Very cool hack competition for the N900 phone

• Nokia N900 hacking competition
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I love a good hack competition and the guys at Nokia havent let us down with this one. Hyperhappen have built a nice little blog to give you the rundown. I think people's creativity should always be put on show by brands. As the way that people address things can often be completely different. This straight away broadens the potential benefits that people see in the product/service. So in the whole argument of crowdsourcing or co-creation etc. Is this just a simple way to continually broaden benefits in the eyes of the consumer... could do

A great structure for co-creation

If you come and read here occasionally you would probably have seen my love of co-creation and the idea of bring the consumer into the development process. Via @Armano twitter feed he tweeted a great link from a management consultancy in Amsterdam called Fronteer Strategy which is a whitepaper delivering a great structure on how to make it happend. Here is a little summary ....

The four types of co-creation

• Club of experts: A very specific challenge is needing expertise and breakthrough ideas. Contributors are found through a selection process. Quality of input is what counts (e.g. Nokia)
• Crowd of people: Also known as Crowdsourcing. For any given challenge, there might be a person out there having a genial idea that should be given a podium. It’s the Rule of the big numbers (e.g.Threadless)
• Coalition of parties: In complex situations parties team up to share ideas and investments. Technical breakthroughs and standards often happen when multiple parties collaborate (e.g. IBM)
• Community of kindred spirits: When developing something for the greater good, a group of people with similar interests and goals can come together and create (e.g. Linux)

The five guiding principles in co-creation

• Inspire participation: Trigger people to join your challenge: open up and show what’s in it for them (e.g. P&G Connect & Develop)
• Select the very best: You need the best ideas and the best people to deal with today’s complex issues (e.g. Innocentive)
• Connect creative minds: You have to enable bright people to build on each others ideas, both on- and off-line (e.g. Lego)
• Share results: Giving back to people - and finding the right way to do it - is crucial (e.g. Apple iPhone App store)
• Continue development: Co-creation is a longer-term engagement, in- and outside your company. Only then it will deliver results (e.g. Dell Ideastorm)

They also have a more comprehensive whitepaper on the subject which is awesome.

I have recently been talking with an old school mate who works at PWC. I am finding it interesting the different way we address things. If a management consultant says its alright, it must be. If anything they have created a great intangible by understanding the tangible. He often talks about going into companies and saying what everyone has been saying, but they dont want to take the blame so they hire consultants to do it for them.

My view is if they believe there is something in co-creation. Maybe our clients will have a little bit more trust in the marketing guys using it.

Some co-creation going on at Universal Mccann

Follow me - let your mind be free, originally uploaded by Kursiv.

I have discussed my love for co-creation here many a time. The comments are usually in terms of digital's and its role it making it all easier. But without selling it too much. We have a cool research technique we use at UM called ImMEDIAte Futures (like what I did with the letters) that we devised with a company called Skylab in the US that works with creating ideas for reality TV shows. Here is a great article from my colleague Cate which explains what it is all about. I have run some of these sessions, which I think are brilliant and really useful. I often have a negative view towards research. But I think this technique is awesome at uncovering real insight and also giving the people you are trying to target a chance to affect their own products and marketing. Have a read and tell me what you think.

Some inspiring stuff from Nokia's Design Department

Crystal Rain, originally uploaded by _Seahawk_.

I found this great presentation from the Nokia Design department through Dino over at Chroma. Great to see a company taking co-creation and a greater simpler usability into their focus. Should be interesting in the phone market in the coming years.

Everyone loves co-creation

Participatory Marketing - What it is, How it Works

View SlideShare presentation (tags: marsden clickadvisor advocacy brand)

Great presentation from Paul Marsden and his company click advisor
I have seen a few different presentations from Paul at different points. He has done some great work on advocacy and how co-creation can drive it. Check out some of his presentations on slideshare.

Co-creation is in fashion

scarfe, originally uploaded by mickstravellin.

I have always been a huge fan of co-creation and I have just been checking out on of future laboratory's THE magazine and found another cool business model around co-creation called WEARE.... pronounced 'wear' . Which is a crocreated fashion label. Supposedly they are talking with Savile Row to integrate co-creation into the traditional tailoring sector. Interesting

Co-Creation is the way forward

collectivization, originally uploaded by marisa zuk.

I have really been into the whole collective intelligence and the use of co-creation for a while. It sounds fantastic and makes sense but I am starting to see and hear of more and more great examples which make it more real. I was at the IPA Strategy debate today (I will write more soon) and heard of a few more. I think this is a really interesting way of what I call 'opening the ivory tower' that big companies seem to live in. So I thought I would list out a couple that I liked.

Starbucks: although I hate starbucks and their whole model. Supposedly some people do. So their input is starting to be heard at the company.

Incentive : is a program P&G developed in 2005 after the CEO stated in the future he wanted 50% of his innovation to come from outside the company. Supposedly 90,000 people are involved compared to the 7,500 they have in their R&D division world wide. It supposedly has made them launch 137 products. One of which is the international Olay Regenerist. I will try and find a website for it.

Dellideastorm: this is an interesting one that Dell created off the back of their issues with their batteries that started catching fire a few years back. This was a great way to turn the issue on its head and open up the company to comments and also innovation.

Legofactory: I was a great lover of lego as a kid. Also as I have grown older, I have started to gain a macho need to build something. So the great guys at Lego realised that the digital world was going to kill their business. So they asked the public for their help and the factory was built online. They have also used it to start building products that they are putting into stores as well.

Boots17: I think this is a great one, as although online co-creation is awesome at this stage in its life cycle (for lack of a better word) you have to utilise it for the appropriate audience and appropriate reason. Teenage audience on myspace for this brand is perfect. Teenagers want to express themselves through their creativity... (reason why myspace is full of them) and also having their names on the actual products is a huge amount of 'egoboo' a term used in the social networking world. Which is when you boost a users ego.

So there are a few great examples of co-creation. There are a number of areas that make this interesting which are:

1. Cheap research: having access to people at any time needed
2. Cheap R&D: why pay for a number of experts when you can have thousands of people who dont do it for money
   
3. Truly putting the consumer at the heart of the business
4. Advocacy: the hawthorne effect that was highlighted in research that dates back to productivity in a factory in the 20's and 30's, highlighted that getting people involved in the process increased their appeal towards it because of the respect placed on their opinion. This is a great way to deliver advocacy of your brand

This is going to become more and more important for innovative companies but also great marketing companies as well. Get moving on it