Online Co-Creation to Accelerate Marketing & Innovation

Online
Co-creation
to Accelerate
Marketing
& Innovation

Online Co-creation
to Accelerate
Marketing and
Innovation
“How to unlock the collective creative
power in consumers to lead existing
markets and create new ones, fast.”

A decade ago, acclaimed Harvard University Professor Michael Porter,
a leading authority on corporate strategy, asserted that innovation was
the central issue in economic prosperity. Today, innovation is firmly on
every CEO’s priority list but the capability to bring the right innovation to
the market quickly is still lacking. But business leaders could have been
searching in the wrong places. Yochai Benkler, the thought-provoking
author of “The Wealth of Networks”, argues that the solution may lie
within consumers and not within firms. What if companies could tap into
the free flow of ideas generated by millions of people online to innovate?

This white paper is designed as a crash course on online co-creation so
that marketers and innovators can better understand how to unlock the
collective creative power latent in consumers to accelerate marketing
and innovation.

2 | Online Co-creation To Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

A. Co-creation 101
Embracing Online Co-creation to
Accelerate Marketing and Innovation

Innovation is the key to sustainable When the name of the game is
growth. It is the primary – and to be the first to bring the right
increasingly vital – source of innovation to market, co-creation
competitive advantage for is the solution that numerous
businesses in a marketplace companies increasingly turn
that has become exponentially to. The traditional innovation
cluttered, complex and dynamic. process is sequential: developing
“The way you will thrive in this concepts and testing them, mostly
environment is by innovating internally or with a small network
– innovating in technologies, of external agents. It takes up a
innovating in strategies, innovating significant amount of time and has
in business models,” said IBM a high failure rate. Consumers
CEO Samuel J. Palmisano are involved at the tail-end, as The business
in a recent interview with validators. enterprise has
BusinessWeek on “The World’s two – and only two
Most Innovative Companies”ii. Co-creation flips the traditional – basic functions:
innovation model on its head, marketing and
While innovation is steadily turning a sequential process into a innovation.
climbing up every CEO’s corporate parallel one. Co-creation engages
Peter Drucker,
agenda, so is the realization that consumers directly at the onset Management Professor,
ideas alone don’t really matter of the innovation process to gain Authori
much without the capability to fresh, fast and creative ideas that
implement the right ones faster are consumer-rooted, streamlining
than competitors do. And herein and compressing a complex
lies the problem with innovation chain of ideation-validation steps
as it is practiced today. The with multiple stakeholders. When
BCG annual innovation surveys it happens online, it enables
constantly highlight that senior simultaneous engagements with
executives find the current a large number of individuals
innovation process hard to across geographies within a short
systemize and frustratingly slowiii. timeframe. Because co-creation
Neville Roberts, enterprise CIO of starts with input from end-users,
Best Buy sums up why innovating there is less chance that the
fast matters in an interview with concepts suggested would not get
ZDNet: “A lot of our revenues market acceptance, thus reducing
come from innovation, but it gets risks of failed projects.
copied quickly (...) We have to
get innovation out there quickly.
We have to bring things to fruition
quicker than everyone else.”iv


1. What is
Co-creation?
Co-creation
projects are a
wonderful mix of
market research
and marketing. It’s
a virtuous circle
whereby the brief
fulfills consumers,
enabling them
to express their
C.K. Prahalad and Venkat product creation or innovation
Ramaswamy, co-authors of “The process. Companies engage
creativity, and the
Future of Competition: Co-creating with consumers on initial brand benefits from
unique value with customers”, product concepts and ideas, content that we can
define co-creation as “an active, and they use consumers as a celebrate and gain
creative and social process resource throughout the product insights from, and
based on collaboration between development life cycle.”vi potentially even
producers and users, initiated use as part of our
by the firm to generate value for Online co-creation in particular is communication
customers”v. Instead of building gaining traction with businesses. materials.
for consumers, companies build Most of Interbrand’s 100 Best
with them. Co-creation can take Global Brands 2011, such as David Skerrett,
many forms: A company can co- Coca-Cola, Unilever, Hyundai, Head of Social and Mobile,
create a new product with a small Danone, Starbucks and Nike, Euro RSCG 4D
number of lead users in a lab or are already actively using online
“crowdsource” a problem online to co-creation platforms and
get a large number of individuals communities to involve consumers
working simultaneously to solve it. directly and repeatedly to infuse
their communication and products
Co-creation is also simply defined with fresh ideas, content and
by Doug William, analyst and solutions.
co-creation expert at Forrester
Research, as “the act of involving
consumers directly, and in
some cases repeatedly, in the


2. Why do consumers
co-create?
Aristotle understood long ago that United Kingdom and the United In essence, while consumers
Man is by nature a social animal. States of America, consumers create for self-expression and
The meteoric rise in popularity of stated that they create or modify self-actualization, these apparently
social networking platforms like products “to better fit their needs” self-centered activities can benefit
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as the current standardized a brand by providing a source of
shows how powerful our need products offered in the market inspiration and ready-to-market
to create and share with others did not fulfill them adequately. innovation ideas. Paul Sloane,
is, with little incentive needed to Beyond utilitarian motives, author of “A Guide to Open
participate. consumers create as a mean Innovation and Crowdsourcing”,
of self-expression and personal describes it as “the ability to
Creative individuals churn out fulfillment. A study conducted by change things, the ability to
imaginative ideas that companies eYeka in France found that 69% of influence the future of your
might not have the resources to consumers create for enjoyment brand”viii.
cultivate from scratch. They offer and 72% find these activities
an alternative to thorough product satisfying and fulfilling.
development programs, which is
still based on internal R&D and
marketing. Why do creative people get involved in
With technology becoming more co-creation? The eYeka example.
personalized and interconnected,
Research undertaken on eYeka’s community of nearly 200,000
the potential for consumers to
creative consumers uncovered four primary motivations for
reprogram, adapt, modify, and
participating in co-creation projects: Fun, Fulfillment, Fame and
transform offerings also becomes
Fortune, commonly referred to as ‘the four Fs’.
greater.

In fact, the equivalent expenditure
that these “creative consumers”
spend on these co-creative
activities can outstrip the annual
amount spent on consumer
product R&D by companies, such
Fulfilment Fame
as in the UK where it is valuated at
144% of what companies spend
on R&Dvii.

These consumers do not
necessarily create to help brands. Fun Fortune
In surveys conducted in Japan, the


3. What’s in it for
businesses?
If there is only one word to describe the core benefit of co-creation for
businesses, it has to be “transformational”. In 2008, Venkat Ramaswamy and
Francis Gouillart, authors of “The Power of Co-Creation”, were invited to speak
at the Deloitte Co-Creation Conference, organized by ECC Partnership in
Paris. They pointed out five major areas where co-creation can add value to
organizations:

Customer experience

1 Be it rewards programs, consumer
communication, enhancements in retail
channels, or improvements in pre- and
post-purchase experiences
One specific benefit
stemming from the
Products and services
2 Improvement on current offerings and
new opportunities for future development
transformational
nature of online
co-creation is an
opportunity to
discover a game
Markets
changer, which is a

3 Establishing deeper understanding
through innovative insights or exploring
opportunities in expanding market size
radical departure
from old business
models and
and/or share
strategies, unlocked
by consumers but not

4 Business models
Refining or exploring a total change
immediately apparent
to a company.

Strategy
5 Refining or re-defining the entire
business approach


How LEGO reinvented itself
through co-creation
LEGO also provided an
extension of this service –
allowing anyone to develop
his or her ideas with LEGO’s
design tools and order the
relevant blocks. LEGO then
sent the necessary blocks so
that these creative consumers
can actually build their
creations. It was such a hit
that limited-edition models by
consumers-turned-designers
were soon reportedly fetching
handsome prices on auction
sites like eBay. The LEGO
Group later allowed these
consumers to profit from
Danish toy manufacturer their own way or re-use blocks to creating new LEGO models
LEGO Group, known for its invent their own. But the company and turned it into a complete
iconic colorful building blocks, had never placed its customers creative-collaborative platform.
is a perfect example of how in the driving seat of its business
co-creation can ripple through strategy. LEGO now uses its community
the five areas of transformation of passionate, engaged
identified by Ramaswamy and LEGO’s first foray into creating creators to invent and test new
Gouillard to radically reshape a more collaborative company products before launching
the company and its business started with LEGO Mosaic, an them. LEGO even works
model. online tool that allowed users to closely with its most creative
calculate the number of bricks consumers by co-creating
In 2004, the LEGO Group required to make a wall-hanging designs and allows revenue
was facing bankruptcy – sales mosaic of different colors with the sharing on the sales of these
declined sharply by 30% in photographs that they uploaded designsix. Today, the Lego
2003 and the business had on the platform. The success Group remains the most
been largely unprofitable of this project widened LEGO’s popular toy maker of all time,
between 1998 and 2004viii. perspective on the potential of truly empowering people to
LEGO already knew that its co-creation and soon LEGO transform their dreams into
customers were central to Factory, a platform where users reality, one LEGO brick at
the creation of its products, can calculate the number of bricks a time.
especially post-purchase and other components required for
when they build LEGO models their own designs, followed.


Beyond the development of new products or the generation of fresh
consumer ideas, online co-creation can also help solve traditional
marketing challenges such as branding, positioning or creating unique
consumer experiences.

Enhancing brand
experience
with consumer-
created content
Coca-Cola recently ran an
online co-creation contest
on eYeka’s platform, inviting
consumers to “interpret
Coca-Cola as an energizing
refreshment in their own style”.
Participants thought that the
short, open brief allowed them
to express their personality
while challenging their
creative skills. As a participant A creator’s entry submission for the Photography category
summed it up: “the chance
to generate ideas for large
international peer recognition for Marketing Communications
brands is absolutely fantastic
any aspiring creative. The contest of Coca-Cola, who
and challenging”. While the
received nearly 2,600 entries commissioned the project,
contest offered significant cash
(photos, illustrations, animation said that the phenomenal
prizes, the winner in the video/
and videos) in only 12 weeks and response had a “ripple effect
animation category was to be
the quality was deemed to equal on the organization in the way
selected to enter the Cannes
those of professional creative we do things, the way we look
Lion Advertising Festival in
agencies. Leonardo O’Grady, at accessing creative and fresh
2012, offering the highest
ASEAN Director of Integrated ideas”.

In a recent project, eYeka worked with a leading FMCG brand to
help reposition a yoghurt drink. Consumers were asked to illustrate
how they understood a brand promise so as to refresh the brand’s
communication with new creative angles. In addition to identifying
creative routes for communication, this seven-week project uncovered a
previously overlooked consumer benefit that could have great potential
in strategically differentiating the brand from others in the market. This
benefit is now a central component of a new brand platform and will
Screenshot of a creator's entry form the basis of all new communication worldwide.
submission for the Video category


4. What are the
business benefits of
co-creation?
Jeffrey Grau, Principal Analyst at 4.1 Online co- An increasing number of
eMarketer and Author of “How companies are beginning to
Brands Co-Create Value with creation accelerates realize that online co-creation
Customers”xi, highlights that innovation cycles enables the innovation process to
“the benefits are numerous, with be faster and more streamlined,
companies gaining user insights Despite understanding the crucial thereby increasing chances of
and customers enjoying higher need to innovate, the end-point of delivering the right product or a
product satisfaction”. the innovation race remains elusive new communication idea faster
at best for many businesses. than others who are still suck with
P&G was one of the first major According to the Boston traditional innovation methods.
companies to understand the Consulting Group’s 2010 Senior Online co-creation communities
value of opening up to outside Executive Innovation Survey, even can dramatically accelerate the
sources when it launched though a huge majority of senior pace of innovation, bringing down
its open innovation platform executives polled saw innovation the ideation cycle from months to
Connect+Develop in 2000. In the as their top three priorities, a weeks. François Pétavy, Global
seven years that followed, proﬁts significant percentage felt that CEO of eYeka, recently said in an
tripled to US$10 billion, with a lengthy development times was interview with Forrester Researchxv
US$100 billion increment in market one of the biggest obstacles for that “involving external, creative,
capitalizationxii. Today, more than investing in innovationxiv. As market decentralized points of view
50% of the company’s innovation cycles accelerate, the traditional provides clients with consumer-
comes from outside sources. process to find good ideas, get rooted collective intelligence,
them endorsed, allocate budget which is now critical as markets
As with open innovation, online for development – with numerous become even more globalized and
co-creation transforms a iterative levels of approvals and as marketers need to intimately
closed innovation model into an budgets needed in-between – is connect to consumers’ unmet
open model. Professor Venkat painstakingly slow, and frustrating. needs, faster than ever”.
Ramaswamy articulates a unique In the worst-case scenario, your
combination of three major competitor beats you to it by
benefits that co-creation provides: launching their new competitive
Acceleration of innovation product first. As the saying goes,
cycles, reduced risks of market good ideas are important but
failure through closer consumer the ability to execute fast is what
engagement and the build-up matters most.
of an innovative organizational
culturexiii.


4.2 Online co- car manufacturer with a truly
co-creative business model.
creation reduces Its first co-created vehicle, the
risks of producing Rally Fighter started off with a
a market flop car design competition with the
winning design voted and refined
collectively by a community of
“With co-creation, we not only
enthusiastsxviii. Once the design
give the consumer a golden
was adopted, the company
opportunity to express him or
accepted pre-orders and
herself but also to get involved
invited future owners to watch
with all the different steps – like
or participate in the production
imagining new communication
process at their nearest Local
forms or participating in the
Motors Micro-Factory, which
development of a prototype of
is a local garage or factory
a product or service,” said Eric
that supports the initiative.
Vernette, Professor of Marketing
Customers get the blueprint, the
at the University of Toulouse
parts and access to an online
and Chair of the Center for
resource to share assembling
A Local Motors Management Research.
tips and troubleshoot potential
Micro Factory Involving consumers at the
problems. Through this innovative
manufacturing experiment, Rally
beginning of a business process
Fighter owners get a car that is
results in greater alignment
tailored exactly to their needs. The
in consumer demand and
model cuts down on production
manufacturer/retailer supply.
waste by building only what is
Hence, not only are products
necessary and on transportation
designed closer to consumers’
costs associated with shipping
needs, but mass customization
manufactured cars. So far 25
strategies also allow on-demand
cars have been built and another
and made-to-order products,
120 are scheduled for completion
by which consumers truly co-
in 2012. Local Motors is now
create their product. Research
putting a more sophisticated CAD
has shown that this experience of
design software online to allow its
co-creation leads consumers to
The Rally highly value the products they built
community to collaborate even
Fighter themselvesxvi. This reduces the
deeper in the development of
new models, and social network
risk that a product does not meet
facilities to facilitate exchange of
consumer needs and wantsxvii.
ideas. The company hopes that
this new environmentally friendly,
A good illustration of how co-
sustainable model can become a
creation can close the gap
blueprint for manufacturing in the
between consumers and brands
21st century.
is Local Motors, a US based


4.3 Online co-creation creates a stronger
innovation culture for brands
Gaurav Bhalla, CEO of Knowledge Kinetics, Chief Innovation Officer at
Passenger and author of “Collaboration and Co-creation: New Platforms
for Marketing and Innovation” has been consulting with a number of
large MNCs on innovation issues. His experience is that co-creation
can help create a better innovation culture by “opening up a company
to different voices and by erasing the boundaries that prevent the
company from being connected to its environment”xx. This serves as
a motivation or an aspiration for employees to see and work in new
ways or perspectives that may spark off new ideas. The acceleration of
innovation cycles, made possible by online co-creation also provides
more visible “quick wins” that in turn encourage more employees to
step out of their comfort zone, collaborate and seek a higher level of
innovation in their work.

Online co-creation
allows us to tap into a
global group of idea
generators, which
indeed gives us an
outside view on our
brands and products.
Furthermore it gives
us scalability in
terms of number of
ideas generated in a
short period of time.

Bernhard Räber,
Innovation Manager,
Carlsberg Breweries


B. Co-creation 102
Get started with online co-creation
Louis Pasteur, the French chemist famously said: “Chance favors the prepared
mind”. The following building blocks of online co-creation programs will help
speed up your learning curve on your very first project, or improve existing
ones.

Step 1: Define your • You can ask consumers to • If you are looking to position,
help identify new trends, new or reposition, a product or a
online co-creation products or new markets. brand. Consumers can give
objectives eYeka asked people to creative ideas for packaging,
explore “how we will move in names and brand platforms.
20 years” for an automotive eYeka has helped several
Before considering audiences,
brand or to “imagine the leading FMCG companies
platforms or what to do with
future of credit-cards” for a such as Kraft, P&G, Unilever
consumers’ output, defining what
large financial brand. and Danone in gathering
is the desired outcome of your
faster, fresher ideas to speed
online co-creation program is
• If you have identified a market up their marketing roll-out.
the pre-requisite to choose the
need or a consumer segment Typical projects include
relevant building blocks needed
that is ripe for innovation, interpreting a brand promise
for a successful online co-creation
but do not have a product to uncover new consumer-
project.
for them yet, or if you have led communication angles,
an existing products that injecting premiumness in
eYeka has could find new usage, you packaging and creating new
developed a simple can ask consumers to create retail concepts.
a new product for you or
framework that innovate an existing one. • Finally, if you are looking for
identifies four eYeka recently completed quality consumer-generated
areas on a typical a project to invent a new content that can connect
type of chewing gum for a with consumers, you can
“go to market” socially-connected generation ask them to create videos,
value chain, where Y. The project delivered 80 logos, pictures that can be
online co-creation fresh, creative ideas in three integrated in your agency’s
weeks, three of which are campaigns. With eYeka,
can add value. now in the company’s internal Coca-Cola asked consumers
development pipeline. to “interpret energizing
refreshment in their own style”
and received thousands of
videos, animations, pictures
from all over the globe. Two
of them were subsequently
selected to be presented at
the 2012 Cannes’ Festival
of Creativity.


Framing your objectives with eYeka’s
product suites

Ideas Concept Product Communication

Xplore Nvision Market Ngage

Broad Trends/ Product/Service Marketing/ Communication/
Ideas Concepts Positioning/ Engagement
Experience
Product: eYeXplore Product: eYeNvision Product: eYeMarket Product: eYeNgage

Sample challenge to Sample challenge to Sample challenge to Sample challenge to
consumers: consumers: consumers: consumers:
“Imagine the credit card “Invent a healthy, “What makes Mini- “Show us how
of the future.” tasty, fun snack for Oreo so unique and BMW’s Efficient
kids!” special?” Dynamics can make
the world a better
place”

When determining what you exactly want to achieve through online
co-creation, the major pitfall to avoid is to confuse online co-creation
communities with online consumer panels. If a project objective is to
gather deep consumer insights about existing products or consumer
attitudes towards a concept or a new product, online panels, focus
groups and other insight-gathering techniques will deliver better results
than co-creation communities. The latter attracts creative participants
looking for creative challenges. Their format with a competitive model
is best suited to invent new experiences rather than provide consumer
insights.


It is also important to keep Step 2: Prepare
expectations in check when it
comes to the results of a co- your organization From this
creation project. Submitted entries
from consumers are unlikely to Once a clear, achievable objective
be ready for use as marketing has been defined and a creative
collaterals. The essence of co- challenge articulated, it is
creation lies with fresh, creative important to ensure that there is
ideas, which will undoubtedly an adequate level of support for
require fine-tuning and validation the project in your organization.
before any implementation. This is vital not only in the set-
up phase but also in maximizing
One company that set the wrong adoption of the project’s output
expectations and struggled to if you need to justify its return-
manage communication on a on-investment. As the Boston
co-creation project was Gap, Consulting Group clearly identified
the popular U.S. retail brand. in its innovation survey, a risk
Gap introduced a new logo on adverse culture is the biggest
its website that prompted some stumbling block that discourages
consumer backlash on social innovation from taking roots in any to this
media channels. In response, organization.
Gap invited its fans to submit
their own designs on Facebook Embracing online co-creation
but did not provide details as to as a marketing and innovation
how the submitted logo would strategy requires the coordinated
be used (compared to the new effort of an entire organization,
one they rolled out) nor did it not just the marketing or
mention incentives or rewards R&D department. Common
for participants. This spawned organizational pushbacks include
another backlash. To cap it off, the “not-invented-here” syndrome,
Gap pulled the plug on the new vested interests that prevent some
logo and its crowdsourcing stakeholders from welcoming
ideas from outside their realm of
project, announcing that it will
keep its 20-year-old blue box control and fear of failure (and and back
iconic logoxxi. its retribution). This common yet to this
lethal cocktail results in innovation
paralysis. It is expected that
most people will reject creative
ideas and solutions because of
the discomfort they feelxxii. Yet
a certain level of discomfort or
uncertainty is expected in the
process of exploring ideas and
trying something new. These
structural and cultural issues are
hard to solve but steps can be
taken to prepare the ground for
online co-creation projects.


2.1 Get 2.2 Start small
commitment from Some companies have ceased
the top to recognize the possible
“coexistence of external ideas
Convincing employees to embrace or creations (consumer insights
change is a big obstacle that or content) and of internal ideas
cannot be avoided. “Conceding or creations from the company’s
that people at the receiving end marketing or departments”, said
of traditional processes may have Eric Vernette. Paul Sloane, author
better ideas than the experts of “A Guide to Open Innovation
who have been designing those and Crowdsourcing”, suggests
processes for many years requires that “people outside should be
a new humility,” elaborates Venkat seen as part of your system rather
Ramaswamy and Francis Gouillart When it comes
than customers or complainers.
in their article, “Building the They are people who work with
to innovation, all
Cocreative Enterprise”, an article you. You have to be transparent companies need
published in Harvard Business and more open. If you have the a strong brand
Review”xxii. culture in place and the process is champion who
in place, then you can succeed.” knows how to
The challenge befalls on leaders Ideally, as Eric Vernette suggested, spot great ideas
to make employees realize the there should be a symbiotic and maximize the
new economic benefits that relationship between marketing potential of each
can be discovered, in order to and R&D departments and the one to turn it into a
motivate them in continuing consumer. business-driving
the journey of exploring more
strategic applications of co-
solution.
To develop and nurture such
creation. The first step required in a culture from scratch, Venkat Frederique Covington-Corbett,
the process of developing a more Ramaswamy and Francis Gouillart Asia Pacific Central Marketing
open, collaborative culture is for advise companies to start small: Organization Lead,
senior executives to champion Microsoft
“Begin with a project that focuses
the initiative and to demonstrate on the experiences of two or three
that failure is part of the creative key stakeholders and a specific
process, with noticeable, symbolic purpose like gathering customers’
action backing their words before requirements for a new product,
any organizational changes can improving order fulfillment, or
take place. figuring out the best sales pitch
for a new offering. Then let the
perimeter of co-creation naturally
expand over time to include a
wider range of experiences for
those stakeholders and then new
stakeholders. At each stage,
the organization will realize new


economic benefits, giving it project must be established.
the motivation to continue the You will need such framework
journey and explore more and to ensure that you can use
more strategic applications of the ideas submitted. For every
co-creation.” It is also important contest, eYeka ensures that the
to open communication channels legal framework benefits both the
such that feedback can flow freely company and the participants for
bottom-up and allocate proper the duration of the contest and
resources to look into and act on also for the potential use of ideas
them. and work generated, over time.

2.3 Consider your 2.4 Be ready for a
legal framework conversation
What is your organization’s Co-creation opens a
comfort level in allowing outsiders communication channel with
to get involved in potentially consumers. They will expect a
strategic issues? Have you conversation or at minimum,
thought of the level of information feedback on their work as they
that needs to be disclosed so require support and empathy.
that external participants can Managing multiple streams of
meaningfully contribute? For each conversations online can prove
online co-creation project, there challenging especially when
is a need to provide information participants stem from all over
and there is no guarantee that the world. This ongoing, social
a competitor who subscribes process is best handled by experts
to the same platform could be working with online communities.
prevented from knowing what you We call them “Community
are working on. Several steps can Managers”. Community Managers
be taken to preserve confidentiality act as the glue to a community.
yet it is crucial to be constantly They stimulate good entries,
reminded that the process should answer questions and address
not be time-consuming as the vital any issues pertaining to a contest
benefits of co-creation projects are in a timely manner. In addition
speed and relevance. to a deep understanding of the
digital media landscape and of the
In addition to confidentiality issues, dynamics of online communities,
a clear legal framework for the community managers are often
ownership of intellectual property proficient in a variety of languages.
created by consumers in the eYeka employs dedicated, full-
context of an online co-creation time community managers to
support its 200,000 strong online
community, over 94 countries.


3. Engage the right
audience on the
right platform
Once internal challenges have been managed, marketers
need to ponder over the type of audiences to reach out to,
and the platforms to use for their co-creation activities.

3.1 The 1-9-90 rule In short, what matters most in
online co-creation contests,
designed to collect fresh and
When inviting participants to an original ideas, are the level of
online co-creation contest, the creativity of the participants
worst question to ask is whether and the extent to which they
they are representative of a given can illustrate their creativity.
target audience. This assumes Representative participants will
that all consumers are equally give representative answers.
creative. This is not the case. Creative participants will give
creative answers.
Professor Eric Vernette sums up
why this is the wrong question in a
recent interview on the eYeka blog:
“it defeats the purpose to carry out
co-creation projects with masses
of people who will produce varied
results, leaving interesting ideas
as difficult to locate as a needle in
a haystack.” In fact, identifying a
particularly small number of people
who are “inventive and in tune
with market desires” is a major
challenge for marketers.


Unlock innovation opportunities 1% Creative Consumers

Refine innovation opportunities 9% Enthusiasts

Validate innovation opportunities 90% Spectators

Not all consumers are created equal

eYeka segments • 90% of consumers are deemed “spectators”. They read or watch but
do not contribute. They are good at talking about their experience
consumers into with products and identify problems. This is the group traditionally
a ratio of 90:9:1 involved in focus groups or consumer research.
– a concept first • 9% of consumers are termed “enthusiasts” who actively view, share
introduced by content and interesting ideas, yet do not create from scratch.
Jakob Nielsen,
• The remaining 1% is what eYeka calls “creative consumers”.
principal and co- They form the basis of eYeka’s community. They have superior
founder of the creative thinking capability and create content actively of which the
Nielsen Norman remaining 99% view and share. Creative consumers are a bit like
creative directors in an advertising agency. They are not necessarily
Groupxxiv. representative of a target audience of a given brand they are working
on, but they have the ability to come up with innovative solutions and
messages that will resonate with them. Like with creative directors,
creative consumers’ ideas should be tested with target consumers.
Brands can tap into different segments of consumers for different
purposes. The 1% of creative consumers is ideal for generating
novel ideas and creating original content, the 9% of enthusiasts
play an important role in refining and spreading them, while the
90% of spectators validate and will ultimately purchase the resulting
products.


3.2 A platform for tend to attract this 1% of
consumers who are most creative
each audience and are therefore well suited
for ideation projects, applicable
Once you have decided on from “blue-ocean” thinking to
what type of consumers are brand positioning or packaging
best suited to participate in your challenges.
online co-creation project, you
need to select a channel for Online co-creation communities
engagement. There are effectively like eYeka comprise of an existing
three major channels you can network of consumers and experts
use: Some companies choose who have specifically signed-up to
to work with consumers directly participate in co-creation projects.
via social networking platforms By being open to everyone and
like Facebook and Twitter. While by letting people join co-creations
these platforms are cost-efficient, contests freely, eYeka has build-
they are not as effective in up a bank of creative participants
identifying or engaging the 1% who participate as soon as they
of creative consumers that can are interested in the topic and
truly deliver creative solutions. have ideas to contribute. These
The two remaining options are online communities operate on a
leveraging existing co-creation competition model, with limited
communities or creating your
own community from scratch
prizes available for winners only. Market leader in
As highlighted by the works
with off-the-shelf social-consumer of London Business School
online consumer
research platforms. These two Professor Kevin J. Boudreau co-creation
methods require their own different and Harvard Business School
approaches. Professor Karim R. Lakhanixxv, a
competition model encourages
3.2.1 Use existing the submission of disruptive,
co-creation “out-of-the-norm” ideas, as there
is no need to build on cumulative
communities for knowledge or past experiences, or
growing ideas to form a consensus.

Research has found different On eYeka, community members
types of innovative consumers, choose which projects they want
for example lead and emergent to participate in. This ensures
users – usually the outliers of the that they are self-motivated
intended target audiences for your to contribute ideas and have
product or service, have higher a degree of appreciation for
probability of coming up with the brand. Unlike participants
disruptive, innovative solutionsxxv. being screened before they
Online co-creation communities can join a focus group, eYeka


does not impose filters or must- 3.2.2 Engage with
have characteristics to join a
competition. The diversity of your consumers
participants, backgrounds and on dedicated
opinions provides a higher chance
of getting decentralised, refreshing
platforms for
interpretations and solutions to insights, idea
creative challenges. A recent consolidation
example from eYeka involves a
young British man who has never You will need to build or use
been to India but nevertheless dedicated platforms to engage
created a TV spot concept that your regular stakeholders in a
scored highest when tested with co-creation process, be it your
Indian consumers. This participant customers, employees, partners or The diversity
was a complete outlier among suppliers. An example of such an of participants,
others who mostly stemmed from application would be Starbucks’s backgrounds and
the subcontinent. The TV spot was online platform, MyStarbucksIdea.
later adopted to front a nationwide
opinions provides
com where consumers are invited
campaign for the launch of a new to contribute their ideas to improve
a higher chance
product. the Starbucks experience and
of getting
rate those that have already been decentralised,
Allowing for diversity in co-creation published. These platforms largely refreshing
contests also helps discover “blind attract brand enthusiasts (9%) and interpretations and
spots”. These would be existing spectators (90%), which make solutions to creative
issues or concerns that internal them the ideal place to gather challenges.
staff or even a small representative insights on what consumers
segment of a target audience did want and consolidate ideas and
not see or address prior to the co- concepts that were inspired and
creation project. adapted from creative consumers
(1%) at the ideation stage. With
Competition is the first stage in over 75,000 ideas and 750,000
the ideation process, similar to votes generated (and counting),
a brainstorm where participants MyStarbucksIdea.com has
first throw in their own ideas. The become an ideal real-time insights
second stage is to select and lab, allowing the company to keep
consolidate the best ideas to in touch with what consumers
make them even better. This is need and want, test products and
where a collaboration model works constantly improve its experience.
best; when participants are invited
to view concepts, rate them and
comment on them. Here the
natural tendency from participants
will be a normalization of opinions,
to reach a consensus.


SFR, making learning fun for children
French telecom operator SFR SFR gathered over a hundred
was looking to develop a range ideas, in a much shorter time
of edutainment products for frame than through a traditional
children. For starters, the product innovation process. Among
management team was keen to the findings, eYeka creative
better understand how a learning consumers saw edutainment as a
experience could be made more less rigid way of learning than what
interesting and fun for children is provided in a typical classroom
and what type of object could environment. Rather than being a
best represent “edutainment” as a passive student, edutainment toys
concept. can enable a child to become his
own teacher, i.e. to learn how to
SFR worked with eYeka’s learn. Such edutainment tool can
community of “creative help develop a child’s creativity
consumers” on a two-stage and make him feel empowered. As
co-creation project. The first technology offers innovative ways It is important to
stage focused on developing a to connect to the world children remember that
product that facilitates a learning can discover their world more creative consumers
experience while the second was actively, with their edutainment toy are also end-users:
about the learning experience as a companion in this journey. they have a lot of
itself. At the first stage, eYeka imagination, but
launched an unbranded co- Through this co-creation project, their ideas are quite
creation project on its platform, SFR found a wealth of ideas
implementable.
asking consumers to imagine and product concepts that were
what kind of toy Santa Claus innovative yet true to its brand. Deborah Beddok,
could offer to technology savvy The findings articulated some early Product Manager,
children for Christmas- a toy consumer insights on edutainment SFR
that allows them to learn while while opening new possibilities
having fun. Participants were for the development of its
challenged to imagine the design, edutainment range.
functions and multiple uses
for this new toy. The resulting “We wanted to gather new, fresh
concepts proposed by consumers ideas because we were a bit
were then tested on SFR’s stuck on the topic. eYeka creative
own “innovation community”, community members were able to
L’Atelier SFR. Across all concepts find ideas legitimate to our brand,
proposed, three main themes as well as ideas that we would
emerged. These formed the have had difficulty imagining. It
basis of the second stage of the was reassuring and stimulating at
project where eYeka’s community the same time. It is important to
was asked to invent the “learning remember that creative consumers
experience of tomorrow” revolving are also end-users: they have a
around interactivity, connectivity lot of imagination, but their ideas
and intellectual challenge. Ideas are quite implementable”. Deborah
submitted by the community Beddok, Product Manager, SFR
were visible to all, so that new
participants could find inspiration
or build on existing concepts.


Conclusion
Online co-creation contests can accelerate the way your business innovates, shortening
marketing and innovation cycles from months to weeks with creative, consumer-rooted
ideas that can potentially deliver the next game-changer for your industry. As with all
creative processes involving consumers, the results are never guaranteed. But in today’s
highly kinetic competitive environment, the cost of inaction is greater. Leading global
brands are already co-creating with eYeka. Contact the world market leader in online
co-creation today to see how you can tap into the collective creative power of the largest
community of creative consumers.

Authors
François Pétavy, Joël Céré, Christine Tan, Yannig Roth

The authors would like to extend their heartfelt appreciation to the
following for their contribution in co-creating this white paper:

• Bernard Cova, French Academic and forward-thinking researcher
in the field of marketing
• Bernhard Räber, Innovation Manager, Carlsberg Breweries
• C.K. Prahalad, co-author of “The Future of Competition:
Co-creating unique value with customers”
• David Skerrett, Head of Social and Mobile, Euro RSCG 4D
• Doug Williams, analyst and co-creation expert at Forrester
Research
• Eric Vernette, Professor of Marketing at the University of Toulouse
and Chair of the Center for Management Research
• Francis Gouillart, Co-Author of “The Power of Co-Creation”
• Frederique Covington-Corbett, Asia Pacific Central Marketing
Organization Lead, Microsoft
• Gaurav Bhalla, CEO of Knowledge Kinetics, Chief Innovation
Officer at Passenger and author of “Collaboration and Co-
Creation, New Platforms for Marketing Innovation”
• Jean-Fabrice Lebraty, Author and Professor at the Université
Lyon 3
• Paul Sloane, Author of “A Guide to Open Innovation and
Crowdsourcing”
• Leonardo O’Grady, ASEAN Director of Integrated Marketing
Communications of Coca-Cola
• Venkat Ramaswamy, cofounder of the Experience Co-Creation
Partnership and co-author of “The Power of Co-Creation”


About eYeka

eYeka is the global market leader in online consumer co-creation.

We are an online community of about 200,000 members from more than 94 countries. Our community
attracts the most creative consumers, among the 1% of content creators on the web to participate in
creative challenge for brands.

We leverage our community of creative consumers to help companies generate creative insights, unlock
innovation opportunities and drive consumer engagement at a global level in a matter of weeks and within
a confidential, IP protected environment.

To date, eYeka has worked with 40 out of the top 100 leading global brands (according to Interbrand’s
2011 ranking) such as Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Danone, Hyundai, Diageo and
Microsoft.

For more on online co-creation, please visit www.eyeka.net.


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