This week, we distill insights around KBC bank's Gap in the Market – a collective intelligence platform to crowdsource local business opportunities, aggregate data and present it back to local entrepreneurs. 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have further synthesized the insights to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part People’s Insights annual report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement, now available as a Kindle eBook. For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/future-of-engagement

1. crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data
KBC bank’s Gap in
the Market
People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 20

2. Volume 2, Issue 20,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
KBC bank’s Gap in
the Market
100+ thinkers and planners within
MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring
projects on social data, crowdsourcing,
storytelling and citizenship on the
MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every
week, we pick up one project and curate
the conversations around it — on the
MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but
also on the broader social web — into
a weekly insights report. Every quarter,
we compile these insights, along with
original research and insights from the
MSLGROUP global network, into the
People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine.
We have synthesized the insights from
our year-long endeavor throughout 2012
to provide foresights for business leaders
and changemakers — in the ten-part
People’s Insights Annual Report titled
Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future
of Engagement.
People’s Insights
In 2013, we continue to track inspiring
projects at the intersection of social
data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and
citizenship.
Do subscribe to receive our weekly
insights reports, quarterly magazines, and
annual reports, and do share your tips and
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People’s Insights
weekly report
People’s Insights
quarterly magazines
People’s Insights
Annual Report

3. 3
What is Gap in the Market?
In February 2013, KBC bank in Belgium launched
The Gap in the Market – a collective intelligence
platform to crowdsource local business
opportunities, aggregate data and present it back
to local entrepreneurs. The bank accompanied
the platform with a vote-based contest to
crowdsource business ideas and supported
popular ideas with coverage and prizes.
Source: lareclame.fr*
171,157 gaps in the market were reported in
three months – an average of 560 reports per
town or city – and 1,500 business ideas were
submitted. The program also piqued the
interest of marketers and advertisers and won
a Gold Lion in the Direct category at Cannes
Lions 2013.
Purpose-inspired marketing
With The Gap in the Market, KBC establishes
a sound overlap between people’s
interests and business interests. The
program helps local entrepreneurs identify
opportunities and also helps KBC promote
its banking, loans and insurance services for
entrepreneurs.
In addition to helping entrepreneurs
identify opportunities, KBC also encouraged
entrepreneurs to discuss their ideas with
local KBC executives and awarded 20
contest winners the use of company cars
for 6 months, to help them set up their new
business.
Source: twitter.com/zhangcheng_uk
Blogger Pierre-Nicolas Schwab commented:
“Kudos to KBC. We usually see banks as a
hurdle in the entrepreneurial process but this
time someone seems to think differently and
wants to re-invent the process.”
The program is quite timely too, as copywriter
Hugo pointed out:
KBC has done what any bank would do
given the current economic situation: truly
help citizens to start businesses and thereby
improve the economy.*
Indeed, purpose-inspired programs
are becoming the new standard, as
MSLGROUP’s Pascal Beucler points out in
his reflections as a PR Lions juror:
“It’s a purpose-led world: more and more big
corporations and brands are embracing a
‘bigger-than’ USP and even old style social
responsibility. For engaging Gen Y, and soon
Gen Z, this is no longer an option.”
Crowdsourcing “gaps”
People submitted gaps in their local market
online using the Gap Finder tool. Then,
entrepreneurs browsed through this data on
an interactive map, and filtered to see the top
businesses needed in a specific region and
compare needs across regions.
*Translation via Google

4. Volume 2, Issue 20,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
KBC bank’s Gap in
the Market
Source: slideshare.net/cleverwood
Source: hetgatindemarkt.be/nl/8500/viswinkels*
The interactive map displayed gaps shared by people and also statistic data collected by yellow
pages business Truvo.
Using statistical data as seed
content
KBC pre-seeded the map with statistical
data to create a base of content, which would
then inspire the first wave of visitors to create
additional content.
Here’s a slide from KBC’s The Gap in the
Market case study that explains the value of
seeded content:
Typically, we see marketers use social
conversations around a hashtag or real-time
data feeds and indexes to populate content
on collective intelligence platforms.
Reactions to the program
The program sparked conversations around
local businesses, as people shared gaps,
analyzed the data and commented on the
methodology of the platform.
Source: twitter.com/hannelulu*
Source: twitter.com/BartRosseau*
Bart Rosseau commented on the
presentation of data:
*Translation via Google

5. 5
Source: Moustache vond het gat in de markt
Source: twitter.com/playzone_be*
Source: haberdasher28 on Instagram
Source: twitter.com/WouterLecluyse*
Olivier Maes and Wouter Lecluyse noted the
use of the data in identifying general trends.
Crowdsourcing business ideas
After the gaps were identified, KBC invited
entrepreneurs to ‘fill the gaps.’
To help entrepreneurs come up with ideas,
KBC created videos featuring stories of
successful entrepreneurs. Bart Claeys, a
creative director, wrote:
The second phase of the campaign is now
focusing on the potential entrepreneurs. Three
TV spot… and five different ads show examples
of original companies and companies that
should inspire people with good ideas to
venture.
The program then entered Phase III: Social
Battle – a contest in which participants
gathered support from their networks for the
chance to win one of twenty company cars.
Sixteen cars were awarded to the most
popular idea in each of the 16 regions where
KBC operates. The remaining four cars were
awarded to the next most popular ideas in
four other regions.
Promoting The Gap in the Market
KBC promoted The Gap in the Market
through localized PR stories and
advertisements – posters, radio ads, TV
spots, online ads and innovative outdoor ads
on empty store windows.
Bart Claeys reported:
Every village, town and city received
personalized posters in their offices KBC
(eg: What is missing in your opinion Halle?).
Messages were stuck on vacant premises
in shopping areas. Regional sections of the
newspapers elaborated on the specific needs of
each municipality.
*Translation via Google

6. Volume 2, Issue 20,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
KBC bank’s Gap in
the Market
Source: twitter.com/ddumery
Source: nieuwsblad.be/extra/gatindemarkt/
Source: KBC: The gap in the market
KBC partnered with leading newspaper Het
Nieuwsblad to provide local coverage across
the country and to create a special micro-site
– nieuwsblad.be/extra/gatindemarkt – which
presents interviews with participants, results
by region and top business opportunities
based on third-party data and people’s
submissions.
The micro site also features results of an
iVOX survey commissioned by KBC to study
people’s satisfaction with the shops and
services around them.
Entering national discourse
The Gap in the Market brought attention to
the lack of local businesses and inspired
both people and public leaders, like Daphne
Dumery, to join the conversation.
Trend: Move from saying to doing
Marketers from across the industry are
calling for more programs, like The Gap in
the Market, that highlight people’s problems
and deliver effective solutions – especially as
technology creates new opportunities to do
so.
Razorfish’s chairman Clark Kokick penned
the entire book Do or Die to inspire what he
calls “effective marketing: moving from just
saying things to your audience to actually
doing things people find entertaining, useful,
and relevant”:
“In the past, you could simply turn up the
volume if you wanted to get your message
across. Today, you have to turn up the value.
You have to give consumers something they
actually prize in order to have them pay
attention to you.”
AKQA’s chief creative officer Rei Inamoto
just recently argued that “Brands should aim
to solve real problems by providing connected
services over 365 days and by inventing new
businesses that benefit people, not just the
brand”:
“Creativity and innovation are about finding
unexpected solutions to obvious problems
or finding obvious solutions to unexpected
problems. We should use our creativity to
provide better businesses and solutions rather
than constantly trying to disrupt what people
are doing.”
Other examples of brands that are actively
helping people include Adelaide and
Bendigo Bank with PlanBig, and beyond
money, Nike with the FuelBand.

7. People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary
crowdsourcing platform and approach that
helps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
helps organizations build and nurture public
or private, web or mobile, hosted or white
label communities around four pre-configured
application areas: Expertise Request Network,
Innovation Challenge Network, Research &
Insights Network and Contest & Activation
Network. Our community and gaming features
encourage people to share rich content, vote/
comment on other people’s content and
collaborate to find innovative solutions.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
and approach forms the core of our distinctive
insights and foresight approach, which consists
of four elements: organic conversation analysis,
MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-
specific insights communities, and ethnographic
deep dives into these communities. The People’s
Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our
capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing
insights from conversations and communities.
People’s Lab:
Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights
Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab

8. For People’s Lab solutions, contact
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com