At blur Group, we’ve seen the waves of Crowdsourcing adoption, reaction and probably overreaction since Jeff Howe first coined the term back in that 2007 Wired article. We’ve witnessed the positive idea of the wisdom of crowds, and some of the negativity that there must be something flawed in a model where many can compete for one ultimate project.

Observing these has helped us reinforce the importance of our Creative Services Exchange approach. Where Crowdsourcing is part, but not all of the story. Where an Exchange ensures that both buyer and seller benefit – removing one of the issues that some Crowdsourcing platforms have encountered.

But what we’ve noticed in the last few months, after first taking creative briefs 2 years ago, is that Crowdsourcing is emerging from all the wailings of infancy and becoming an important and viable option for many businesses. Not just the startup wanting a logo. Not the business trying to get some coding done cheaply. Organizations wanting to change their way of sourcing. It seems that Crowdsourcing is growing up.

From our perspective as an Exchange, this is evidenced not just by the companies wanting to Crowdsource projects. It’s by the agencies and creatives wanting to be one of the many heads. There are two sides to the Crowdsourcing story: it seems to us that in some cases the Crowd has been taken for granted as if it just springs from nowhere. Not at blur Group: it’s why we developed Crowdsourcing creative into a full Exchange model. We’re rapidly approaching 14,000 creatives and agencies: every day we are delighted by the immense experience and expertise that these creatives show and deliver to those briefing the Exchange. Developing this sort of expert Crowd requires curation and management: it’s part of the evolution of Crowdsourcing from that unstructured assembly first envisaged.

In parallel, we’ve seen a significant change in the types and sizes of projects that are being briefed on the Exchange. $100K projects are becoming increasingly common; the kinds of business briefing range from the smallest earliest stage business, to global brands. 

As we’ve recognized this maturity from both the user of the Crowd to the Crowd itself it’s clear that businesses using Crowdsourcing do go through an adoption pathway. Few plunge into Crowdsourcing for business critical functions for their first project: our time running the Exchange has shown just how this works. We’ve identified three key stages:

Experimentation: an unstructured, unmanaged approach soliciting feedback and work from mixed ability crowds to test ideas and approaches. It’s what many understand by Crowdsourcing and is often used on social media platforms for a brand to get opinion and feedback from its customers. It’s also the basis of many ‘rewards’ based competitions when businesses want ideas or a quick solution.

Maturity: using Crowdsourcing to deliver significant projects: for example new product development, creative campaigns, software development and testing. This is characterized by models with a more advanced, managed process and a curated and experienced Crowd.

In all truthfulness, we’ve been surprised by how fast businesses have moved to mature adoption: we expected the development phase to last longer. Wherever you are in adoption, and if you are a provider, wherever you see your role in being part of a Crowd, it’s very obvious that Crowdsourcing is going to be part of your marketing makeup. We introduced the idea of Crowdsourcing 2.0 last year to show how the different flavors of Crowdsourcing have  a different impact and success; now we’ve seen that the expert, curated Crowdsourcing approach is what businesses have been waiting for.

Tell us where you are in your use of crowdsourcing – just click on the appropriate button below!

Whatever your stage of Crowdsourcing maturity, we hope that you’ll join or brief the Exchange soon!