Below is a threaded conversation with Nick Runyan on the above Harley Davidson spot & some of the issues around crowdsourcing it raises. Since Tumblr’s style of quoting reblogs gets a bit confusing, I’ve cut and pasted into a 4 part dialogue back and forth and offset Nick’s parts as quotes for clarity. FROM HERE ON, COMMENTS ONLY (ha).
Victors and Spoils’ first crowdsourced spot for Harley-Davidson.
I feel like I’ve seen this concept before, but with hamsters in wheels instead of people in cages…
The ending doesn’t really fit, but the spot did get me to Harley’s website to customize one of my own.
[me] hinternetz:
I totally can’t stand this spot and unlike Nick below, it didn’t get me to the website. i tend to despise blatant metaphors like that operating in a way that feels condescending and vapid all at the same time. With better creative, even your biker target can FEEL the prison insight & resulting call-to-action to customize your own bike.
PAGING Kyle & John & Sara & Jill & everyone that I’ve had the conversation about crowdsourcing with — why it’s so often problematic. I’d obviously need to dig deeper here to determine the origin of the concept etc but it feels like a likely result of unfocused creative / planning just bubbling up as a folk-approved story line. DISLIKE.
I totally agree. This spot is shitty. Wasn’t the promise of crowdsourcing a brand new world of fresh ideas that could never have come from ‘traditional’ sources?
In an interview with Forbes about new agency models, etc… Jon Bond said “if you just want to get the best creative you can, fast, for the best price—[crowdsourcing is] a great way to do it.”
Victors & Spoils has some pretty talented creatives and strategists on their payroll, but if this—a watered-down, un-engaging imitation of Apple’s ‘1984’—is the “best,” I’m pretty disappointed.
[me] hinternetz:
Nick, I so agree with you. Re: your linked Forbes’ article below ugh! sigh @ the “fast food creative” notion — that whole “buy it while it’s hot & cheap” call to action makes me wince & cringe.
the best creative isn’t the first. the most valid insight isn’t the easiest to find.
Re: V&S, yes they have some really smart people and have done some great work. But maybe I’m missing something— shouldn’t the tenets of crowdsourcing be baked into the DNA of any planning / strategy / insights group? Aside from the tactical tools behind crowdsourcing recently getting all this attention (unquestionably these tools that facilitate sharing / voting / user generated conversation are awesome), idk, it seems gimmicky to me. and ultimately like a passing trend.
(via nickrunyan)
