Crowd control, crowd management, crowd curation – whatever you want to call it, we’re seeing a definite shift away from the traditional concept of Crowdsourcing to a better-managed model that cuts out all the crap but keeps all the good stuff.

Anyone who has launched their own company in recent years has probably encountered the myriad of Crowdsourcing platforms offering everything from logo and web design, to WordPress themes and banner ads.

There really is no shortage of such platforms…so go on, take your pick. But don’t be surprised if the outcome is a little less than you were hoping for.

Fly-by-night

You see, any fly-by-night ‘creative’ can sign-up for inclusion in the database of most of these platforms. Sure, you may well get the digital world’s answer to Michelangelo working on your next design before they get snapped up by one of the big agencies – though we must stress that this is highly unlikely. You are more likely to get a hobbyist or perhaps a part-time plumber.

The price of quality?

You really can’t put a price on genuine quality…which is why many of the big brands have continued to use traditional ‘Madison Avenue’ style creative agencies. It’s not through loyalty, it’s because they know that they’ll get creative professionals with a proven track-record working on their projects. But they also get all the costs associated with such agencies, costs incurred through swanky meeting spaces, ‘lunches’ and other overheads.

A new era for Crowdsourcing

It’s this growing number of low-budget/competition-based Crowdsourcing platforms, combined with a desire for better value-for-money, which is heralding a new era for ‘Crowdsourcing’.

So Crowdsourcing, as a technique, is becoming more sophisticated as the demand for high quality supersedes the demand for low prices.

Most of the higher-quality Crowdsourcing services available specialise in very niche creative areas. For example, there are logo and design Crowdsourcing platforms, ad and video platforms, coding platforms…but very few offer the full works.

Bringing creatives together…

If you’re building a content-rich website, you may need logos, coding, designers, video-producers, SEO specialists and any other type of creative specialists. Traditional Madison Avenue agencies would either do all this in-house, or outsource the creative elements it didn’t have the capacity or expertise for in-house. The Creative Services Exchange (CSX) model does exactly what it says on the tin (thanks, Ronseal…).

The CSX brings together professionals from across all creative disciplines, meaning projects of all scope will receive the same creative care of a traditional agency.

So Crowdsourcing, it seems, is finally coming of age. Quality, creative and cost-effective…you can’t say fairer than that.