Posts Tagged 'crowdsourcing'

I’ll bet I’m not alone in thinking that nothing beats the feeling of jetting off to explore a country unknown – but even the most intrepid traveller would agree that recommendations on what to see and do from those who know and love the country is the best way to make the most of your time away.

Of course there’s the trusty guide book, and don’t get me wrong it does a grand old job, although suggestions can be limited to the experiences of just a few people (paid to write the guides).

We knew there was an opportunity for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) to utilise social media and its potential for collaborative storytelling to gather local knowledge from those in the know and share with anyone thinking of visiting one of Scandinavia’s capital cities to help them plan their trip.

Scandinavian Airlines’ (SAS) ‘Ultimate Experience’ campaign does just that – crowdsourcing on Facebook to get people with a passion for Scandinavia to share their local knowledge and help other travellers have a unique and unforgettable experience.

Over the past month virtual ambassadors of Scandinavia have been busy recommending their ultimate experiences of Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm. We’ve cherry picked some of their best recommendations to create 4 ultimate experience guides.

The guides can be used to tour any one of the cities and just to wrap the campaign up nicely, we’ve turned the guides into a Facebook application that gives fans the chance to vote for their favourite guide for the chance to win a trip to their chosen city.

A new buzzword for you. ‘Crowdsourcing’, Heard of it? No? Let me give you the definition from Jeff Howe, the man who wrote the book:

“Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.”

Let’s simplify that, getting your audience to do your work for you! Genius.

It’s a brilliant approach to marketing strategy. Ask the audience their opinion, get them to contribute and feel part of the business. Then Utilise user generated content for new product and service ideas and new approaches to marketing your business.

It’s not a new concept either. Some classic examples include the Walkers ‘Do me a flavour’ campaign, istockphoto.com (you add your images to build their library), and of course wikipedia. There’s also an example of this on the way from Pancentric, so watch this space.

Crowdsourcing: Highly successful, highly engaging, highly recommended.