How Automobile companies use Social Media for Product Ideas crowdsourcing

Firms have traditionally relied on an internal staff of professional inventors to generate ideas. Nowadays, crowdsourcing initiatives are becoming a popular tool for new idea generation for firms, where individuals contribute new product ideas and vote on other's ideas which they would like the firm to implement. 

The firm then decides which ideas to implement. Although such initiatives are widely adopted in many different industries, we find several successful example in the Automobile industry.

Nissan has just announced a new marketing campaign that uses its social channels to allow people to customise and name one version of the Juke Nismo.

The idea is to use digital technology to help Nissan's professional driver's improve their skills, while also allowing the brand's social community to get involved with the development process.

Fiat creates a forum http://www.fiatmio.cc for dialog between the designers of the car and Fiat drivers for building the first crowdsourced car. As well they combined this web with YouTube where videos that documented the project can be viewed.

The campaign reached 17,000 people in 160 countries and gather 10,000 useful suggestions for the Firm. Consumers have the sensation that their opinion is important for building the Mio model and feel integrated with the brand.

BMW Customer Innovation Lab 1045 users shared their ideas on innovative telematics and online services, as well as driver assistance systems of the future. Participants made suggestions in a structured multimedia environment, where they could view, evaluate and build upon proposals made by other participants

Volkswagen. In this case it was not launching a new car model, it was to create a social ad. In 2011 VW Canada ran a campaign that asked its Facebook fans to help choose the script, cast and music for the third chapter of its ‘Drive Until’ ad series. The best ideas were incorporated into the final creative. The winners were also thanked in the credits at the end of the ad.

Citroen. Another example of a car company buying into crowdsourcing is Citroen. This firm  launched a Facebook app that allowed users to choose the design for a special edition of the company's new car: C1 Connexion.

The app allowed users to give their opinion and ideas about the design: the number of doors, colours... and the combination of features were incorporated in the final design.

In all these cases, consumers were telling companies what they wanted in a car and use social media to help creating the product, while they feel committed to the brand.