Ideas you wish you’d thought of – zooppa.com
Every now and then you come across an idea that is so brilliant in its simplicity and execution that you juts have to slap palm to head and say “I wish I’d thought of that!” Well, such an idea is zooppa.com – ‘people-powered brand energy’. It is a site that brings together companies in need of fresh advertising/ branding ideas and the creativity of individuals. The company puts up prize money of several thousand dollars and says ‘ here is my product, this is the concept – lets see what you come up with’. Anyone can produce either video, print, web, copywriting, concepting, or scriptwriting entries and the winners are determined by votes from the members. You can also build up ‘zooppa points’ for participating which can then be converted into cash.
The whole essence of viral marketing – audience participation – has been captured in this superbly designed and simple web-based concept. I think it is the simplicity of the concept that will also make it an easy sell to the companies themselves. For an investment of a few thousand dollars they not only gain a lot of potentially viral web-based content, but also they may just get that gem that they would have had to pay out millions to get through an advertising agency. Its a bargain for the companies – and I think I have just found myself a new hobby! Sweet!
Tags: Viral Marketing, Zooppa
March 18th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Okay -maybe I should have read the Terms & Conditions – http://www.zooppa.com/corporate/terms – first! My enthusiasm was somewhat premature. My concerns are over the clarity of ownership of the material posted on the Zooppa site and their cart-blanche ability to do what they like with it, even though you sort of still own the copyright, sort of – its a bit unclear.
And also the restrictions on what you can and cannot do are so limiting as to limit about 90% of anyone’s creative flow. No-one wants to see anything outrageously offensive but to me the whole point of encouraging audience participation is to just let it happen – just don’t show the really nasty stuff. I know there has to be limits but this seems a little excessive to me. Having said that, I don’t think it will stop me participating.
The moral of this story – always read the Terms & Conditions!