An interview of Brett Slater

BrettSlater

In my “quest” to understand crowdsourcing in creative industries better, I would like to share another interview of an avid participant. After interviewing Jared Cicon a.k.a. the Video Contest King, here’s an interview of Brett Slater, a successful video contest participant and the founder of Slater’s Garage Ads & Audio. The tagline of Slater’s Garage is “Helping Your Small Business Find Its Voice” but Slater also works for big brands. How? By participating in crowdsourced video contests.

In a previous interview published on Entrepreneur.com, Brett indeed explained that crowdsourcing sites allowed him to gain exposure, cutting through geographic obstacles: “I live in Bangor, Maine. My work wouldn’t have been seen otherwise,” he explained. Contests on platforms like Poptent allow him to apply his talent to big brands (Brett writes the word brands with a capital B, Brands), not only local businesses. You can read more from him on his blog… or you can just read his interview below. Enjoy! Continue reading →

How Brazilian bike manufacturer Caloi refined its brand proposition

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Caloi is a major Brazilian bike manufacturer based in São Paulo, as well a leading brand for over 110 years. Caloi felt they needed to get closer to consumers and to understand what its brand meant to Brazlinian consumers. Together with Brazilian agency CO.R Inovação, they initiated a research project called “Reinventing the two wheels,” designed to understand the role of the bicycle and the Caloi in Brazilian’s lives. Very similarly to the Shimano Coasting initiative conducted by Shimano and IDEO, this project  consisted in meeting consumers of the target  audience in major cities in order to “discover the meaning and the importance a bike has on a biker life.” Explanations from Mariana Loducca Kok, one of the project’s managers at CO.R Inovação. Continue reading →

Ross Dawson’s Second Edition of “Getting Results From Crowds”

book cover photo

Ross Dawson, one of the most active (and objective) promoters of crowdsourcing, has recently announced the launch of the second edition of his book, Getting Results From Crowds, co-authored with Steve Bynghall. I already have the first edition, but purchased this one anyway as it has three new chapters about possible applications of crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing for small companies vs. big corporations, crowdsourcing for marketing, and crowdsourcing for media and content. Here’s a very brief review of the book. Continue reading →