Crowdsourcing applied to Marketing in Food Companies

The costumer of this era doesn't want a one-way conversation. The client wants to interact with the company, and with other members of the comunity. And the Companies need new ideas and fresh thoughts. Social media has changed the way businesses and consumers interact, as well in the Food industry.

Goal of the Campaign

In some cases the crowdsourcing was gathering ideas for creative purposes: videos, adds...; Some campaigns need technological inputs. And in other cases the crowdsourcing was focus on  tasting, ingredients and recipes.

Benefits of using digital marketing crowdsourcing

• understand customer needs
• Reduce the cost of solving business problems
• Allowing the company follow last market trends
• Teaming up with their customers to provide better products and services
• Create a sense of belonging to the customers through the contribution and collaboration
• Build long-term relationships with customers

Examples of crowdsourcing applied to marketing in Food Companies

There are many examples of the use of crowdsourcing applied to marketing. We will review four of them that I consider very important:

Doritos: 

Dorito's campaign for the shock of "Super Bowl" U.S. is a perfect example to describe a fully integrated and successful program. Dorito fans designed their own ads for a chance to win a trip to go see the game, $ 25,000 in cash, and public recognition for designing a Super Bowl ad.

Starbucks:

Starbucks launched a website called MyStarbucksIdea which aims to get ideas from your customers using crowdsourcing. The website allows the audience to vote for Starbucks ideas, give feedback, discuss and collaborate.

Coca Cola

In 2011, Coca-Cola and eYeka issued a challenge to the web's creative community: express the Energizing Refreshment of Coke in a series of short films.

The films arrived all over the world exceeding all expectations. From first-time directors offering beautiful stories simply told, to industry veterans experimenting with new techniques, they all shared an inspiring love of cinema, and brought new dimensions to the world's favorite beverage.

Kraft Innovation kitchen

The company is looking for new partnerships to develop new ideas and to enhance and speed up their innovation, while helping the potential partners grow their businesses as well. Kraft negotiates and compensates if they are interested in develop the innovation.

The main areas of innovation are: ingredients, packaging, processing, complete product and technology solutions