Sign in to view
member only content

Small companies can already tap the power of the crowds for help with their graphic design, advertising and other business challenges. Whereas most such services reward the creator of just a single winning solution, however, FreshlyBranded pays its marketing creatives for the top 10 ideas. Buyers begin by signing up with Kansas-based FreshlyBranded and posting a description of their project, along with how much they’d like to pay. Typical projects include logo design, slogans and product names; the minimum award for the winning entry is USD 50, with a secondary award minimum—split among the other top nine—of USD 5. FreshlyBranded, meanwhile, takes a flat USD 39 fee plus 10 percent of the primary awarded amount, bringing the total minimum price for 10 submissions to USD 99. Once set, the award funds are transferred into an escrow account, and the project is opened up for submissions from marketing creatives around the world. After two weeks or so, the buyer selects a winning idea, and FreshlyBranded transfers the files and all rights to the winning project. Award funds, meanwhile, are distributed accordingly among the primary and secondary submitters. Crowdsourced approaches have been criticized for potentially devaluing the work of contributors, since many creatives typically spend time on a solution but only one gets paid. With its mechanism for secondary awards, however, FreshlyBranded’s model could reduce such concerns. A concept to apply to your own crowdsourced venture…? Spotted by: Troy Tessalone