arturo in Jovoto, Profesional
02-05-09
jovoto and the German Social Democratic Party
Barak Obama has revolutionized political campaigns and the way his party has used social media to connect to potential voters has never been seen before.
Many things could be said about how his campaign developed and how he used new media to connect to his people. Websites such as Twitter where Obama ranks first, and Facebook with over 5 million supporters are just an example of this surprisingly innovative political campaign that moved the whole world.
Today, Frank-Walter Steinmeier the social democrat candidate for the German elections is taking this idea one step further involving the creative community jovoto to create his icon. jovoto is a crowd-sourcing platform based in Berlin (which I have been writing a lot lately about) that is establishing a new way of idea creation in the communication business. jovoto’s statement is “fair and fun contests” where it’s up to the community to “democratically” decide with their ratings and comments which are the best ideas. More information can be found (in german) in Kosmar’s blog who is going to be the Creative Director for this contests or in the Werben & Verkaufen.
The process is very simple, a brand such as Deutsche Bahn AG or an NGO such as GREENPEACE (both run contests in jovoto previously) or a political party such as the SPD in search for new ideas and new ways of connecting to their target deliver a task to the jovoto team who turns them into briefings for the community.
Thousands of members of the community, coming from more than 80 countries in the world, get access to this briefing. They can submit their ideas during a certain amount of time, in the SPD’s case until the 17 of March, in order to win the prizes. For Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s “icon” contest, there are 5.000 euros in prizes, split in 1.500 euros for the first place, 750€ for the second place, 500 euros for the third and another 12 prizes of 250 euros for the following ones.
But, how does this remain fair for the users that submit their ideas? It’s pretty simple, as said, it’s up to the members of the community to democratically decide which are the best ideas with their ratings, but also, they keep the rights of their ideas until they sell them. This means that the SPD will pay 3000 euros to buy an idea (on top of the prizes) and the rest of the creatives will keep the rights of their work.
What does this mean for a creative? By submitting an idea, he is joining a contest through which he has the chance to prove his talent and win one of the most revolutionary creative contests up to date. How many times does a young creative have the chance to do something like that? And more over, how often is it up to a community, and not a creative director, to decide if his idea should be shown to the client or not?
How to become a member? You can apply for an invitation to jovoto or send me an email to abarnes@jovoto.com with a short description of your creative profile. As soon as I have available invitations I will happily hand them out to creatives around the world.
