Experiments in the Crowd – FNB Premier Banking on Idea Bounty.
Robert Keip - FNB Premier Banking
A month ago, Idea Bounty and First National Bank first started an experiment in CrowdSourcing. Since the site went live, a lively community has formed and hundreds of ideas have come hurtling down the pipe.
The reach has been amazing. Current Google Count shows over 218 results. That's mostly South Africans talking, commenting and blogging about the innovation and excitement behind this crowdsourcing project.
There were some great ideas, some we'd already thought of (hopefully we don’t miss the obvious stuff!). The big idea remains a little elusive. Some ideas were funny, some not, some practical, some well researched – and some not! What is clear is that this is a difficult problem to crack.
That said: ideas are funny things. They exist in two very separate forms: the all important seed, that creative burst which starts the whole ball rolling, and then the practical implementation thereof. While we've had to separate the "seed" from the "implementation", the two are inextricably linked. An idea is nothing, if it can't be implemented.
FNB has been particularly proud to be along for the ride – and thank you to the IdeaBounty community! It's been an eye-opening experience.
In fact, this campaign has opened our eyes to something more than a source of external creativity. We've been particularly excited to see creative minds engaging with the bank brand. Why should it end with a handover of cash for ideas? Why can't we talk further with some of the people who are engaging with us? Or even in the future – use crowdsourcing projects as a source for recruiting?
We're still processing the results. It was a tough brief. South Africans are quite polarized when it comes to the adoption of technology. But online banking represents such a vital shift in terms of empowering the customer to open accounts and process transactions in a secure environment.
Educating, exciting and switching customers onto this platform is particularly important for FNB’s more discerning Premier Banking customers.
We’ll announce the results soon…
Comments
Hi Arthur,
We have a few plans to expand the possibilities of dialogue between creatives and clients.Its always going to depend on the individual client, but we need to make sure its easy to include the creative in the execution if need be. Thanks for the continued input. Appreciate it.
matt/ideabounty.
Totally agree with Arthur. A brilliant idea, is nothing without the brains behind the idea, working closely on the project. The creative needs to be involved in the design and birth of the idea for it to flourish. Anyway my 2c worth ;-)
primier banker wad is they deal about and wad is the qualification cateria
Arthur C. Van Wyk on 04/12/2008
This post is exactly what I would have loved to see right from the getgo. In fact it would be good to see future "briefers" throw in the possibility of engaging the creative in a role that exceeds just the submission of the idea. Ideas are, after all, fuelled by what the creative sees in his mind's eye as the end result, and nobody can drive a vision like the visionary himself.