These days you hear a lot about crowdsourcing, people say: ‘Crowdsourcing is hot’, ‘Crowdsourcing is popular’ and ‘Crowdsourcing grows rapidly’. However, we have to question our selves, is crowdsourcing really that hot? And how explosive is the growth of crowdsourcing? In order to find an answer to these questions current crowdsourcing strategies, campaigns and researches have to be analyzed.
Google insights show the popularity of crowdsourcing in the world. For me it is funny to see that my home country (the Netherlands) appears to be most interested in crowdsourcing.
In 2012 Lays introduced a successful crowdsourcing marketing campaign in the Netherlands, called “Maak de Smaak” (meaning: Create the Taste). In the final of this contest there were three flavors were people could vote on. In total 5,8 million people vote for this. There are many more examples in the article that shows the impact of crowdsourcing, but most important is: what can we expect in the future? Do you think crowdsourcing will develop more? Or did it already reach its roof?
Looking at the Gartner’s Hype Cycle, I think there is room to improve. “The Gartner Hype Cycle, featuring technologies that are the focus of attention because of particularly high levels of hype, or those that Gartner believes have the potential for significant impact”. In 2012, crowdsourcing was being plot in the hype cycle. According to Gartner it will take 5 – 10 years before crowdsourcing is a largely embraced principle in the business world.
References:
http://www.marketingfacts.nl/berichten/crowdsourcing-de-stand-van-zaken
