The Idea Bounty Blog

In German, Volkswagen is pronounced as "Folks-Vagen" which, not surprisingly (if you think of it as a "folks wagon") translates to "People's Car" This is pretty apt as Volkswagen has just launched a brilliant campaign called “The People’s Review” which is centered around a crowdsourcing project. They’re looking for a new kind of car critic, called the People’s Reviewer, and have turned to the consumers to fill this role. The critera? A straight talking, charismatic person to review the "effortless Tiguan". Basically, they want very own version of Jeremy Clarkson!

What’s it all about?
VW is looking for creative, entertaining and informative ways of reviewing a Tiguan (not the boring sales-type dude at the dealership). The public is asked to submit their ideas on the site, which will in turn be voted for by the public to decide on a final winner. What’s to gain? Well, not only will the winner be in the media spotlight and leap to instant fame like Susan Boyle did, but they also get to take home a VW Tiguan (rounghly valued at $37,136). The finalists will also have a week with a Tiguan, fully kitted out with video equipment to carry out their review idea. Even those who vote stand a chance to win a prize!

The Benefits of Crowdsourcing
The beauty of this campaign is that everything is determined by the consumer – right down to judging the finalists. And let’s be honest, us consumers like nothing more than feeling that they are recognised and their say has some sort of impact. Their site is pretty funky with some simple but cool design elements and works well because it talks directly to the consumers and encourages their involvement and exposure to the VW brand. Given that the ideas submitted will range from person to person (cause like Grandma said, we are all special), they are sure to receive many fresh and innovative ideas to boost their own brand. So it’s a win-win situation all round, innit? Check out this awesome video, see some penguins, have a laugh and get a sneak peak as to what they are looking for.

Why a Tiguan?
The final prize itself is definitely something worth pursuing – they opted to go with one of their more luxury cars, the Tiguan. This could be attributed to strategic product placement, given the economic climate (where even car guards have upped their fees), people may be less engaging with a vehicle that is in a high-price range. But, with this campaign they will raise top-of-mind awareness and let this little beaut of a car get more exposure and perhaps even increase sales? And who better to spread the message than the public?

What’s in it for VW?
Well, for starters, the cost of a crowdsourcing project is substantially less than any other traditional campaign they may have hosted. Costs incurred are set - in the form of website design, the prize of the car itself and perhaps a bit of PR investigation and social media engagement. Thereafter, all they have to do is sit in their VW office while the powerful public spreads the message of their campaign across social media channels and spurs conversation around their brand. By crowdsourcing and encouraging people to get actively involved in this campaign means that they are essentially getting every participant to advertise on their behalf and the return on this campaign has the potential to be huge.

Nice work VW and I look forward to seeing some interesting ideas coming to life and the newly appointed “People’s Reviewer” (aka Jeremy Clarkson mach 2) driving away in the luxury Tiguan! Below is my favorite submission so far.

With this month’s brief coming straight from the amazing guys over at WWF we thought that you might need a bit of inspiration to help get those ideas spilling onto the page. Social Media gives us a huge opportunity to get the message about charities, social/political and environmental causes out there and, as a result, there are some great fundraising tools and mechanics out there that use social media to harness these networks gigantic user bases to spread the word. Here are a couple of my favorites. 
 
Save the Reef Facebook Application

In this application users get their very own reef that they must tend to. You receive coins every time you log into the app and can use your coins to ensure that your reef stays in tip top condition.
 

Through tending your reef one learns what is harmful to a reef and what needs to be done to keep a reef clean and alive. It is a social application that encourages interaction with your friends by sending and receiving fish. Again the application is more about learning than actual monetary donations. Any money that is raised is donated to the Center for Ecosystem Survival. This application has 600,059 active monthly users. The popularity of this application is due to the social factor as well as the word of mouth spread through the sending and receiving of fish!

Save the Planet Facebook Application

The “Save the Planet” application donates real money to real charities. The idea goes that small donations can make a big change. When you sign up you get “lunch money” which you can distribute as you wish. With your “lunch money” you can buy grain to end world hunger or buy blankets to help the homeless.

In all there are 9 causes that you can contribute to. Regardless of wither you choose to donate your “lunch money” or real money, the game is aimed at awareness and the donations are a side order. The Application has 207,011 active monthly users, which is high, but considering Facebook has over 200 million active users I’m sure there is room for a more popular planet changing idea.

Mashable’s Summer of Social Good

The Summer of Social Good is the first large scale online campaign to raise funds strictly online through Social Media. The aim of the campaign is to harness the power of social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Blogs and other online media to raise money for The Humane Society, LIVESTRONG, Oxfam America and WWF.

This initiative is running from 1st June to the 28th August. 100% of the money raised will be split equally among the charities highlighted. The idea works on social currency; when one donates money to the fund you can tell all your friends by tweeting about it. So far $3611 has been raised.

Charity: Water’s Twestival

Last year Charity:Water hosted a Twestival, which was in essence a drive to raise funds for the charity by harnessing the power of Twitter. Their goal was to raise $1 Million, however they only managed to raise $250 000. This year they are back, bigger, better and more organised, determined to reach their 1 million dollar goal!

The Twestival starts on the 12th September 2009 and lasts until the 4th February 2010 and aims to bring twitter communities in over 202 countries together. Again 100% of the money raised will be used to provide safe drinking water to those in need.

AidsAction Viral

After searching YouTube for over an hour looking for a charitable viral, it became clear to me that this approach is one that has not been widely used by charities. I finally found this viral for AidsAction through Net Squared. It’s about finding the world’s most generous person. This viral is fairly young so it’s hard to measure its success. My initial feeling is that it doesn't quite fit the charity, but over and above that I think it has potential. Also see Cannes Young Lions Entries on GottaQuirk for a few more charity viral attempts.

That should give you enough juice to lubricate those brain cogs... So come on, submit an idea and save the world.
 

Our latest brief not only presents you with the chance to get featured on the WWF website and earn some cash, but rather importantly is going to earn you some good-person-points too. WWF is looking for a way to convince people that living ecologically sustainable lifestyles is both rewarding and something to aspire to. They want you to help them reach people who are able (physically and financially) to live green and make the world a better place.

Bring us ideas that demonstrate how saving the planet is a cool thing to do. Not driven by guilt, but rather by the idea that extending the quality and life of the planet is better than buying hip shoes. While this may sound like a difficult thing to achieve, I know you can do it (*proud non-creepy motherly smile). Draw pictures, make videos, write songs, get a strangely illustrative haircut – just get us your idea.

Do it, do it now, read more about the WWF brief here.

You can also follow WWF on Twitter or check out their YouTube channel and Flickr stream for some inspiration. Here's something from WWF to get you going: 

Over the last week, the entire world has been witnessing and following the extraordinary events in Iran. On June 12th, Iran held its presidential elections between incumbent Ahmadinejad and rival Mousavi. The result, a landslide for Ahmadinejad, has led to violent riots across Iran, charges of voting fraud, and protests worldwide.I have been particularly interested in this situation not only because of what is going on but bacuse the ways in which people world wide have reacted to the incident are largley dirven by crowdsupport or collective communication.

The most obvious thing is the explosion of chatter and content, although this is to be expected it where its happening and how that makes it interesting. One of the first places to explode was Twitter - the micro blogging platform provides the perfect space for running on going commentary. The amount and value of the information coming out of Twitter even caused the US State Department to make a special request that Twitter to postpone some scheduled maintenance in order to keep the Tweets coming. But this is not the only example of people creatively using social media channels to tell their story - below are a couple of other example of technological/creative measures individuals, companies, and governments are taking in response to this crisis.

Translation Services
Both Facebook and Google have hastily launched support for the Persian language (Farsi) for their services. Facebook has said that the version is currently live is still being tested:

"Persian was already in translation before worldwide attention turned to the Iranian elections, but because of the sudden increase in activity we decided to launch it sooner than planned. This means that the translation isn’t perfect, but we felt it was important to help more people communicate rather than wait.” - Facebook

Apparently there are 400+ people who worked on the translation, and still are - now thats crowdsourcing! I know Google also use volunteers for their translations too - you can check out what they have to say about the addition of Farsi to their translation services here.

Videos & Photographs
The posting and sharing of videos and photos on services like Flickr and YouTube is not a new thing. However, by all other standards, the Iran situation has seen a deluge of content popping up all over these sites. Flickr is providing a constant stream of images from beatings and protests to police/military action. Most of the photos are quite disturbing, others gut wrenching. Check the photo out here and here.

The images in the above video are a good example of the non stop coverage of what is happening on the ground - The fact that this is not a video in the traditional sense but essentially a slideshow just shows how far Iranians are going to spread the word by creatively using a medium in as many ways a possible. For more videos go here or check out the Associated Press channel here.

Twitter
Iv already spoken about the large amounts of information - and all of it is current- -  out of Twitter. The interesting thing for me was the rapid and world wide adoption of a single hastag namely #Iranelection. The adoption by a large community of something like this in such a short space of time really demonstrates the power that a crowd has - Even more striking is that some of the first reports of the violence came from Twitter. Use the hashtag #Iranelection and key words Ahmadinejad, Mousavi, and Tehran on Twitter Search to read what people are saying.

Other Communities Climb In
This one tickled me a bit. The situation in Iran has grab so much global attention that even the Pirate Bay has climbed into the action by changing their home page to read "The Persian Bay" instead. Clicking on the logo takes you Anonymous Iran which is a forum set up to provide a secure and reliable way of communication for Iranians. The forum contains a whole load of resources including more photos and videos as well as protest advice and threads in memory of victims of the violence. 

Creative action by a community that is not directly involved in the situation really makes me smile - although in some respects this action is not surprising since the Pirate Bay have had recent experience with the law - more on that on GottaQuirk here - and as a result have just got a seat in the European Union Parliament.

These are just a few examples of the support and creative ways of spreading information about this crisis that I have found -  If you are really interested in the numbers invloved here check out Ben Parr's article on Mashable.

Over the last couple of years smoking has drifted from having the ultimate cool factor to being probably one of the fastest frowned upon habits in the world. Anti-smoking ads have gotten increasingly graphic and some times even gruesome. But always, I find, very creative and often inspiring from a design perspective.  

The lengths to which people have gone when advertising the adverse effects of smoking has even resulted in this TV ad which mimicks computer games. The ads are aimed at children, but im not convinced it will work, I mean anything can happen in a computer game right?

Now being a firm believer in the idea of there always being two sides to a story I have to let you know about Forest Online - who argue that smokers have a right to choose to smoke and are being demonized for their choices. Although the pro -smoking movement has not inspired much creative design yet I did stumble across a photographic journal called "Ninety Smokers" by Don Donavon. The journal basically documents England's smoking culture pre and leading up to the smoking ban.

Don Donnovan - Ninety Smokers

"This collection of work isn’t about either promoting or vilifying the act of smoking; it’s intended to capture an honest representation of smoking culture in Britain pre-July 2007.The act of smoking has been increasingly demonised over the last number of years and these portraits take in individuals from all over England, from every walk of life, who were prepared to make a visual statement of their objection to being represented in this negative way." - Dan Donovan

UPDATE Onelargeprawn kindly directed me to this amazingly funny anti-smoking ad - it's easily the funniset and most unexpected anti-smoking ad iv seen. Thanks again Prawn1!