Lego of my Lego Idea and Crunch on This New, Tasty Chip
What do Legos and Potato Chips have in common? You!
A well-known fact about digital strategy is that it is solely based on consumer interests and preferences. They hold the power whether companies like it or not. So, why wouldn’t companies use consumer ideas to generate content for their brand?
As content has become a more integral part of marketing, professionals are realizing the power of the crowd for generating high-quality, versatile content for each of their online channels. Crowdsourcing, the practice of gathering input for a task or project by enlisting the help of a large number of people via the internet, has become a great way for companies to acquire content for their brand.
There are many reasons why this content-gathering method is beneficial. For one, it’s inexpensive. Usually, companies pay advertising agencies or use their own resources to produce a campaign that delights their audience and achieves their company goal of driving sales or increasing engagement. Crowdsourcing greatly decreases or even eliminates the marketing budget in some cases since consumers supply the video content. Once a submission is selected by the company’s marketing experts, they may decide to share the video submission as is or make edits before posting it to their social channels.
Another benefit to this method of obtaining social media content is that it is a powerful tool for campaigns. Crowdsourcing drives consumer participation and achieves a higher level of engagement. As the submissions are collected, many strategy-savvy companies post their top contenders. This ensures that the consumers who submitted the top videos feel a sense of endowment. Their creation is being recognized by the company they love. So of course, they will re-tweet or re-share to show their online community of friends and family members their awesome ad that might be chosen and viewed by the world. Their pride in themselves is as abundant as their loyalty to the brand that could potentially grant them this chance of a lifetime.
Besides sparking pride and joy in their consumers, crowdsourcing also inspires a company’s creativity in their future campaigns while providing an abundant number of options for the current one. Like their budgets, marketing teams are not always large, so creativity is often limited to the minds of the people brought together to create that one campaign or string of campaigns. No company wants to become irrelevant by drafting years and years of duplicated ideas. The use of crowdsourcing creates a deep pool of ideas that will keep a marketing department well supplied with content to last for years to come.
When the chips are down, there is one potato chip company that knows what to do to blast engagement and sales numbers through the roof. PepsiCo uses crowdsourcing in their campaigns for both their Doritos and Lays potato chips. You might remember a few years ago when the Doritos “Crash the Superbowl” campaigns emerged, encouraging consumers to submit 30 second commercial ideas which, if chosen, would grant the winner a one-million-dollar cash prize and the thrill of having their commercial idea televised during the Superbowl.
Everyone that loves or tolerates football, whether they will admit it or not, watches the Superbowl. If not for the game itself, then for the oddly hilarious commercials. So, whether people were helping to choose the winner of the contest or lucky enough to be a top contestant, Doritos captured a lot of the public’s interest and engagement during this campaign.
Even more recently, PepsiCo promoted their Lay’s “Do Us a Flavor” campaign and asked consumers to create their own chip flavor for a chance to win a cash prize and bragging rights. PepsiCo chose the best ideas submitted, produced and distributed the different flavors to supermarkets for the world to try, then allowed their consumers to vote for their favorite flavor. One winning flavor, Lay’s Cheesy Garlic Bread, contributed to an 8% sales increase in the three months following its release.
Although the production and distribution of several chip flavors across the globe sounds expensive, news of their chip flavor contests spread quickly via social channels and television. I’m betting they sell millions upon millions of chips during the voting period and beyond due to constant consumer discussions regarding which flavor should win. To further increase consumers’ sales motivations for the winning flavors, PepsiCo only offers them in stores for a limited time.
In the land of toys, crowdsourcing is also used to keep fresh and innovative ideas flowing. Lego uses their online community, Lego Ideas, to generate consumer product ideas and enhancements. First, Lego encourages their consumers to submit a design proposal for a new Lego set which must include a model, photos, and a description of the set. From there, they require that at least 10,000 of the applicant’s fellow Lego community members support their product idea. If this is accomplished and the submission is also selected by the Lego review board, it is manufactured and available for purchase around the world. Lego even grants the winner a 1 percent royalty on the sales of their creation.
While the commendation from 10,000 members of the Lego community is probably Lego’s way of confirming sales numbers, it also provides each Lego set creator with a sense of pride knowing other Lego-lovers admire their creation. Once chosen, the winner would likely experience a sense of endowment seeing their design boxed and placed on store shelves for the world to admire and enjoy. On the back end, Lego is definitely no loser in this situation because they have also accomplished their goals to promote their brand while increasing engagement and sales. Two previous winners featured a Seinfeld set and the McCallister’s house from Home Alone.
Social media and crowdsourcing are shaping the way companies interact with consumers and changing the business landscape. Looking at the campaigns on a larger scale, I refuse to think that any of the ideas that weren’t chosen during these crowdsourcing campaigns are thrown away and forgotten. As the saying goes, “waste not, want not” and who wouldn’t want a database of millions of creative ideas to scroll through for future inspiration. Any way you look at it, crowdsourcing allows the consumer to decide therefore it’s also the best way to ensure your future products will be loved by all. Sit back and encourage your followers and supporters to create the next weird, but delicious chip flavor or Lego-version TV or movie scene.