Thoughts on Crowdsourcing-according to the world's largest advertiser

A hot topic for ad agencies is crowdsourcing. A panel at the 4a's (American Association of Advertising Agencies) Transformation Conference talked about this idea to make sure their message was clear...the industry better get used to crowdsourcing because it's not going anywhere. Ignacio Oreamuno is a man who knows a lot about this topic as he is the president of crowdsourcing agency GiantHydra. He says "crowdsourcing is very simple: instead of two people working together it could be 15 from around the world, delivering ideas for less money and much less time, you won't be able to stop that." The worlds largest advertiser, Proctor & Gamble, uses crowdsourcing to find the best ideas but the digital and e-commerce leader at P&G, Charles Chappell, also says that his biggest fear of crowdsourcing is his loss of control. I think many agencies might be fearful of the same thing, because if consumer reviews of a product are bad then they have to manage that. Tim McClure of a virtual crowdsourcing agency said that "the spirit of competition" and the whole idea of crowdsourcing "makes us all nervous but it makes the work better."

I know ad agencies probably aren't too excited about their brands being controlled by a large number of people, but if they go along with this new model of marketing people will be able to see their company and products in a new and better light.