Crowdsourcing set to boost NZ creative revenue

A New Zealand marketing consultant is calling for local professionals to embrace crowdsourcing as a method of selling their services globally.

Crowdsourcing or ‘outsourcing to a crowd’ is an online problem solving model which allows businesses to tender their projects around the world receiving sometimes hundreds of submissions from skilled professionals.

According to Auckland marketing specialist, Fleur Revell of Impact PR, local designers should seek to better understand where their competitive advantages lie within the emerging crowdsourcing process.

“New Zealand’s ‘overnight’ timezone, English language, low overheads, unique design culture, and potentially early adoption and experience with crowdsourcing are all examples of platforms from which New Zealand designers can position their own brands on the new world stage,” Revell says.

Revell believes designers should not see a crowdsourcing project budget as finite, but an opportunity to cross and up sell clients once the relationship is established.

“Crowdsourcing reduces the risk associated with trialling a new supplier," she says.

"It means a client can select from literally dozens of designs – only paying for the one that best matches their requirements."

Revell adds that while critics will suggest that project fees paid for crowd-sourced projects can be less than the market rate for some New Zealand designers, this is offset by the fact there is no need for advertising or marketing to secure new work.

She says in a tightened market a greater volume of work can provide some economies of scale and certainty of cash flow for creatives.

“There are many service-based industries where businesses pitch to new clients and run the risk of having their ideas adopted without remuneration, the crowdsourcing model is no different,” she says.

Revell predicts the benefits of crowdsourcing will see it become a common process of business in the future, with the significant cost advantages of crowdsourcing of particular appeal to SME clients - but she advises them to seek assistance when developing the brief.

“As designers are often competing on low margins they may be less flexible when it comes to providing added value and clients need to be very specific as to their expected outcomes," she concludes.

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