MoFilm is upping its game. The crowdsourcing outfit has launched MoFilmpro to help brands make high-end video more quickly. While MoFilm has been tapping its general community for creative input for some while, it’s now decided the time is right to get brand working directly with some of our most talented aspring filmmakers – ie it’s crowdsourcing those who have been previous competition winners, and runners up who have produced consistently high quality work across multiple brands and contests.
mofilmpro
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Showing posts with label mofilm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mofilm. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Unilever announces crowdsourcing success and a new website
By Arif Durrani, marketingmagazine.co.uk, 12 October 2010, 03:46PM
Unilever, the world's second-largest advertiser, is changing the way it markets itself to incorporate more crowdsourcing and co-creation opportunities and to be less "corporate", according to chief marketer Keith Weed.
Speaking at the Guardian Advertising Summit today, Weed, who earlier this year became the first man to be responsible for all marketing, communications and sustainability strategies at the multinational conglomerate, indicated more change was on its way.
Among the things set to get an overhaul is Unilever’s flagship site itself, Unilever.com.
Weed said the company would respond to consumers’ wishes for the company to be less corporate and to speak to them in their own language.
He said: "I don’t think that a lot of company sites have realised that their biggest users now are consumers. And we’re guilty as well. Go on to Unilever.com, we’re still very corporate. That will change.
"We’re still very corporate in our face to the outside world, because it is positioned to a financial analyst or a journalist.
"The truth of the matter is over 60% of the people that go to Unilever.com now are consumers and future employees, and we should engage them in that way. So more, certainly on my side, on that."
Talking about future plans for the British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer brands in foods, drink, cleaning agents and personal care products, Weed said it was centred around being more "joined-up", both internally and externally.
"It wasn’t so long ago that [Unilever] communications would have been over here, with marketing over there," he said.
"Unilever.com would have been communications and the Unilever corporate brand run by marketing. In a more transparent digital world it has to be joined-up… a more cohesive front."
Weed has already committed to doubling the company’s digital marketing budget during his first year, justified by his simple motto: "We fish where the fishes are".
Today he added: "We will be taking a much more proactive stance in the area of YouTube, Facebook, etc, even at a Unilever corporate level."
One initiative that is sure to shape Unilever’s digital strategy has been the well-publicised partnership with film competition board Mofilm, announced in April.
The crowdsourcing drive to generate short commercial films for 13 Unilever brands was today reported to have garnered 10,000 downloaded briefs by up-and-coming filmmaking talent. This activity has been in addition to crowdsourcing for Peperami and for the successful launch of Dove Men + Care in the US.
Weed hinted that more "interactive" Unilever ads would launch in the UK shortly.
Meanwhile, smartphones were identified as "the next step up, the next big transformation" for marketers. He added: "One factoid I’ll share with you because I love this one, is that there are more mobile phones now than toilets in India."
Weed concluded: "We hear a lot about climate change right now and I would argue that certainly from my perspective, from a brand perspective, the climate has very much changed and the revolution we’re in the middle of is a very exciting time for marketing, and there’s a huge amount of opportunity."
To Learn More click Here
Unilever, the world's second-largest advertiser, is changing the way it markets itself to incorporate more crowdsourcing and co-creation opportunities and to be less "corporate", according to chief marketer Keith Weed.
Speaking at the Guardian Advertising Summit today, Weed, who earlier this year became the first man to be responsible for all marketing, communications and sustainability strategies at the multinational conglomerate, indicated more change was on its way.
Among the things set to get an overhaul is Unilever’s flagship site itself, Unilever.com.
Weed said the company would respond to consumers’ wishes for the company to be less corporate and to speak to them in their own language.
He said: "I don’t think that a lot of company sites have realised that their biggest users now are consumers. And we’re guilty as well. Go on to Unilever.com, we’re still very corporate. That will change.
"We’re still very corporate in our face to the outside world, because it is positioned to a financial analyst or a journalist.
"The truth of the matter is over 60% of the people that go to Unilever.com now are consumers and future employees, and we should engage them in that way. So more, certainly on my side, on that."
Talking about future plans for the British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer brands in foods, drink, cleaning agents and personal care products, Weed said it was centred around being more "joined-up", both internally and externally.
"It wasn’t so long ago that [Unilever] communications would have been over here, with marketing over there," he said.
"Unilever.com would have been communications and the Unilever corporate brand run by marketing. In a more transparent digital world it has to be joined-up… a more cohesive front."
Weed has already committed to doubling the company’s digital marketing budget during his first year, justified by his simple motto: "We fish where the fishes are".
Today he added: "We will be taking a much more proactive stance in the area of YouTube, Facebook, etc, even at a Unilever corporate level."
One initiative that is sure to shape Unilever’s digital strategy has been the well-publicised partnership with film competition board Mofilm, announced in April.
The crowdsourcing drive to generate short commercial films for 13 Unilever brands was today reported to have garnered 10,000 downloaded briefs by up-and-coming filmmaking talent. This activity has been in addition to crowdsourcing for Peperami and for the successful launch of Dove Men + Care in the US.
Weed hinted that more "interactive" Unilever ads would launch in the UK shortly.
Meanwhile, smartphones were identified as "the next step up, the next big transformation" for marketers. He added: "One factoid I’ll share with you because I love this one, is that there are more mobile phones now than toilets in India."
Weed concluded: "We hear a lot about climate change right now and I would argue that certainly from my perspective, from a brand perspective, the climate has very much changed and the revolution we’re in the middle of is a very exciting time for marketing, and there’s a huge amount of opportunity."
To Learn More click Here
Friday, July 2, 2010
Digital takes ad campaigns closer to Hollywood
When the leading lights in advertising gathered in Cannes last week for the annual festival, traditional models of content creation were forced into a back seat.
Actor Ben Stiller made the corny but inevitable joke during his presentation with Yahoo! at the Cannes Lions 57th International Advertising Festival last week: “You mean this isn’t the Cannes Film Festival? That explains all the purple in my room”
But the event bore a greater resemblance to the region’s signature film festival than most of the 8,000 people who attended might have anticipated. Film industry heavyweights such as Where the Wild Things Are director Spike Jonze, Avatar producer Jon Landau and Stiller himself all appeared as part of brand presentations in Cannes last week.
Their involvement illustrates how the world of online distribution has pulled the two sectors closer together as creative collaborations help brands win consumers’ hearts and minds. It also called into question the future of traditional product-led TV spots as debate raged about whether this form of advertising had become redundant thanks to the popularity of online virals.
Emotional stories
While Jonze and Stiller appeared in conjunction with Kraft and Yahoo! respectively, Avatar’s Landau headed a film showcase by video competition board Mofilm, highlighting the work of brands such as Lego and Coke Zero.
The pieces shown were more like short films than traditional TV spots, lending themselves to viral sharing and online discussions - the future for all brands, as consensus from discussions during the week confirmed. Lego’s work showed a young boy putting single Lego bricks into a glass bottle, which he throws out to sea only to return to the beach some time later to find the same bottle encasing a completed Lego structure.
Coke Zero’s piece, meanwhile, featured Odd Couple-style flatmates on the hunt for a new couch. The problem of finding a couch to suit both the tall thin one and the short stocky one is solved when drinking Coke Zero leads to the brainwave of cutting two couches in half and joining them up.
The project has inspired Coca-Cola marketers to create more viral content. “Our ambition around what to do with content has increased,” said Coca-Cola vice-president of global advertising Jonathan Mildenhall. “Traditional models of content creation aren’t going to help us develop the right content and emotional stories around our brand.”
Online virals
The concept of brands and films isn’t unique to this year’s festival - Mofilm was present at Cannes Lions last year, while agency Saatchi & Saatchi has produced a showcase of new directing talent for the past 20 years. But it is the evolution of the digital space that has seen the two sectors move closer together, along with the emerging trend for online virals to precede a TV presence. Evian, Nike and The Sun are just a few examples of brands that have produced online ads that have filtered out to TV by popular demand.
“It is the opposite to how it used to be, but it’s not so different to what ads have always been about,” Jimmy Maymann, co-founder of branded content distribution company Go Viral, told Marketing Week in Cannes. “It is coming back to where advertising started - what is the narrative and the role of the brand?
“Now brands are delivering content that the consumer can ’pull’ rather than just have content ’pushed’ at them, and produce multiple creative pieces rather than just one TV spot. But brands must discover what the dynamics are that get people to share or rate videos and what impact that has on the brand.”
Branded content is now becoming a serious part of marketing strategies, and the extension of the internet to multiple devices means there is a growing critical mass for brands to address via the web. Henrique de Castro, Google vice-president for global media and platforms, told an audience in Cannes that the rise of online video is reaching a “tipping point for digital display”.
He claimed that while the average person in Europe now watches 26 hours of TV a week, around 18 hours a week is spent online as the internet moves increasingly out of the home; and clearly brands should point their activity towards where people are.
“The convergence of video online and TV will be a powerful tool for advertisers and agencies,” de Castro said. Instead of product spots being “blasted out” on TV, brands can eliminate wasted budget and tailor creative pieces towards specific audiences through various online avenues.
He advised: “Rebalance your media mix because the whole world will become digital.”
As brands move from static campaigns to creative activities spanning across media, it appears digital should no longer exist separately in a marketing or agency structure. And as online films and high profile creatives become an important element of this, perhaps it won’t be long before the advertising industry joins forces with Cannes’ most famous festival.
To Learn More Click Here
Actor Ben Stiller made the corny but inevitable joke during his presentation with Yahoo! at the Cannes Lions 57th International Advertising Festival last week: “You mean this isn’t the Cannes Film Festival? That explains all the purple in my room”
But the event bore a greater resemblance to the region’s signature film festival than most of the 8,000 people who attended might have anticipated. Film industry heavyweights such as Where the Wild Things Are director Spike Jonze, Avatar producer Jon Landau and Stiller himself all appeared as part of brand presentations in Cannes last week.
Their involvement illustrates how the world of online distribution has pulled the two sectors closer together as creative collaborations help brands win consumers’ hearts and minds. It also called into question the future of traditional product-led TV spots as debate raged about whether this form of advertising had become redundant thanks to the popularity of online virals.
Emotional stories
While Jonze and Stiller appeared in conjunction with Kraft and Yahoo! respectively, Avatar’s Landau headed a film showcase by video competition board Mofilm, highlighting the work of brands such as Lego and Coke Zero.
The pieces shown were more like short films than traditional TV spots, lending themselves to viral sharing and online discussions - the future for all brands, as consensus from discussions during the week confirmed. Lego’s work showed a young boy putting single Lego bricks into a glass bottle, which he throws out to sea only to return to the beach some time later to find the same bottle encasing a completed Lego structure.
Coke Zero’s piece, meanwhile, featured Odd Couple-style flatmates on the hunt for a new couch. The problem of finding a couch to suit both the tall thin one and the short stocky one is solved when drinking Coke Zero leads to the brainwave of cutting two couches in half and joining them up.
The project has inspired Coca-Cola marketers to create more viral content. “Our ambition around what to do with content has increased,” said Coca-Cola vice-president of global advertising Jonathan Mildenhall. “Traditional models of content creation aren’t going to help us develop the right content and emotional stories around our brand.”
Online virals
The concept of brands and films isn’t unique to this year’s festival - Mofilm was present at Cannes Lions last year, while agency Saatchi & Saatchi has produced a showcase of new directing talent for the past 20 years. But it is the evolution of the digital space that has seen the two sectors move closer together, along with the emerging trend for online virals to precede a TV presence. Evian, Nike and The Sun are just a few examples of brands that have produced online ads that have filtered out to TV by popular demand.
“It is the opposite to how it used to be, but it’s not so different to what ads have always been about,” Jimmy Maymann, co-founder of branded content distribution company Go Viral, told Marketing Week in Cannes. “It is coming back to where advertising started - what is the narrative and the role of the brand?
“Now brands are delivering content that the consumer can ’pull’ rather than just have content ’pushed’ at them, and produce multiple creative pieces rather than just one TV spot. But brands must discover what the dynamics are that get people to share or rate videos and what impact that has on the brand.”
Branded content is now becoming a serious part of marketing strategies, and the extension of the internet to multiple devices means there is a growing critical mass for brands to address via the web. Henrique de Castro, Google vice-president for global media and platforms, told an audience in Cannes that the rise of online video is reaching a “tipping point for digital display”.
He claimed that while the average person in Europe now watches 26 hours of TV a week, around 18 hours a week is spent online as the internet moves increasingly out of the home; and clearly brands should point their activity towards where people are.
“The convergence of video online and TV will be a powerful tool for advertisers and agencies,” de Castro said. Instead of product spots being “blasted out” on TV, brands can eliminate wasted budget and tailor creative pieces towards specific audiences through various online avenues.
He advised: “Rebalance your media mix because the whole world will become digital.”
As brands move from static campaigns to creative activities spanning across media, it appears digital should no longer exist separately in a marketing or agency structure. And as online films and high profile creatives become an important element of this, perhaps it won’t be long before the advertising industry joins forces with Cannes’ most famous festival.
To Learn More Click Here
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Big ideas and packed auditoriums
by Madhukar Kamath Managing Director and CEO, Mudra group
The Leo Burnett seminar about the collective mindset evolving every four years, akin to a generation gap every four years was very interesting. Clients sending out briefs into the cyberspace and getting back excellent stuff was highlighted by the excellent MOFILM session. Hearing from Soren Lund from Lego was an eye opener for me. Lego, a favourite of mine, has over 550,000 user generated videos on You Tube. Truly living up to its title of ‘Brain Food'!
The last two days have been packed. Nothing surprising, given the schedule, the names, the events, the functions and not to mention all the fun at 79 La Croisette, affectionately known as The Gutter Bar.
One thing is certain. The Cannes Festival this year has been ‘BIG'— in terms of both, ideas and learnings. The enthusiasm of the delegates also marks a turning point for the festival. Never before have I seen so many delegates troop in early in the morning and stay right through all the seminar sessions. Never. And it took a 27-year-old to pack the maximum number of people ever into the Debussy auditorium. A record that the Cannes authorities announced with glee at the Award shows later in the evening. After all when Mark Zuckerberg was in session, everybody wanted to be there.
From Zuckerberg's session, what stayed with me are two simple statements. He said that ‘Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) was funded when he was in mid-school'. And ‘everybody has friends and family'. Two statements that were simple, but absolutely self explanatory. He also spoke of Facebook's philosophy of ‘designing products around people' and ‘changing the world'. Later in the evening on Wednesday, he was awarded the ‘Media Person' of the year. The best question of the day was the one put forward by the interviewer who asked Mark, ‘what would you like to be when you grow up?' This brought the house down. In all, Zuckerberg's session was very enjoyable due to his passion and clarity of vision.
Since the Indian wins, non-wins and metals tally have been written about a great deal, I would only like to register my own disappointment and move on. Anyway, for me, the highlight of Wednesday evening's award show was the ‘Cyber Lions'. But before I write more about that, let me recommend the Grand Prix winning entry in Design from a small independent Brussels-based agency called Happiness. Their idea, ‘The IQ Fonts', is truly a big, big idea. Brilliantly executed.
Amalgam of technology
What came through again and again in the Cyber Lions category was the amalgam of technology with simple but big ideas. The Grand Prix for DDB Stockholm for VW Fun Theory and Weiden +Kennedy for Nike (NYSE:NKE) Chalkbot were truly deserving. The DDB London entry for Monopoly City Gameboard, TBWA Paris entry for Aides, Grey Barcelona for Pilot Pen, Mobile Dreams Factory Madrid for Ikea, The Sounds of Hamburg Philarmonic orchestra by Jung von Matt were my other favourites. Truly deserving winners.
Wednesday was another big day for celebrity speakers. Jon Landau, the producer of Avatar and Titanic, was excellent. His explanation of the technology that transformed the expressions of actors to what we saw in Avatar was a real revelation. Spike Jonze was up next, followed by Mark Zuckerberg. You couldn't have had a better morning.
While the Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) session was great for the techies and gadget geeks, the R/GA session was simple, straight forward and hard hitting. Dyed in the wool, stubborn and close-minded agencies could do well to wake up and smell the coffee. The need to re imagine brands, redesign teams and rearchitect is critical — the process was never more important. The message is clear. Change, or just be a part of the audience and watch the world go by. The Leo Burnett seminar about the collective mindset evolving every four years, akin to a generation gap every four years was very interesting. Clients sending out briefs into the cyberspace and getting back excellent stuff was highlighted by the excellent MOFILM session. Hearing from Soren Lund from Lego was an eye opener for me. Lego, a favourite of mine, has over 550,000 user generated videos on You Tube. Truly living up to its title of ‘Brain Food'!
The DDB seminar on Thursday truly highlighted the fact that mere content is of no use, it needs to be presented well too. The Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors showcase lived up to its top billing. We had a packed Grand Auditorium well in time for the start. I missed a few sessions due to a DDB Asia Pacific luncheon in pretty Moulin de Mougin. But I will get up to speed with the help of my colleagues. From what I hear, I missed a couple of good sessions. I mention this just to highlight the fact again that the goodies never seem to end. There is something different every hour. Today, Day 6 will feature sessions from Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) , AKQA, Naked etc. A full house guaranteed by the fact that we will also have Martin Sorell in conversation with Keith Weed, the new CMO of Unilever (NYSE:UL) -the Advertiser of the Year at Cannes this year, along with Maurice Levy with Bob McDonalds, the CEO of P &G, author-director Hermann Vaske and Yoko-Ono.
To Learn More Click Here
The Leo Burnett seminar about the collective mindset evolving every four years, akin to a generation gap every four years was very interesting. Clients sending out briefs into the cyberspace and getting back excellent stuff was highlighted by the excellent MOFILM session. Hearing from Soren Lund from Lego was an eye opener for me. Lego, a favourite of mine, has over 550,000 user generated videos on You Tube. Truly living up to its title of ‘Brain Food'!
The last two days have been packed. Nothing surprising, given the schedule, the names, the events, the functions and not to mention all the fun at 79 La Croisette, affectionately known as The Gutter Bar.
One thing is certain. The Cannes Festival this year has been ‘BIG'— in terms of both, ideas and learnings. The enthusiasm of the delegates also marks a turning point for the festival. Never before have I seen so many delegates troop in early in the morning and stay right through all the seminar sessions. Never. And it took a 27-year-old to pack the maximum number of people ever into the Debussy auditorium. A record that the Cannes authorities announced with glee at the Award shows later in the evening. After all when Mark Zuckerberg was in session, everybody wanted to be there.
From Zuckerberg's session, what stayed with me are two simple statements. He said that ‘Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) was funded when he was in mid-school'. And ‘everybody has friends and family'. Two statements that were simple, but absolutely self explanatory. He also spoke of Facebook's philosophy of ‘designing products around people' and ‘changing the world'. Later in the evening on Wednesday, he was awarded the ‘Media Person' of the year. The best question of the day was the one put forward by the interviewer who asked Mark, ‘what would you like to be when you grow up?' This brought the house down. In all, Zuckerberg's session was very enjoyable due to his passion and clarity of vision.
Since the Indian wins, non-wins and metals tally have been written about a great deal, I would only like to register my own disappointment and move on. Anyway, for me, the highlight of Wednesday evening's award show was the ‘Cyber Lions'. But before I write more about that, let me recommend the Grand Prix winning entry in Design from a small independent Brussels-based agency called Happiness. Their idea, ‘The IQ Fonts', is truly a big, big idea. Brilliantly executed.
Amalgam of technology
What came through again and again in the Cyber Lions category was the amalgam of technology with simple but big ideas. The Grand Prix for DDB Stockholm for VW Fun Theory and Weiden +Kennedy for Nike (NYSE:NKE) Chalkbot were truly deserving. The DDB London entry for Monopoly City Gameboard, TBWA Paris entry for Aides, Grey Barcelona for Pilot Pen, Mobile Dreams Factory Madrid for Ikea, The Sounds of Hamburg Philarmonic orchestra by Jung von Matt were my other favourites. Truly deserving winners.
Wednesday was another big day for celebrity speakers. Jon Landau, the producer of Avatar and Titanic, was excellent. His explanation of the technology that transformed the expressions of actors to what we saw in Avatar was a real revelation. Spike Jonze was up next, followed by Mark Zuckerberg. You couldn't have had a better morning.
While the Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) session was great for the techies and gadget geeks, the R/GA session was simple, straight forward and hard hitting. Dyed in the wool, stubborn and close-minded agencies could do well to wake up and smell the coffee. The need to re imagine brands, redesign teams and rearchitect is critical — the process was never more important. The message is clear. Change, or just be a part of the audience and watch the world go by. The Leo Burnett seminar about the collective mindset evolving every four years, akin to a generation gap every four years was very interesting. Clients sending out briefs into the cyberspace and getting back excellent stuff was highlighted by the excellent MOFILM session. Hearing from Soren Lund from Lego was an eye opener for me. Lego, a favourite of mine, has over 550,000 user generated videos on You Tube. Truly living up to its title of ‘Brain Food'!
The DDB seminar on Thursday truly highlighted the fact that mere content is of no use, it needs to be presented well too. The Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors showcase lived up to its top billing. We had a packed Grand Auditorium well in time for the start. I missed a few sessions due to a DDB Asia Pacific luncheon in pretty Moulin de Mougin. But I will get up to speed with the help of my colleagues. From what I hear, I missed a couple of good sessions. I mention this just to highlight the fact again that the goodies never seem to end. There is something different every hour. Today, Day 6 will feature sessions from Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) , AKQA, Naked etc. A full house guaranteed by the fact that we will also have Martin Sorell in conversation with Keith Weed, the new CMO of Unilever (NYSE:UL) -the Advertiser of the Year at Cannes this year, along with Maurice Levy with Bob McDonalds, the CEO of P &G, author-director Hermann Vaske and Yoko-Ono.
To Learn More Click Here
Friday, June 25, 2010
You Too Can Fund a TV Show
In tough economic times, creators have to get a little more creative about funding their projects. Witness the success of Diaspora’s efforts on Kickstarter.com and Jill Sobule’s recent donor-backed album. Filmmakers Josh Bernhard and Bracey Smith are now attempting to fund the development of a TV series, Pioneer One, through individual donors. They’ve successfully raised $6,000 for the pilot episode (available on Vodo), and are hoping to raise an additional $20,000 for the next three episodes. (HT: Daniel Gaglio)
To Learn More Click Here
To Learn More Click Here
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Consumers Can Snuggle With Lipton, Surf With Vaseline or Get Close Up With Lifebuoy
Another giant consumer marketer is turning to a company that specializes in crowdsourcing contests for advertising ideas.
Unilever has hired Mofilm, based in London, to oversee what is being called Unilever’s Consumer Creative Challenge. It is a contest to create short films of up to 90 seconds — or long commercials, depending on your perspective — for any of 13 Unilever brands sold in markets around the world.
The contest is to be unveiled at the Tribeca Film Festival, where Mofilm plans to announce on Wednesday the winners of a similar contest that asked filmmakers and other creative types to produce ads for brands like Best Buy, Chex Mix, Nature Valley and Nokia.
The winners will be announced at the London Film Festival in October. Five winners will be selected for each of the 13 brands; one overall winner will receive 7,000 British pounds (about $10,683).
The 13 brands are Axe, Ben & Jerry’s, Close Up, Dove deodorant, Heart Brand ice creams, Knorr, Lifebuoy, Lipton, Rexona deodorant, Snuggle, Sunsilk, Surf and Vaseline.
More information about the Unilever challenge will be available on the Mofilm Web site.
Crowdsourcing refers to open innovation, usually online, that relies on the so-called wisdom of crowds to produce concepts. Participants can be amateurs, professionals or anyone in between. Crowdsourcing is used as an alternative to the traditional model of hiring advertising agencies to generate ideas from teams of copywriters and art directors.
Proponents praise the concept’s ability to find filmmakers, artists, writers and creative thinkers from outside the usual channels. Critics of the practice say it pits struggling artists against one another for small prizes.
To Learn More Click Here
Unilever has hired Mofilm, based in London, to oversee what is being called Unilever’s Consumer Creative Challenge. It is a contest to create short films of up to 90 seconds — or long commercials, depending on your perspective — for any of 13 Unilever brands sold in markets around the world.
The contest is to be unveiled at the Tribeca Film Festival, where Mofilm plans to announce on Wednesday the winners of a similar contest that asked filmmakers and other creative types to produce ads for brands like Best Buy, Chex Mix, Nature Valley and Nokia.
The winners will be announced at the London Film Festival in October. Five winners will be selected for each of the 13 brands; one overall winner will receive 7,000 British pounds (about $10,683).
The 13 brands are Axe, Ben & Jerry’s, Close Up, Dove deodorant, Heart Brand ice creams, Knorr, Lifebuoy, Lipton, Rexona deodorant, Snuggle, Sunsilk, Surf and Vaseline.
More information about the Unilever challenge will be available on the Mofilm Web site.
Crowdsourcing refers to open innovation, usually online, that relies on the so-called wisdom of crowds to produce concepts. Participants can be amateurs, professionals or anyone in between. Crowdsourcing is used as an alternative to the traditional model of hiring advertising agencies to generate ideas from teams of copywriters and art directors.
Proponents praise the concept’s ability to find filmmakers, artists, writers and creative thinkers from outside the usual channels. Critics of the practice say it pits struggling artists against one another for small prizes.
To Learn More Click Here
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Francesco D’Orazio on outsourcing to the masses...
Barely a day goes by without a website, campaign or competition cropping up, promising to harness the collective wisdom of crowds – the likes of you and me – for the benefit of brands. brand-e spoke to Francesco D’Orazio, md of crowdsourcing and co-creation specialists Face Wired to get the skinny.Firstly, for those who have been living under a rock this summer, what exactly do we mean by crowdsourcing?
Well, there are a number of definitions and, depending on your speciality, it may vary slightly. Essentially, it’s when a company broadcasts a problem to a crowd instead of getting one or two experts to work on solutions. It’s outsourcing to the masses - the key elements for most forms of crowdsourcing are peer-reviewed collaboration and bottom-up idea generation. What are the benefits to brands in going down this route? It’s a very productive way of using crowds. Crowdsourcing, in one form or another, has been around for about 15 years, but with social media, brands have found a way of harnessing crowd creativity on a much larger scale. And there is huge value for brands in this method. They get a global, diversified crowd, a wider range of talent, rich spontaneous insights - plus it’s cost effective, and it provides great word-of-mouth for the brand. Sounds like a marketing director’s dream. Are there no drawbacks? Crowdsourcing by itself is a bit limited, you need a top-down approach to counteract it – there has to be some way to funnel the data and ideas generated. Plus, crowdsourcing tends to be more of a vertical process, there is lax collaboration - the best solutions come when people are allowed and encouraged to build on each other’s ideas. Also, because crowdsourcing is not targeted, brands cannot afford to give too much away about company strategy, meaning briefs can be somewhat limited in detail. Are there workarounds? When we work with brands we use a process called co-creation. It’s phase two, after crowdsourcing. It’s a way of brands collaborating directly with selected people from the crowdsourcing phase, to respond to a brief. Rather than conversing with 5,000 people as they would in crowdsourcing, they are talking to 20 to 25 highly targeted individuals through on- and offline activity. Co-creation provides the strong, strategic thinking that is missing from crowdsourcing.It gives a more direct communication between brand and consumer? Exactly. Somebody has always played the role of middleman between brands and consumers, be it agencies or experts. Social media has exposed the flaws in that system and brands have realised the need to have a continuous, ongoing relationship with the consumer. The cartel of media owners, agencies and brands that has existed up till now has been blown open. Brands now know they have to put consumers and online communities at the heart of what they do.
Does that mean brands relinquishing more control? It’s not about handing over control, it’s about collaborating. If brands open up too much, they lose control of consumer expectations, which is the most dangerous thing that can happen. People start expecting things that there is no chance the brand can deliver. Giving up too much control will eventually lead to a backlash from the consumer. There is an abundance of platforms offering crowdsourced solutions: crowdSPRING, 99 Designs, Zopa and Mofilm.comspring to mind. Is this a real shift in advertising, or is it simply an ad fad? These kinds of sites will have an impact on the number of creatives hired by agencies long term. It makes sense for brands and agencies to rebalance and redistribute the roles within their organisations, but it would be a mistake for people to put too much emphasis on crowdsourcing. There will always be a need for people with expertise to provide top-down analysis of the ideas generated. Crowdsourcing will still exist in five years time but I think most of these sites will have disappeared - most likely, one or two will hold a monopoly.
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Well, there are a number of definitions and, depending on your speciality, it may vary slightly. Essentially, it’s when a company broadcasts a problem to a crowd instead of getting one or two experts to work on solutions. It’s outsourcing to the masses - the key elements for most forms of crowdsourcing are peer-reviewed collaboration and bottom-up idea generation. What are the benefits to brands in going down this route? It’s a very productive way of using crowds. Crowdsourcing, in one form or another, has been around for about 15 years, but with social media, brands have found a way of harnessing crowd creativity on a much larger scale. And there is huge value for brands in this method. They get a global, diversified crowd, a wider range of talent, rich spontaneous insights - plus it’s cost effective, and it provides great word-of-mouth for the brand. Sounds like a marketing director’s dream. Are there no drawbacks? Crowdsourcing by itself is a bit limited, you need a top-down approach to counteract it – there has to be some way to funnel the data and ideas generated. Plus, crowdsourcing tends to be more of a vertical process, there is lax collaboration - the best solutions come when people are allowed and encouraged to build on each other’s ideas. Also, because crowdsourcing is not targeted, brands cannot afford to give too much away about company strategy, meaning briefs can be somewhat limited in detail. Are there workarounds? When we work with brands we use a process called co-creation. It’s phase two, after crowdsourcing. It’s a way of brands collaborating directly with selected people from the crowdsourcing phase, to respond to a brief. Rather than conversing with 5,000 people as they would in crowdsourcing, they are talking to 20 to 25 highly targeted individuals through on- and offline activity. Co-creation provides the strong, strategic thinking that is missing from crowdsourcing.It gives a more direct communication between brand and consumer? Exactly. Somebody has always played the role of middleman between brands and consumers, be it agencies or experts. Social media has exposed the flaws in that system and brands have realised the need to have a continuous, ongoing relationship with the consumer. The cartel of media owners, agencies and brands that has existed up till now has been blown open. Brands now know they have to put consumers and online communities at the heart of what they do.
Does that mean brands relinquishing more control? It’s not about handing over control, it’s about collaborating. If brands open up too much, they lose control of consumer expectations, which is the most dangerous thing that can happen. People start expecting things that there is no chance the brand can deliver. Giving up too much control will eventually lead to a backlash from the consumer. There is an abundance of platforms offering crowdsourced solutions: crowdSPRING, 99 Designs, Zopa and Mofilm.comspring to mind. Is this a real shift in advertising, or is it simply an ad fad? These kinds of sites will have an impact on the number of creatives hired by agencies long term. It makes sense for brands and agencies to rebalance and redistribute the roles within their organisations, but it would be a mistake for people to put too much emphasis on crowdsourcing. There will always be a need for people with expertise to provide top-down analysis of the ideas generated. Crowdsourcing will still exist in five years time but I think most of these sites will have disappeared - most likely, one or two will hold a monopoly.
To Learn More Click Here
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Crowdsourcing Star Mofilm.com launches video channel to promote London Film Festival
Wednesday 9 September: The programme for The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival, announced today by Artistic Director Sandra Hebron, includes a diverse selection of world and international premieres with a total of 191 features and 113 shorts screening alongside an exciting line-up of special events and expected guests.
Opening Night film, Wes Anderson’s FANTASTIC MR. FOX, is one of the Festival’s 15 world premieres and will be presented by the director and cast members including Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Helen McCrory. Other films celebrating their world premieres include Sam Taylor-Wood’s Closing Night Gala NOWHERE BOY and the Festival’s first ever Archive Gala, the BFI’s new restoration of Anthony Asquith’s UNDERGROUND, with live music accompaniment by the Prima Vista Social Club, led by Neil Brand. The Festival will also host 23 European premieres, including Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s MICMACS, Scott Hicks’ THE BOYS ARE BACK and Robert Connolly’s BALIBO, as well as Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni’s THE WELL and Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson’s MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN. The 4 international premieres that will be featured are 45365 from Bill and Turner Ross, Celine Danhier’s BLANK CITY, Mike Judge’s EXTRACT and Rumle Hammerich’s HEADHUNTER. Festival audiences will also have the chance to enjoy the UK premiere of John Lasseter’s TOY STORY 2 in Disney Digital 3D™.
mofilmchannel
Opening Night film, Wes Anderson’s FANTASTIC MR. FOX, is one of the Festival’s 15 world premieres and will be presented by the director and cast members including Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Helen McCrory. Other films celebrating their world premieres include Sam Taylor-Wood’s Closing Night Gala NOWHERE BOY and the Festival’s first ever Archive Gala, the BFI’s new restoration of Anthony Asquith’s UNDERGROUND, with live music accompaniment by the Prima Vista Social Club, led by Neil Brand. The Festival will also host 23 European premieres, including Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s MICMACS, Scott Hicks’ THE BOYS ARE BACK and Robert Connolly’s BALIBO, as well as Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni’s THE WELL and Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson’s MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN. The 4 international premieres that will be featured are 45365 from Bill and Turner Ross, Celine Danhier’s BLANK CITY, Mike Judge’s EXTRACT and Rumle Hammerich’s HEADHUNTER. Festival audiences will also have the chance to enjoy the UK premiere of John Lasseter’s TOY STORY 2 in Disney Digital 3D™.
mofilmchannel
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Mofilm crowdsources its new compettion - user generated mobile film contest
That big MOFILM Cannes Lions User-Generated Content contest with Spike Lee is being followed by a second online competition connecting some of the world's biggest brands with filmmakers creating for the smallest of small screens.
To Learn More Click Here
To Learn More Click Here
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Spike Lee & Mofilm.com seminar...
Spike Lee, the Emmy Award-winning and Academy-nominated film director, producer, writer and actor, has recently entered the user-generated content fray directing a short film comprising YouTube-style videos created by teenagers and adults using their mobile phones for Nokia. Spike came to Cannes Lions to share his own UGC experiences and preside over the results of the MOFILM user-generated content initiative.
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