Today, we’re taking a look at the organizations using crowdsourcing to solve really knotty problems. Crowdsourcing has been disappointing when used for projects like My Starbucks Idea and Dell IdeaStorm. Customers were invited to submit their solutions to product problems, and vote for the best ideas. The companies implement the best ideas, hopefully saving time [...]

This week the number of creatives on blur Group’s Creative Services Exchange will pass the 13,000 mark. These 13,000 are a mix of creative independents, many of them who’ve worked for the ‘big boys’, and those small to mid-sized agencies who recognize that there’s value in being part of a creative crowd. Yes, there is [...]

Crowdsourcing went right to the top of the agenda again thanks to discussions at Cannes this week. We’ve blogged about how the expert version of Crowdsourcing can bring significant benefits to creatives and CMOs. Now let’s look at the prequel: the different types of Crowdsourcing and why they are valuable in building the movement, but [...]

Crowd control, crowd management, crowd curation – whatever you want to call it, we’re seeing a definite shift away from the traditional concept of Crowdsourcing to a better-managed model that cuts out all the crap but keeps all the good stuff. Anyone who has launched their own company in recent years has probably encountered the [...]

Okay, we’ve written quite a bit about the Creative Services Exchange (CSX) over the past month, starting with our introductory piece, followed by a little further explanation a week later. Workforce scalability within the CSX model also got a look-in. And with both TechCrunch and The Next Web covering the CSX in recent weeks, the [...]

The Creative Services Exchange™ (CSX) concept is built on the trading of briefs. And Crowdsourcing is a technique used to meet the creative demands of these briefs. This is what blur Group is about – facilitating the trading of these briefs is our raison d’être. It’s a new approach to the sourcing and delivering of [...]

When something truly new and innovative comes along, it can be easy to dismiss it as a fad or something that’s already been done before. And even if something has been done before, it’s worth considering why the concept hasn’t taken-off and become ingrained across society. Much has been written about Facebook and how it [...]

Would you read Oliver Twist or Animal Farm over and over? If you’re a fan of Dickens or Orwell, perhaps you would. Would you read blur Group blog posts over and over? Well, we think the more appropriate question would be why wouldn’t you peruse our prose again and again and again…just in case you [...]

A lot may have changed over the past century or so, but many businesses have yet to catch-on to the latent possibilities of connecting with the hundreds of thousands of creatives around the world. Crowdsourcing cuts right into the middle of these possibilities. Sure, you might not get a free lunch out of it, but you will get some great minds working for you. That is, ultimately, what you’re looking for…isn’t it?

As anyone with a lapsed gym membership knows, New Year’s Resolutions have a tendency to, well, not show much resolve. So we thought we’d make blur Group‘s resolutions not easy, but eminently achievable by ourselves and by other businesses who want to ensure that 2011 is an exciting and successful year. Let’s go! 1) Engagement [...]

We often think that Crowdsourcing is about the early ideas stage, but this week a story has broken showing how online retailers are using it to drive their sales plans. Moxsie.com is an online fashion boutique.  It has embraced Crowdsourcing by making use of instant feedback from its twitter and Facebook followers to decide which [...]

As I combined sugar, spice and all things nice into the latest batch of holiday treats, it made me wonder that as Crowdsourcing starts to become a more recognised practice, is there a way to ensure the perfect Crowd mix? With blur Group Crowds now exceeding 8000 here’s some things we’ve observed about that magical [...]

It’s the Christmas period and we at blur Group are feeling a bit merry. So here’s a fun story showing there’s more to Crowdsourcing than just revolutionising your business. You can revolutionise your underwear drawer too… Bjorn Borg is a tennis legend. Far from being content with that accolade, Bjorn decided to try and take [...]

2010 has seen blur Group’s Creative Crowdsourcing approach gain sizable momentum with large corporate clients, new startups and Crowds of Crowdies. Stirring up the world of advertising, it’s time to consider what’s going to happen in 2011 and what will win out. 1) Marketing will return to its first love: creativity. This year, new platforms [...]

When hit British teen drama ‘Skins’ was being adapted for a U.S version, MTV decided to add a bit of originality to the show’s soundtrack with Crowdsourcing… The team in charge of adapting racy U.K teen drama Skins into a similarly sex filled U.S debauch, decided to keep the same musical formula as its counterpart. [...]

In an age where data protection is one of the biggest issues we face, Crowdsourcing is emerging as a strong means of defence… The fight against cyber crime is a harsh and unpredictable battle ground. With cyber criminals finding new and devastating means of attack with each passing moment, the authorities have been searching for [...]

The Christmas season is in full swing and O2 have come up with a novel, Crowdsourced way to celebrate the season to be jolly… We all love a Christmas panto in Britain. It’s as traditional as minced pies, crackers and post Christmas party hangovers. The only complaint I have is that they can be a [...]

Can Crowdsourcing change The World? It just might… Get It Done are a Crowdsourced aid agency, whose mantra is to bring the personal connection back to giving aid. Get It Done aim to, as they put it, ‘bring aid back to where it once started: as the basic human activity of taking care of the [...]

Crowdsourcing is becoming big business across the globe and China is no exception…. The Worlds newest emerging superpower had a population of 1,331,460,000 at the last count. That’s a lot of people! So it should come as no surprise that Crowdsourcing in China has the potential to reach epic proportions. It may though come as [...]

Every now and then a ‘random’ and supposedly ‘fun’ game sweeps the status updates and news feeds of Facebook the world over. Now is one of those times. Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to….The Numbers Game! We have had spam apps such as the ‘see who’s using your profile’ scam, various cryptic games [...]

‘We plan to take Crowdsourcing further than it has ever gone before….. We want media companies to engage users as citizen journalists, and NBC2 is just the first step toward this. We want to enable local governments to encourage users to report about hazards on the road to help keep our roads safe. We want major [...]

As we all know, hash tags on Twitter can be a great way of getting a subject trending and gaining exposure. It also seems they can be used just as effectively to dampen public hysteria and put the record straight in the world of news broadcasting. During Thanksgiving week in the States, stricter than usual [...]

The Mini Feeds of Facebook pages up and down the country have been awash with animated faces over the last few days. This weekend saw an NSPCC campaign urging users to change their profile pictures to one of their favourite childhood cartoon characters. The campaign has seen huge press, the Facebook group attracting almost 90,000 [...]

The music industry is in a state of change, with no factor more important than the internet. What with file 2 file sharing sites gaining huge prominence in the early part of this century and the emergence of self promotion sites like MySpace, the industry has had to adapt and change to meet these new, [...]

How do you host an office Christmas party when you have 8,000 staff/Crowdies spread all over the globe? Well, we’ve come up with the answer -  we’re holding our annual knees-up on Twitter this year at #blurParty. It will take place from 4 – 5pm GMT on Thursday 16th December and the coolest stuff will be [...]