• Our Solutions
    • Solutions
      • Products
        • ElevateCreate sales videos in minutes with our AI-powered app
        • CastScreen recording made simple
        • PlatformCloud-based platform: plan, upload, collaborate & share video
      • Services
        • ProCreate quality video with our post-production services
      • CTA
        Start learning with our free tutorials!

        Discover our online course. Our team of experts share their top tips and tricks so you can create high-quality videos easily and confidently.

        Video School
    • Solutions by Team
      • MarketingCreate marketing video content cost effectively
      • CommunicationsTransform the way you communicate with all stakeholders
      • SalesAccelerate your sales cycle with easy personalised videos
      • Learning & DevelopmentIncrease engagement with learning video content
    • CTA Mobile
      Start learning with our free tutorials!

      Discover our online course. Our team of experts share their top tips and tricks so you can create high-quality videos easily and confidently.

      Video School
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • Resources
      • Learn
        • Resource CentreExplore our Learning Hub
        • News & Blog
        • Video School
      • Connect
        • Webinars & Events
        • Shootsta Podcast
      • CTA
        Sales Playbook 2022

        Transform your sales team. Discover how video can increase your conversion rates by 4x

        Learn More
    • CTA Menu
      Sales Playbook 2022

      Transform your sales team. Discover how video can increase your conversion rates by 4x

      Learn More
  • Company
    • About
    • Meet the Team
  • Login
Login
Sign Up Free
Blog Video Creation

Harness crowdsourcing to boost your video content

March 6, 2018

Turning to crowdsourcing user generated content is a great way to cost-effectively create authentic videos from your engaged communities.

Often, time and money are the main reasons why video production is held back, but nowadays, most people hold a high quality phone and with the emergence of new technologies and social media platforms, the level of difficulty in producing, distributing, and promoting video has been significantly reduced.

According to an interview with Olga Egorsheva, Co-Founder and CEO of Lobster,

“Crowdsourced or UGC (user-generated content) video is growing, because brands want to be more natural and authentic to their customers.”

4 Benefits of Crowdsourcing User-Generated Content video

In an Adweek interview, Poptent (a social video marketing platform) president Neil Perry shared 4 major benefits of video crowdsourcing:

  • Variety – Clients can choose from a number of finished videos, ready for publishing, instead of just several.
  • Cost – For as low as one-seventh of the cost of a video made in the traditional manner, clients can choose and purchase from dozens of ideas and spots.
  • Quality – There’s bound to be serious talents from the platform’s community of filmmakers. You’re looking at a pool of film and art school graduates, amateurs, long-time hobbyists, and even Academy Award winners who have broadcast-quality portfolio and proven track record.
  • Fast Turnaround – Projects can be done in as fast as 72 hours or 30 days.


How does it work?

Crowdsourcing video campaigns differ from traditional ad agencies in that they’re informally sourced and produced, and therefore cheaper, more creative, innovative, and agile. The setup is so informal that the project brief could be as short as a call-to-action or a tweet.

The video crowdsourcing process can be broken down into three phases:

  • Ideation – The brand creates a short brief to send to their community and then they send in their ideas.
  • Pitch – Once an idea is chosen, it gets thrown back to the community, so they can send in their or interpretation of the idea, usually in the form of storyboards or video presentations.
  • Production – Sometimes there’s no need for production as the pitch is a finished video ready for publishing or distribution. There are also cases in which the client reshoots the video but retains the idea.

5 Crowdsourcing Best Practices

Hult Prize’s founder and CEO, Ahmad Ashkar, shared his guidelines on launching an engaging competition:

  • Define the Boundaries – Be clear about the types of solutions you’re seeking, as well as the success metrics. Avoid falling into the open-ended trap.
  • Identify a Specific and Bold Stretch Target – It’s basically setting the goal higher to inspire participants to think big.
  • Insist on Low Barriers to Entry – The point of the first phase is to encourage as many ideas from as many people as possible.
  • Encourage Teams and Networks – This is especially true for large-scale and highly complex projects that an individual can’t possibly tackle by himself, a.k.a. social problems.

2 Brands that Have Done Video Crowdsourcing Right

Amazing Day

Coldplays frontman, Chris Martin asked their Facebook fans to share what’s happening in their corner of the world for the band’s Amazing Day global film project. Thousands did and here’s the result:

Why did it work? It’s pure global fellowship showcasing the diversity of Coldplay’s fans all over the world. The concept is also aligned with the band’s character and aim to be modern-day multicultural ambassadors. Chris Martin is following the footsteps of long-time artist/humanitarian, Bono, and has pledged to be Global Citizen festival’s live concert curator for the next 15 years.

Crash the Super Bowl Final 2016 

For a chance to win $1M and work with 300, Man of Steel, and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zach Snyder on a future DC project for Warner Brothers, 4,500 videos from 28 countries were submitted.

Why did it work? Although in its final run, the campaign has produced nine other consumer-created ads for Doritos’ Superbowl spot. From quality and execution to actual results, they’re up there competing with top ad agencies. As for goals hit, these ads gave the winners a truly life-changing experience and the brand a relatable, friendly, and you-can’t-possibly-watch-superbowl-again-without-a-bag-of-doritos image.

Here’s the grand winning ad:

In summary

If 85% of brands have done video crowdsourcing, why not you too? It’s popular not just because it’s trending, but because it’s actually effective.

Aside from getting ideas straight from customers, fans, or the “people on the ground”, and therefore making the videos look and feel real and authentic:

  • It offers variety. By the thousands.
  • It’s one-seventh cheaper than traditionally produced ads.
  • It’s like a box of chocolates, you’ll never know what you’re going to get, but lucky you if it’s an actual Academy Award-winning filmmaker who’s already probably tired of the glitter and glamour of Hollywood…
  • Projects can be done in a span of two weeks to a month.
What makes for a successful crowdsourcing project?
  • Defined boundaries. The target and expectations must be clear. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it” right?
  • Set the bar high. To attract out-of-the-box thinkers, your challenge must be odds defying.
  • Make it easy for people to join. A wise man once said, “The more, the many-er.”
  • Encourage teams and networks to participate. This is related to number two. If the project is highly complex and monumental, no one is expecting an individual, not even a super genius to solve it.

Interested in simple, fast and effective video? Shootsta can help

To find out more about how we can help you with your video needs, please enter your details below. We’ll get in touch as soon as possible.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Related News & Blog

View All News & Blog
Blog Customer Experience Video Inspiration

4 ways to create a stronger customer experience strategy

June 20, 2022
Learn More
Blog Sales Video Insights

Why personalization matters for virtual selling

June 16, 2022
Learn More
Blog Marketing Sales Video Inspiration

The types of B2B promotional videos every leader should be using right now

June 10, 2022
Learn More
View All News & Blog

Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates on our solutions

Subscribe
Select your country
  • US
  • AU
  • HK
  • SG
  • UK
  • Icons/32px - Social/Facebook
  • Product
    • Elevate
    • Cast
    • Pro
    • Platform
  • Solutions
    • Marketing
    • Sales
    • L&D
    • Communications
  • Resources
    • News & Blog
    • Learn
    • Shootsta Podcast
  • Company
    • About
© 2022 Shootsta - Video tech for business. All rights reserved.
  • Legal Stuff
en English
en Englishms Malayta Tamilzh-CN Chinese (Simplified)zh-TW Chinese (Traditional)es Spanish
We use Cookies to give you the best online experience when visiting our website. Please let us know if you agree to all of these cookies.
Accept
Cookies Settings
Cookie Box Settings
Cookie Box Settings

Privacy settings

Decide which cookies you want to allow. You can change these settings at any time. However, this can result in some functions no longer being available. For information on deleting the cookies, please consult your browser’s help function. Learn more about the cookies we use.

With the slider, you can enable or disable different types of cookies:

  • Block all
  • Essential
  • Functionality
  • Analytics
  • Advertising

This website will

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected

This website won't

  • Remember your login details
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies)
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country

This website won't

  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies)
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions

This website won't

  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies)
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will

  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies)
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website won't

  • Remember your login details
Save & Close