Online Co-Creation to Accelerate Marketing & Innovation

OnlineCo-creation to Accelerate Marketing & Innovation

Online Co-creation to Accelerate Marketing and Innovation “How to unlock the collective creative power in consumers to lead existing markets and create new ones, fast.” A decade ago, acclaimed Harvard University Professor Michael Porter, a leading authority on corporate strategy, asserted that innovation was the central issue in economic prosperity. Today, innovation is firmly on every CEO’s priority list but the capability to bring the right innovation to the market quickly is still lacking. But business leaders could have been searching in the wrong places. Yochai Benkler, the thought-provoking author of “The Wealth of Networks”, argues that the solution may lie within consumers and not within firms. What if companies could tap into the free flow of ideas generated by millions of people online to innovate? This white paper is designed as a crash course on online co-creation so that marketers and innovators can better understand how to unlock the collective creative power latent in consumers to accelerate marketing and innovation.2 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

A. Co-creation 101Embracing Online Co-creation toAccelerate Marketing and InnovationInnovation is the key to sustainable When the name of the game isgrowth. It is the primary – and to be the first to bring the rightincreasingly vital – source of innovation to market, co-creationcompetitive advantage for is the solution that numerousbusinesses in a marketplace companies increasingly turnthat has become exponentially to. The traditional innovationcluttered, complex and dynamic. process is sequential: developing“The way you will thrive in this concepts and testing them, mostlyenvironment is by innovating internally or with a small network– innovating in technologies, of external agents. It takes up ainnovating in strategies, innovating significant amount of time and hasin business models,” said IBM a high failure rate. ConsumersCEO Samuel J. Palmisano are involved at the tail-end, as The businessin a recent interview with validators. enterprise hasBusinessWeek on “The World’s two – and only twoMost Innovative Companies”ii. Co-creation flips the traditional – basic functions: innovation model on its head, marketing andWhile innovation is steadily turning a sequential process into a innovation.climbing up every CEO’s corporate parallel one. Co-creation engages Peter Drucker,agenda, so is the realization that consumers directly at the onset Management Professor,ideas alone don’t really matter of the innovation process to gain Authorimuch without the capability to fresh, fast and creative ideas thatimplement the right ones faster are consumer-rooted, streamliningthan competitors do. And herein and compressing a complexlies the problem with innovation chain of ideation-validation stepsas it is practiced today. The with multiple stakeholders. WhenBCG annual innovation surveys it happens online, it enablesconstantly highlight that senior simultaneous engagements withexecutives find the current a large number of individualsinnovation process hard to across geographies within a shortsystemize and frustratingly slowiii. timeframe. Because co-creationNeville Roberts, enterprise CIO of starts with input from end-users,Best Buy sums up why innovating there is less chance that thefast matters in an interview with concepts suggested would not getZDNet: “A lot of our revenues market acceptance, thus reducingcome from innovation, but it gets risks of failed projects.copied quickly (...) We have toget innovation out there quickly.We have to bring things to fruitionquicker than everyone else.”iv3 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

1. What is Co-creation? Co-creation projects are a wonderful mix of market research and marketing. It’s a virtuous circle whereby the brief fulfills consumers, enabling them to express theirC.K. Prahalad and Venkat product creation or innovationRamaswamy, co-authors of “The process. Companies engage creativity, and theFuture of Competition: Co-creating with consumers on initial brand benefits fromunique value with customers”, product concepts and ideas, content that we candefine co-creation as “an active, and they use consumers as a celebrate and gaincreative and social process resource throughout the product insights from, andbased on collaboration between development life cycle.”vi potentially evenproducers and users, initiated use as part of ourby the firm to generate value for Online co-creation in particular is communicationcustomers”v. Instead of building gaining traction with businesses. materials.for consumers, companies build Most of Interbrand’s 100 Bestwith them. Co-creation can take Global Brands 2011, such as David Skerrett,many forms: A company can co- Coca-Cola, Unilever, Hyundai, Head of Social and Mobile,create a new product with a small Danone, Starbucks and Nike, Euro RSCG 4Dnumber of lead users in a lab or are already actively using online“crowdsource” a problem online to co-creation platforms andget a large number of individuals communities to involve consumersworking simultaneously to solve it. directly and repeatedly to infuse their communication and productsCo-creation is also simply defined with fresh ideas, content andby Doug William, analyst and solutions.co-creation expert at ForresterResearch, as “the act of involvingconsumers directly, and insome cases repeatedly, in the4 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

2. Why do consumers co-create?Aristotle understood long ago that United Kingdom and the United In essence, while consumersMan is by nature a social animal. States of America, consumers create for self-expression andThe meteoric rise in popularity of stated that they create or modify self-actualization, these apparentlysocial networking platforms like products “to better fit their needs” self-centered activities can benefitFacebook, YouTube and Twitter as the current standardized a brand by providing a source ofshows how powerful our need products offered in the market inspiration and ready-to-marketto create and share with others did not fulfill them adequately. innovation ideas. Paul Sloane,is, with little incentive needed to Beyond utilitarian motives, author of “A Guide to Openparticipate. consumers create as a mean Innovation and Crowdsourcing”, of self-expression and personal describes it as “the ability toCreative individuals churn out fulfillment. A study conducted by change things, the ability toimaginative ideas that companies eYeka in France found that 69% of influence the future of yourmight not have the resources to consumers create for enjoyment brand”viii.cultivate from scratch. They offer and 72% find these activitiesan alternative to thorough product satisfying and fulfilling.development programs, which isstill based on internal R&D andmarketing. Why do creative people get involved inWith technology becoming more co-creation? The eYeka example.personalized and interconnected, Research undertaken on eYeka’s community of nearly 200,000the potential for consumers to creative consumers uncovered four primary motivations forreprogram, adapt, modify, and participating in co-creation projects: Fun, Fulfillment, Fame andtransform offerings also becomes Fortune, commonly referred to as ‘the four Fs’.greater.In fact, the equivalent expenditurethat these “creative consumers”spend on these co-creativeactivities can outstrip the annualamount spent on consumerproduct R&D by companies, such Fulfilment Fameas in the UK where it is valuated at144% of what companies spendon R&Dvii.These consumers do notnecessarily create to help brands. Fun FortuneIn surveys conducted in Japan, the5 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

3. What’s in it for businesses?If there is only one word to describe the core benefit of co-creation forbusinesses, it has to be “transformational”. In 2008, Venkat Ramaswamy andFrancis Gouillart, authors of “The Power of Co-Creation”, were invited to speakat the Deloitte Co-Creation Conference, organized by ECC Partnership inParis. They pointed out five major areas where co-creation can add value toorganizations: Customer experience 1 Be it rewards programs, consumer communication, enhancements in retail channels, or improvements in pre- and post-purchase experiences One specific benefit stemming from the Products and services 2 Improvement on current offerings and new opportunities for future development transformational nature of online co-creation is an opportunity to discover a game Markets changer, which is a 3 Establishing deeper understanding through innovative insights or exploring opportunities in expanding market size radical departure from old business models and and/or share strategies, unlocked by consumers but not 4 Business models Refining or exploring a total change immediately apparent to a company. Strategy 5 Refining or re-defining the entire business approach6 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

How LEGO reinvented itself through co-creation LEGO also provided an extension of this service – allowing anyone to develop his or her ideas with LEGO’s design tools and order the relevant blocks. LEGO then sent the necessary blocks so that these creative consumers can actually build their creations. It was such a hit that limited-edition models by consumers-turned-designers were soon reportedly fetching handsome prices on auction sites like eBay. The LEGO Group later allowed these consumers to profit from Danish toy manufacturer their own way or re-use blocks to creating new LEGO models LEGO Group, known for its invent their own. But the company and turned it into a complete iconic colorful building blocks, had never placed its customers creative-collaborative platform. is a perfect example of how in the driving seat of its business co-creation can ripple through strategy. LEGO now uses its community the five areas of transformation of passionate, engaged identified by Ramaswamy and LEGO’s first foray into creating creators to invent and test new Gouillard to radically reshape a more collaborative company products before launching the company and its business started with LEGO Mosaic, an them. LEGO even works model. online tool that allowed users to closely with its most creative calculate the number of bricks consumers by co-creating In 2004, the LEGO Group required to make a wall-hanging designs and allows revenue was facing bankruptcy – sales mosaic of different colors with the sharing on the sales of these declined sharply by 30% in photographs that they uploaded designsix. Today, the Lego 2003 and the business had on the platform. The success Group remains the most been largely unprofitable of this project widened LEGO’s popular toy maker of all time, between 1998 and 2004viii. perspective on the potential of truly empowering people to LEGO already knew that its co-creation and soon LEGO transform their dreams into customers were central to Factory, a platform where users reality, one LEGO brick at the creation of its products, can calculate the number of bricks a time. especially post-purchase and other components required for when they build LEGO models their own designs, followed.7 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

Beyond the development of new products or the generation of fresh consumer ideas, online co-creation can also help solve traditional marketing challenges such as branding, positioning or creating unique consumer experiences. Enhancing brand experience with consumer- created content Coca-Cola recently ran an online co-creation contest on eYeka’s platform, inviting consumers to “interpret Coca-Cola as an energizing refreshment in their own style”. Participants thought that the short, open brief allowed them to express their personality while challenging their creative skills. As a participant A creator’s entry submission for the Photography category summed it up: “the chance to generate ideas for large international peer recognition for Marketing Communications brands is absolutely fantastic any aspiring creative. The contest of Coca-Cola, who and challenging”. While the received nearly 2,600 entries commissioned the project, contest offered significant cash (photos, illustrations, animation said that the phenomenal prizes, the winner in the video/ and videos) in only 12 weeks and response had a “ripple effect animation category was to be the quality was deemed to equal on the organization in the way selected to enter the Cannes those of professional creative we do things, the way we look Lion Advertising Festival in agencies. Leonardo O’Grady, at accessing creative and fresh 2012, offering the highest ASEAN Director of Integrated ideas”. In a recent project, eYeka worked with a leading FMCG brand to help reposition a yoghurt drink. Consumers were asked to illustrate how they understood a brand promise so as to refresh the brand’s communication with new creative angles. In addition to identifying creative routes for communication, this seven-week project uncovered a previously overlooked consumer benefit that could have great potential in strategically differentiating the brand from others in the market. This benefit is now a central component of a new brand platform and will Screenshot of a creators entry form the basis of all new communication worldwide. submission for the Video category8 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

4. What are the business benefits of co-creation?Jeffrey Grau, Principal Analyst at 4.1 Online co- An increasing number ofeMarketer and Author of “How companies are beginning toBrands Co-Create Value with creation accelerates realize that online co-creationCustomers”xi, highlights that innovation cycles enables the innovation process to“the benefits are numerous, with be faster and more streamlined,companies gaining user insights Despite understanding the crucial thereby increasing chances ofand customers enjoying higher need to innovate, the end-point of delivering the right product or aproduct satisfaction”. the innovation race remains elusive new communication idea faster at best for many businesses. than others who are still suck withP&G was one of the first major According to the Boston traditional innovation methods.companies to understand the Consulting Group’s 2010 Senior Online co-creation communitiesvalue of opening up to outside Executive Innovation Survey, even can dramatically accelerate thesources when it launched though a huge majority of senior pace of innovation, bringing downits open innovation platform executives polled saw innovation the ideation cycle from months toConnect+Develop in 2000. In the as their top three priorities, a weeks. François Pétavy, Globalseven years that followed, proﬁts significant percentage felt that CEO of eYeka, recently said in antripled to US$10 billion, with a lengthy development times was interview with Forrester ResearchxvUS$100 billion increment in market one of the biggest obstacles for that “involving external, creative,capitalizationxii. Today, more than investing in innovationxiv. As market decentralized points of view50% of the company’s innovation cycles accelerate, the traditional provides clients with consumer-comes from outside sources. process to find good ideas, get rooted collective intelligence, them endorsed, allocate budget which is now critical as marketsAs with open innovation, online for development – with numerous become even more globalized andco-creation transforms a iterative levels of approvals and as marketers need to intimatelyclosed innovation model into an budgets needed in-between – is connect to consumers’ unmetopen model. Professor Venkat painstakingly slow, and frustrating. needs, faster than ever”.Ramaswamy articulates a unique In the worst-case scenario, yourcombination of three major competitor beats you to it bybenefits that co-creation provides: launching their new competitiveAcceleration of innovation product first. As the saying goes,cycles, reduced risks of market good ideas are important butfailure through closer consumer the ability to execute fast is whatengagement and the build-up matters most.of an innovative organizationalculturexiii.9 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

4.2 Online co- car manufacturer with a truly co-creative business model. creation reduces Its first co-created vehicle, the risks of producing Rally Fighter started off with a a market flop car design competition with the winning design voted and refined collectively by a community of “With co-creation, we not only enthusiastsxviii. Once the design give the consumer a golden was adopted, the company opportunity to express him or accepted pre-orders and herself but also to get involved invited future owners to watch with all the different steps – like or participate in the production imagining new communication process at their nearest Local forms or participating in the Motors Micro-Factory, which development of a prototype of is a local garage or factory a product or service,” said Eric that supports the initiative. Vernette, Professor of Marketing Customers get the blueprint, the at the University of Toulouse parts and access to an online and Chair of the Center for resource to share assembling A Local Motors Management Research. tips and troubleshoot potential Micro Factory Involving consumers at the problems. Through this innovative manufacturing experiment, Rally beginning of a business process Fighter owners get a car that is results in greater alignment tailored exactly to their needs. The in consumer demand and model cuts down on production manufacturer/retailer supply. waste by building only what is Hence, not only are products necessary and on transportation designed closer to consumers’ costs associated with shipping needs, but mass customization manufactured cars. So far 25 strategies also allow on-demand cars have been built and another and made-to-order products, 120 are scheduled for completion by which consumers truly co- in 2012. Local Motors is now create their product. Research putting a more sophisticated CAD has shown that this experience of design software online to allow its co-creation leads consumers to The Rally highly value the products they built community to collaborate even Fighter themselvesxvi. This reduces the deeper in the development of new models, and social network risk that a product does not meet facilities to facilitate exchange of consumer needs and wantsxvii. ideas. The company hopes that this new environmentally friendly, A good illustration of how co- sustainable model can become a creation can close the gap blueprint for manufacturing in the between consumers and brands 21st century. is Local Motors, a US based10 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

4.3 Online co-creation creates a strongerinnovation culture for brandsGaurav Bhalla, CEO of Knowledge Kinetics, Chief Innovation Officer atPassenger and author of “Collaboration and Co-creation: New Platformsfor Marketing and Innovation” has been consulting with a number oflarge MNCs on innovation issues. His experience is that co-creationcan help create a better innovation culture by “opening up a companyto different voices and by erasing the boundaries that prevent thecompany from being connected to its environment”xx. This serves asa motivation or an aspiration for employees to see and work in newways or perspectives that may spark off new ideas. The acceleration ofinnovation cycles, made possible by online co-creation also providesmore visible “quick wins” that in turn encourage more employees tostep out of their comfort zone, collaborate and seek a higher level ofinnovation in their work. Online co-creation allows us to tap into a global group of idea generators, which indeed gives us an outside view on our brands and products. Furthermore it gives us scalability in terms of number of ideas generated in a short period of time. Bernhard Räber, Innovation Manager, Carlsberg Breweries11 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

B. Co-creation 102Get started with online co-creationLouis Pasteur, the French chemist famously said: “Chance favors the preparedmind”. The following building blocks of online co-creation programs will helpspeed up your learning curve on your very first project, or improve existingones.Step 1: Define your • You can ask consumers to • If you are looking to position, help identify new trends, new or reposition, a product or aonline co-creation products or new markets. brand. Consumers can giveobjectives eYeka asked people to creative ideas for packaging, explore “how we will move in names and brand platforms. 20 years” for an automotive eYeka has helped severalBefore considering audiences, brand or to “imagine the leading FMCG companiesplatforms or what to do with future of credit-cards” for a such as Kraft, P&G, Unileverconsumers’ output, defining what large financial brand. and Danone in gatheringis the desired outcome of your faster, fresher ideas to speedonline co-creation program is • If you have identified a market up their marketing roll-out.the pre-requisite to choose the need or a consumer segment Typical projects includerelevant building blocks needed that is ripe for innovation, interpreting a brand promisefor a successful online co-creation but do not have a product to uncover new consumer-project. for them yet, or if you have led communication angles, an existing products that injecting premiumness ineYeka has could find new usage, you packaging and creating newdeveloped a simple can ask consumers to create retail concepts. a new product for you orframework that innovate an existing one. • Finally, if you are looking foridentifies four eYeka recently completed quality consumer-generatedareas on a typical a project to invent a new content that can connect type of chewing gum for a with consumers, you can“go to market” socially-connected generation ask them to create videos,value chain, where Y. The project delivered 80 logos, pictures that can beonline co-creation fresh, creative ideas in three integrated in your agency’s weeks, three of which are campaigns. With eYeka,can add value. now in the company’s internal Coca-Cola asked consumers development pipeline. to “interpret energizing refreshment in their own style” and received thousands of videos, animations, pictures from all over the globe. Two of them were subsequently selected to be presented at the 2012 Cannes’ Festival of Creativity.12 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

Framing your objectives with eYeka’s product suites Ideas Concept Product Communication Xplore Nvision Market Ngage Broad Trends/ Product/Service Marketing/ Communication/ Ideas Concepts Positioning/ Engagement Experience Product: eYeXplore Product: eYeNvision Product: eYeMarket Product: eYeNgage Sample challenge to Sample challenge to Sample challenge to Sample challenge to consumers: consumers: consumers: consumers: “Imagine the credit card “Invent a healthy, “What makes Mini- “Show us how of the future.” tasty, fun snack for Oreo so unique and BMW’s Efficient kids!” special?” Dynamics can make the world a better place” When determining what you exactly want to achieve through online co-creation, the major pitfall to avoid is to confuse online co-creation communities with online consumer panels. If a project objective is to gather deep consumer insights about existing products or consumer attitudes towards a concept or a new product, online panels, focus groups and other insight-gathering techniques will deliver better results than co-creation communities. The latter attracts creative participants looking for creative challenges. Their format with a competitive model is best suited to invent new experiences rather than provide consumer insights.13 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

It is also important to keep Step 2: Prepareexpectations in check when itcomes to the results of a co- your organization From thiscreation project. Submitted entriesfrom consumers are unlikely to Once a clear, achievable objectivebe ready for use as marketing has been defined and a creativecollaterals. The essence of co- challenge articulated, it iscreation lies with fresh, creative important to ensure that there isideas, which will undoubtedly an adequate level of support forrequire fine-tuning and validation the project in your organization.before any implementation. This is vital not only in the set- up phase but also in maximizingOne company that set the wrong adoption of the project’s outputexpectations and struggled to if you need to justify its return-manage communication on a on-investment. As the Bostonco-creation project was Gap, Consulting Group clearly identifiedthe popular U.S. retail brand. in its innovation survey, a riskGap introduced a new logo on adverse culture is the biggestits website that prompted some stumbling block that discouragesconsumer backlash on social innovation from taking roots in any to thismedia channels. In response, organization.Gap invited its fans to submittheir own designs on Facebook Embracing online co-creationbut did not provide details as to as a marketing and innovationhow the submitted logo would strategy requires the coordinatedbe used (compared to the new effort of an entire organization,one they rolled out) nor did it not just the marketing ormention incentives or rewards R&D department. Commonfor participants. This spawned organizational pushbacks includeanother backlash. To cap it off, the “not-invented-here” syndrome,Gap pulled the plug on the new vested interests that prevent somelogo and its crowdsourcing stakeholders from welcoming ideas from outside their realm ofproject, announcing that it willkeep its 20-year-old blue box control and fear of failure (and and backiconic logoxxi. its retribution). This common yet to this lethal cocktail results in innovation paralysis. It is expected that most people will reject creative ideas and solutions because of the discomfort they feelxxii. Yet a certain level of discomfort or uncertainty is expected in the process of exploring ideas and trying something new. These structural and cultural issues are hard to solve but steps can be taken to prepare the ground for online co-creation projects.14 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

2.1 Get 2.2 Start smallcommitment from Some companies have ceasedthe top to recognize the possible “coexistence of external ideasConvincing employees to embrace or creations (consumer insightschange is a big obstacle that or content) and of internal ideascannot be avoided. “Conceding or creations from the company’sthat people at the receiving end marketing or departments”, saidof traditional processes may have Eric Vernette. Paul Sloane, authorbetter ideas than the experts of “A Guide to Open Innovationwho have been designing those and Crowdsourcing”, suggestsprocesses for many years requires that “people outside should bea new humility,” elaborates Venkat seen as part of your system ratherRamaswamy and Francis Gouillart When it comes than customers or complainers.in their article, “Building the They are people who work with to innovation, allCocreative Enterprise”, an article you. You have to be transparent companies needpublished in Harvard Business and more open. If you have the a strong brandReview”xxii. culture in place and the process is champion who in place, then you can succeed.” knows how toThe challenge befalls on leaders Ideally, as Eric Vernette suggested, spot great ideasto make employees realize the there should be a symbiotic and maximize thenew economic benefits that relationship between marketing potential of eachcan be discovered, in order to and R&D departments and the one to turn it into amotivate them in continuing consumer. business-drivingthe journey of exploring morestrategic applications of co- solution. To develop and nurture suchcreation. The first step required in a culture from scratch, Venkat Frederique Covington-Corbett,the process of developing a more Ramaswamy and Francis Gouillart Asia Pacific Central Marketingopen, collaborative culture is for advise companies to start small: Organization Lead,senior executives to champion Microsoft “Begin with a project that focusesthe initiative and to demonstrate on the experiences of two or threethat failure is part of the creative key stakeholders and a specificprocess, with noticeable, symbolic purpose like gathering customers’action backing their words before requirements for a new product,any organizational changes can improving order fulfillment, ortake place. figuring out the best sales pitch for a new offering. Then let the perimeter of co-creation naturally expand over time to include a wider range of experiences for those stakeholders and then new stakeholders. At each stage, the organization will realize new15 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

economic benefits, giving it project must be established. the motivation to continue the You will need such framework journey and explore more and to ensure that you can use more strategic applications of the ideas submitted. For every co-creation.” It is also important contest, eYeka ensures that the to open communication channels legal framework benefits both the such that feedback can flow freely company and the participants for bottom-up and allocate proper the duration of the contest and resources to look into and act on also for the potential use of ideas them. and work generated, over time. 2.3 Consider your 2.4 Be ready for a legal framework conversation What is your organization’s Co-creation opens a comfort level in allowing outsiders communication channel with to get involved in potentially consumers. They will expect a strategic issues? Have you conversation or at minimum, thought of the level of information feedback on their work as they that needs to be disclosed so require support and empathy. that external participants can Managing multiple streams of meaningfully contribute? For each conversations online can prove online co-creation project, there challenging especially when is a need to provide information participants stem from all over and there is no guarantee that the world. This ongoing, social a competitor who subscribes process is best handled by experts to the same platform could be working with online communities. prevented from knowing what you We call them “Community are working on. Several steps can Managers”. Community Managers be taken to preserve confidentiality act as the glue to a community. yet it is crucial to be constantly They stimulate good entries, reminded that the process should answer questions and address not be time-consuming as the vital any issues pertaining to a contest benefits of co-creation projects are in a timely manner. In addition speed and relevance. to a deep understanding of the digital media landscape and of the In addition to confidentiality issues, dynamics of online communities, a clear legal framework for the community managers are often ownership of intellectual property proficient in a variety of languages. created by consumers in the eYeka employs dedicated, full- context of an online co-creation time community managers to support its 200,000 strong online community, over 94 countries.16 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

3. Engage the right audience on the right platformOnce internal challenges have been managed, marketersneed to ponder over the type of audiences to reach out to,and the platforms to use for their co-creation activities.3.1 The 1-9-90 rule In short, what matters most in online co-creation contests, designed to collect fresh andWhen inviting participants to an original ideas, are the level ofonline co-creation contest, the creativity of the participantsworst question to ask is whether and the extent to which theythey are representative of a given can illustrate their creativity.target audience. This assumes Representative participants willthat all consumers are equally give representative answers.creative. This is not the case. Creative participants will give creative answers.Professor Eric Vernette sums upwhy this is the wrong question in arecent interview on the eYeka blog:“it defeats the purpose to carry outco-creation projects with massesof people who will produce variedresults, leaving interesting ideasas difficult to locate as a needle ina haystack.” In fact, identifying aparticularly small number of peoplewho are “inventive and in tunewith market desires” is a majorchallenge for marketers.17 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

Unlock innovation opportunities 1% Creative Consumers Refine innovation opportunities 9% Enthusiasts Validate innovation opportunities 90% Spectators Not all consumers are created equaleYeka segments • 90% of consumers are deemed “spectators”. They read or watch but do not contribute. They are good at talking about their experienceconsumers into with products and identify problems. This is the group traditionallya ratio of 90:9:1 involved in focus groups or consumer research.– a concept first • 9% of consumers are termed “enthusiasts” who actively view, shareintroduced by content and interesting ideas, yet do not create from scratch.Jakob Nielsen, • The remaining 1% is what eYeka calls “creative consumers”.principal and co- They form the basis of eYeka’s community. They have superiorfounder of the creative thinking capability and create content actively of which theNielsen Norman remaining 99% view and share. Creative consumers are a bit like creative directors in an advertising agency. They are not necessarilyGroupxxiv. representative of a target audience of a given brand they are working on, but they have the ability to come up with innovative solutions and messages that will resonate with them. Like with creative directors, creative consumers’ ideas should be tested with target consumers. Brands can tap into different segments of consumers for different purposes. The 1% of creative consumers is ideal for generating novel ideas and creating original content, the 9% of enthusiasts play an important role in refining and spreading them, while the 90% of spectators validate and will ultimately purchase the resulting products.18 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

3.2 A platform for tend to attract this 1% of consumers who are most creativeeach audience and are therefore well suited for ideation projects, applicableOnce you have decided on from “blue-ocean” thinking towhat type of consumers are brand positioning or packagingbest suited to participate in your challenges.online co-creation project, youneed to select a channel for Online co-creation communitiesengagement. There are effectively like eYeka comprise of an existingthree major channels you can network of consumers and expertsuse: Some companies choose who have specifically signed-up toto work with consumers directly participate in co-creation projects.via social networking platforms By being open to everyone andlike Facebook and Twitter. While by letting people join co-creationsthese platforms are cost-efficient, contests freely, eYeka has build-they are not as effective in up a bank of creative participantsidentifying or engaging the 1% who participate as soon as theyof creative consumers that can are interested in the topic andtruly deliver creative solutions. have ideas to contribute. TheseThe two remaining options are online communities operate on aleveraging existing co-creation competition model, with limitedcommunities or creating yourown community from scratch prizes available for winners only. Market leader in As highlighted by the workswith off-the-shelf social-consumer of London Business School online consumerresearch platforms. These two Professor Kevin J. Boudreau co-creationmethods require their own different and Harvard Business Schoolapproaches. Professor Karim R. Lakhanixxv, a competition model encourages3.2.1 Use existing the submission of disruptive,co-creation “out-of-the-norm” ideas, as there is no need to build on cumulativecommunities for knowledge or past experiences, orgrowing ideas to form a consensus.Research has found different On eYeka, community memberstypes of innovative consumers, choose which projects they wantfor example lead and emergent to participate in. This ensuresusers – usually the outliers of the that they are self-motivatedintended target audiences for your to contribute ideas and haveproduct or service, have higher a degree of appreciation forprobability of coming up with the brand. Unlike participantsdisruptive, innovative solutionsxxv. being screened before theyOnline co-creation communities can join a focus group, eYeka19 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

does not impose filters or must- 3.2.2 Engage withhave characteristics to join acompetition. The diversity of your consumersparticipants, backgrounds and on dedicatedopinions provides a higher chanceof getting decentralised, refreshing platforms forinterpretations and solutions to insights, ideacreative challenges. A recent consolidationexample from eYeka involves ayoung British man who has never You will need to build or usebeen to India but nevertheless dedicated platforms to engagecreated a TV spot concept that your regular stakeholders in ascored highest when tested with co-creation process, be it yourIndian consumers. This participant customers, employees, partners or The diversitywas a complete outlier among suppliers. An example of such an of participants,others who mostly stemmed from application would be Starbucks’s backgrounds andthe subcontinent. The TV spot was online platform, MyStarbucksIdea.later adopted to front a nationwide opinions provides com where consumers are invitedcampaign for the launch of a new to contribute their ideas to improve a higher chanceproduct. the Starbucks experience and of getting rate those that have already been decentralised,Allowing for diversity in co-creation published. These platforms largely refreshingcontests also helps discover “blind attract brand enthusiasts (9%) and interpretations andspots”. These would be existing spectators (90%), which make solutions to creativeissues or concerns that internal them the ideal place to gather challenges.staff or even a small representative insights on what consumerssegment of a target audience did want and consolidate ideas andnot see or address prior to the co- concepts that were inspired andcreation project. adapted from creative consumers (1%) at the ideation stage. WithCompetition is the first stage in over 75,000 ideas and 750,000the ideation process, similar to votes generated (and counting),a brainstorm where participants MyStarbucksIdea.com hasfirst throw in their own ideas. The become an ideal real-time insightssecond stage is to select and lab, allowing the company to keepconsolidate the best ideas to in touch with what consumersmake them even better. This is need and want, test products andwhere a collaboration model works constantly improve its experience.best; when participants are invitedto view concepts, rate them andcomment on them. Here thenatural tendency from participantswill be a normalization of opinions,to reach a consensus.20 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

SFR, making learning fun for childrenFrench telecom operator SFR SFR gathered over a hundredwas looking to develop a range ideas, in a much shorter timeof edutainment products for frame than through a traditionalchildren. For starters, the product innovation process. Amongmanagement team was keen to the findings, eYeka creativebetter understand how a learning consumers saw edutainment as aexperience could be made more less rigid way of learning than whatinteresting and fun for children is provided in a typical classroomand what type of object could environment. Rather than being abest represent “edutainment” as a passive student, edutainment toysconcept. can enable a child to become his own teacher, i.e. to learn how toSFR worked with eYeka’s learn. Such edutainment tool cancommunity of “creative help develop a child’s creativityconsumers” on a two-stage and make him feel empowered. Asco-creation project. The first technology offers innovative ways It is important tostage focused on developing a to connect to the world children remember thatproduct that facilitates a learning can discover their world more creative consumersexperience while the second was actively, with their edutainment toy are also end-users:about the learning experience as a companion in this journey. they have a lot ofitself. At the first stage, eYeka imagination, butlaunched an unbranded co- Through this co-creation project, their ideas are quitecreation project on its platform, SFR found a wealth of ideas implementable.asking consumers to imagine and product concepts that werewhat kind of toy Santa Claus innovative yet true to its brand. Deborah Beddok,could offer to technology savvy The findings articulated some early Product Manager,children for Christmas- a toy consumer insights on edutainment SFRthat allows them to learn while while opening new possibilitieshaving fun. Participants were for the development of itschallenged to imagine the design, edutainment range.functions and multiple usesfor this new toy. The resulting “We wanted to gather new, freshconcepts proposed by consumers ideas because we were a bitwere then tested on SFR’s stuck on the topic. eYeka creativeown “innovation community”, community members were able toL’Atelier SFR. Across all concepts find ideas legitimate to our brand,proposed, three main themes as well as ideas that we wouldemerged. These formed the have had difficulty imagining. Itbasis of the second stage of the was reassuring and stimulating atproject where eYeka’s community the same time. It is important towas asked to invent the “learning remember that creative consumersexperience of tomorrow” revolving are also end-users: they have aaround interactivity, connectivity lot of imagination, but their ideasand intellectual challenge. Ideas are quite implementable”. Deborahsubmitted by the community Beddok, Product Manager, SFRwere visible to all, so that newparticipants could find inspirationor build on existing concepts.21 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

ConclusionOnline co-creation contests can accelerate the way your business innovates, shorteningmarketing and innovation cycles from months to weeks with creative, consumer-rootedideas that can potentially deliver the next game-changer for your industry. As with allcreative processes involving consumers, the results are never guaranteed. But in today’shighly kinetic competitive environment, the cost of inaction is greater. Leading globalbrands are already co-creating with eYeka. Contact the world market leader in onlineco-creation today to see how you can tap into the collective creative power of the largestcommunity of creative consumers. Authors François Pétavy, Joël Céré, Christine Tan, Yannig Roth The authors would like to extend their heartfelt appreciation to the following for their contribution in co-creating this white paper: • Bernard Cova, French Academic and forward-thinking researcher in the field of marketing • Bernhard Räber, Innovation Manager, Carlsberg Breweries • C.K. Prahalad, co-author of “The Future of Competition: Co-creating unique value with customers” • David Skerrett, Head of Social and Mobile, Euro RSCG 4D • Doug Williams, analyst and co-creation expert at Forrester Research • Eric Vernette, Professor of Marketing at the University of Toulouse and Chair of the Center for Management Research • Francis Gouillart, Co-Author of “The Power of Co-Creation” • Frederique Covington-Corbett, Asia Pacific Central Marketing Organization Lead, Microsoft • Gaurav Bhalla, CEO of Knowledge Kinetics, Chief Innovation Officer at Passenger and author of “Collaboration and Co- Creation, New Platforms for Marketing Innovation” • Jean-Fabrice Lebraty, Author and Professor at the Université Lyon 3 • Paul Sloane, Author of “A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing” • Leonardo O’Grady, ASEAN Director of Integrated Marketing Communications of Coca-Cola • Venkat Ramaswamy, cofounder of the Experience Co-Creation Partnership and co-author of “The Power of Co-Creation”22 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

About eYekaeYeka is the global market leader in online consumer co-creation.We are an online community of about 200,000 members from more than 94 countries. Our communityattracts the most creative consumers, among the 1% of content creators on the web to participate increative challenge for brands.We leverage our community of creative consumers to help companies generate creative insights, unlockinnovation opportunities and drive consumer engagement at a global level in a matter of weeks and withina confidential, IP protected environment.To date, eYeka has worked with 40 out of the top 100 leading global brands (according to Interbrand’s2011 ranking) such as Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Danone, Hyundai, Diageo andMicrosoft.For more on online co-creation, please visit www.eyeka.net.23 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

Referencesi Jack Trout. “Peter Drucker on Marketing”. x Stefan Lindegaard. “You Gotta Love Gary Gastelu. “Local Motors Going xixForbes. http://www.forbes.com/2006/06/30/ Lego – Crowdsourcing meets Open Global”. Fox News. http://www.foxnews.jack-trout-on-marketing-cx_jt_0703drucker. Innovation!”. 15inno. http://www.15inno. com/leisure/2011/12/09/local-motors-going-html com/2011/09/08/yougottalovelego/ global/ii Jena McGregor, Michael Arndt, Robert Jeffrey Grau. “How brands co-create xi xx Gaurav Bhalla, “Collaboration and Co-Berner, Ian Rowley, Kenji Hall, Gail value with customers”. Emarketer. creation: New Platforms for MarketingEdmondson, Steve Hamm, Moon Ihlwan, http://www.emarketer.com/Report. and Innovation” (New York: Springerand Andy Reinhardt. “The World’s Most aspx?code=emarketer_2000809 Science+Business Media, 2010), 99-122Innovative Companies”. BloombergBusinessWeek. http://www.businessweek. A.F. Lafley. “P&G’s Innovation Culture”. xii Doug Williams. “How not to crowdcourse: xxicom/magazine/content/06_17/b3981401. Strategy+Business. http://www.strategy- Lessons learned from the Gap’s logohtm business.com/media/file/enews-08-28-08. debacle”. Forrester Blog. http://blogs. pdf forrester.com/dwilliams/10-10-15-how_not_ The Boston Consulting Group. “Innovationiii to_crowdsource_lessons_learned_from_the_2010”. BCG. http://www.bcg.com/ Venkat Ramaswamy. “Prof. Venkat xiii gaps_logo_debacledocuments/file42620.pdf Ramaswamy Part 7: Benefits of co-creation. mov”. Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/ Todd Essig. “Managing The Psychological xxiiiv Joe McKendrick. “ CIOs: speed to market watch?v=SWKax9oLL_E Bias Against Creativity”. Forbes. http://www.is the only remaining competitive advantage”. forbes.com/sites/toddessig/2011/09/06/ZDnet http://www.zdnet.com/blog/service- Boston Consulting Group, “Innovation xiv managing-the-psychological-bias-against-oriented/cios-speed-to-market-is-the-only- 2010: A Return to Prominence – and the creativity/remaining-competitive-advantage/3888 Emergence of a New World Order”. Bcg. http://www.bcg.com/documents/file42620. Venkat Ramaswamy and Francis xxiiiv C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy. pdf Gouillart. “Building the Co-creative“CoCreation Experiences: The next practice Enterprise”. Harvard Business Review.in value creation”. Journal of interactive xv Doug Williams. “Co-Creation Contests: http://www.thepalladiumgroup.com/marketing (Summer 2004). 18, 3.. Q&A With The CEO Of eYeka”. Forrester KnowledgeObjectRepository/Events%20 Blog. http://blogs.forrester.com/doug_ -%20APAC%20and%20EMEA/Harvard%20 Doug Williams. “ Social Co-Creation: 9vi williams/11-09-20-co_creation_contests_qa_ Business%20Review%20Co-Creation%20Benefits And 6 Challenges For Using Social with_the_ceo_of_eyeka and%20Innovation.pdfTechnologies To Improve Your Products”.Forrester Blog. http://blogs.forrester. Michael I. Norton, Daniel Mochon and xvi Jakob Nielsen. “Participation Inequality: xxivcom/doug_williams/10-07-12-social_co_ Dan Ariely. “The ‘IKEA Effect’: When Labour Encouraging More Users to Contribute”.creation_9_benefits_and_6_challenges_ Leads to Love”. Harvard Business School. Useit. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/using_social_technologies_improve_your_ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6671.html participation_inequality.htmlproducts Danny Wong. “NikeID makes $100m+: xvii xxv Eric Vernette. “Marketing: Imagine Eric Von Hippel, Susumu Ogawavii Co-creation Isn’t Just a Trend”. The Better Product Concept with Lead-and Jeroen P.J. De Jong. “The Age of Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost. user or Emergent nature consumer?”.the Consumer-Innovator”. MIT Sloan com/danny-wong/nikeid-makes-100m-co- Consommateur Influenceur InfluencerManagement Review (2011). crea_b_652214.html Consumer. http://consommateurinfluenceur. blogspot.com/2011/07/marketing-imagine- Indre Liepuoniute. “Interview with Paulviii Ray Wert. “Local Motors Rally Fighter: The xviii better-product.htmlSloane on Open Innovation”. Eyeka blog. First-Ever Creative Commons Car. Jalopnik.http://en.eyeka.net/2011/06/paul_sloane_ http://jalopnik.com/5398864/local-motors- Kevin J. Boudreau and Karim R. Lakhani. xxviopen_innovation/ rally-fighter-the-first+ever-creative-commons- “How to Manage Outside Innovation”. car MIT Sloan Management Review. http://ix Keith Oliver, Edourard Samakh and Peter sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/2009-Heckmann. “Rebuilding Lego, Brick by summer/50413/how-to-manage-outside-Brick”. Strategy+Business. http://www. innovationstrategy-business.com/article/0730624 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

http://simplycrowd.com	688
http://www.resultsfromcrowds.com	414
http://lisaharrismorgan.wordpress.com	84
http://www.womarketing.fr	75
https://twitter.com	26
http://tweets.thecuratti.com	21
http://www.scoop.it	16
http://feeds.feedburner.com	12
http://www.linkedin.com	6
http://www.alertize.com	1
http://kred.com	1

Online Co-Creation to Accelerate Marketing & Innovation

by eYeka

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

11 Embeds 1,344

Statistics

Online Co-Creation to Accelerate Marketing & Innovation Document Transcript