As crowdsourcing picks up, Talenthouse gets brands and young talent to join hands and come up with the best creative ideas
A country with 137 million internet users is no less than a goldmine for brands that want to tap into the talent of its people to create engaging content. Realising this, California based Talenthouse Inc. tied up with Reliance Entertainment in 2011 to enter India. ?Talenthouse is a crowdsourcing platform. It is a bridge between emerging talent and established professionals, and helps get one?s own projects off the ground. It is driven by creative invites sent by brands, industry veterans and artists,? said Arun Mehra, CEO, Talenthouse India.
Interestingly, the platform has a dual role. While brands get access to unlimited ideas, the young talent gets a chance to win cash prizes of Rone lakh along with an opportunity to be mentored by industry veterans. ?For many young people the cash prize is a big incentive,? added Mehra. Till now, Talenthouse has rolled out several initiatives including one for mobile service operator Vodafone called ‘Superfan junior’, where people are invited to design jerseys for kids. ?A brand looks at various ways of engaging with consumers through creation of brand properties and crowdsourcing platforms like Talenthouse provides this great opportunity to do so,? said Anuradha Aggarwal, senior vice president, brand communications and insights, Vodafone India.
Interestingly, business-to-business news portal Exchange4Media (E4M), which wants to redo its logo, has joined forces with Talenthouse, rather than seeking the help of a creative agency, and has invited new ideas. ?E4M belongs to readers and has been around now for 13 years. So when it comes to the new logo we wanted it to reflect what people want of E4M. So far, we have got 4500 responses with more pouring in every day,? said Anurag Batra, CEO, Exhange4Media.
Talenthouse, in association with PVR Cinemas, has also launched an initiative called ‘My Nation, My Anthem’, which will give filmmakers, musicians and singers an opportunity to render their interpretation of the national anthem. Air freshener brand Ambi Pur too has rolled out an initiative called, ?Smelly to smieley moments?, asking people to create and post videos depicting whacky reactions when “smelly” moments are transformed into “smiley” moments.
However, this is not the first time that brands have invited young talent. According to Mehra, the platform has hosted successful activities in the recent past. ?When PepsiCo India wanted interesting ideas for its 2012 calendar, the company crowdsourced on Talenthouse. Also, when Micromax wanted a fresh logo, the company came to talenthouse to crowdsource the idea. Nerolac, too, came to the site when it wanted to redo its signature tune,? said Mehra.
Speaking about how brands have reacted to this platform so far, Mehra explained that the concept is fairly new to the country. ?We are five years behind e-commerce so it will take another five years for crowdsourcing to fully develop. Almost 80% of the companies where we have had pitched the idea have loved the platform. Of that, 20% have adopted it, and 50% have expressed their intention to come back. For example, Samsung told us in the beginning of FY 2012-13 that they wanted to work with us but the company did not come on board till the third quarter of the year. It was only when they had the appropriate project they called us,? said Mehra.
The platform generates its revenue from brands that pay for each project that they want to execute. After a series of initiatives, Talenthouse is now gearing up for its next series called Gurukul, where every month a mentor will roll out a challenge and then will mentor the winner for two months.