Victors & Spoils: The Entirely Crowdsourced Creative Agency

Published November 04, 2009 @ 05:07PM PT

There are few industries as impacted by the onslaught of social media as marketing and communications. Whereas companies once were able to craft carefully controlled brand messages, they are now subject to the whims of the collective conversation. This can be a good thing, as exciting new products or ideas can spread in ways never before possible. Yet at the same time, it also means that the angry, the frustrated, the haters can find eachother much more quickly.

Victors & Spoils is a new creative ad agency trying to harness the best power of crowdsourcing to discover talent. Just launched in the last week, the group will carefully manage client projects - just as they would in a traditional ad agency - but all of the design, concepting, and other elements of the branding, marketing, and other creative processes will be carried out by a mobile dynamic group of creative professionals as well as average folks.

The announcement has caused quite a bit of buzz, including this post by frog design marketing head Tim Leberecht, who says that while it may be the "jump the shark" moment for crowdsourcing, it is also a bold experiment that's worth watching closely.

Do I think it will work? The people behind it are certainly talented, having come out of renown agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. What's more, the best part of crowdsourcing is that it allows one to discover talent and ideas from a far broader range of places. The downside is that the "wisdom of the crowds" isn't always so wise. What it sounds like, however, is that their model involves the sort of curation that can maximize the benefits while minimizing the downside.

Interested folks can participate right away, as the company is starting by crowdsourcing its logo and other brand elements. To see what's come up so far, check out their contest on crowdspring. Visit their website to learn more.

(Photo: One of my favorite crowdsourced entrants to the V&S logo contest)

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Author

Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.