The Art of Crowdsourcing

In 2009, I stumbled upon a contest on Twitter, #HelpUsNameUs. A small company was going public and needed a new name. They had this ingenious idea to use social media to get their new name. Guess what? It totally worked!

They went on Twitter and began crowdsourcing for a new name using the hashtag #HelpUsNameUs. The grand prize for this global contest was a new piece of technology, an electronic reader (e-reader) a Kindle.

What’s fascinating about this contest is that it completely worked. The company received submissions from every corner of the globe, and had hundreds of names to choose from, thus proving social media was indeed an upcoming marketing tool, and even more poignant, that we were living in a globally hyperconnected digital world.

By the way, I won the contest with my submission of the name Pyxl and was awarded the coveted Kindle.

To put this contest into its proper context, the following month Microsoft awarded a contract to an advertising firm and paid them millions of dollars to name their new search engine, Bing.

Now it’s 2021 and Covid-19 bans have been lifted and we’re returning to our old jobs, our old workspaces and as we clear the dust off our desks, we need to think outside the box.

We need to be more innovative and remind ourselves that the potential we had for greatness still exists post-pandemic.

Crowdsourcing is a best use practice of people, it gives us a pool of diversity, great ideas and in a hyperconnected digital world, it gives us a chance to become our better selves.

Walt Disney was right, it really is a small world after all.

Here’s the Press Release Update from 2009:
https://bit.ly/2SFTkMZ

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