Companies ask their consumers for bright ideas

South African companies will be looking to the public for advice on how to market their products through a groundbreaking campaign called Idea Bounty. By offering a platform for companies to find fresh and creative marketing campaigns that are likely to be highly effective due to the public's own immersion in the market, Idea Bounty could be set to revolutionise the advertising industry. Quirk eMarketing, the brains behind the online campaign, was inspired by the concept of crowd-sourcing. Coined by Jeff Howes of Wired, 'crowd-sourcing' is the process of appealing to the general public in an open forum to achieve a goal as an alternative to delegating the task to an employee or outsourcing to a specific third party.

"We believe in the concept of an open ideas economy driven by incentive. Simply put, the better the reward, the better the quality of contributions," says Quirk CEO, Rob Stokes.

Not only does the website offer those of us strapped for cash a way to make some money, it also represents a new way for clients to source creative solutions without spending the exorbitant fees traditionally associated with creative expertise.

"Clients only pay for ideas they choose to use, and if no ideas are used, no money is paid. We are really confident in the diverse and surprising thinking Idea Bounty will deliver for clients. We want brave clients and so far the response has been fantastic. We are launching with a truly innovative brand that really gets the web so we’re excited," Stokes explains.

The website allows brands to post a brief asking for creative ideas and offer a reward (or Bounty) for the best submission. FNB Premier Banking is hosting the first brief on online banking with a bounty of $2500.

Online banking represents an on-demand, instant response financial management system for banking clients, and yet, perceptions around online banking security and lack of understanding of the current functionality are keeping many South Africans from experiencing this cutting-edge channel. FNB has challenged the public to come up with ideas that will break these perceptions and create interest in the service.

Robert Keip, CEO of FNB Premier Banking said of their involvement, "Banks are there to respond to the needs of their customer base. Crowd-sourcing is an ideal way to involve our customers in the development of new value propositions, and takes the 'How can we help you?' proposition to another level."

Anyone can register to submit ideas and with a $2500 Bounty set for the first brief from FNB, the response is set to be good.