Comments on: A branding faux pas by DGCA – and why crowd sourcing may not for everyone

By: IBM takes Crowdsourcing to the next level with its Real Time Translation Project

IBM takes Crowdsourcing to the next level with its Real Time Translation Project — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 07:53:08 +0000

[...] identification of the targeted collaborators and deliverables can be futile which was evident in DGCA’s ill-executed attempt.In the case of IBM and its crowdsourced translation project , the pre-requisites and the goals were [...]

By: bottleHeD

bottleHeD — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:27:46 +0000

For something like this, I suppose getting chosen is a reward in itself, since it’s a prestigious project to have in your portfolio. However, their announcement is completely amateurish, and sounds totally haphazard.

By: Sabine Stork

Sabine Stork — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:06:42 +0000

Really interested in this one … and of course you’re right, crowd sourcing, as Ideabounty (of Unilever Peperami fame) admitted at a conference a few weeks ago, really does not lend itself to complicated briefs or when the strategy isn’t clear. I have argued in the past that it’s quite likely that some clients who don’t know much about marketing (and don’t get me wrong, I DON’T think this applies to Indian clients in general – but government departments the world over often don’t have much of a clue) will use crowd sourcing in a naive way. Let’s face it, they might even be quite happy with the results. Sigh! But anyway, am quite interested as I’m doing a little research project on this at the moment – how much of a hot topic is crowd sourcing in India?

By: Ankit

Ankit — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:34:52 +0000

LMAO at the nephew part..But then its the hard truth..Indian government offices can do better than that and atleast save their faces by not coming up with lewd gimmicks!!
And even if its a joke, its a bad one at that.

By: Manish

Manish — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:55:37 +0000

Complete Fail! I love how official Indian government announcements look like they are created by my nephew. No exisiting logo or anything, it could be a joke for all I know.

By: Ankit

Ankit — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:22:41 +0000

@keshava Perfect, my thoughts exactly.Its a total fail exercise as far as i am concerned.No thought process at all.
On top of the points u mentioned, is the DGCA expecting its employees to sort through all the entries that they receive and who will decide which is the best logo.
But then that s what we get when government firms try to ape what is HOT without putting in a proper thought process

By: Keshava Ram

Keshava Ram — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:03:41 +0000

I think the idea of crowd sourcing is very poorly executed in this case.
1. They haven’t mentioned their website. They might expect people to google and find out themselves. They have mentioned their postal address and not email address, expecting people to take troubles in printing and posting their answers.

2. What is in it for me? Why should I come out with a name/logo for them? How will I benefit? There are no rewards for the best design. I have no guarantee that whatever I have sent will even be seen OR I am sure it will not be seen.

3. Brand Name/Elements are created based on the Vision and Positioning. How are we supposed to know them?

4. Ultimately whatever be their slogan/logo, brand is much more than slogan/logo and it is of no use if they don’t change the way they work.