Archive for July, 2010
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
Never underestimate the power of a vision so simple that it will fit in a 140 character tweet.
To create a third place between work & home . CEO, Howard Shultz, on his vision for Starbucks
To sell tools that unleash human potential . CEO, Steve Jobs, on his vision for Apple
Human connections that change the way we live, work, play and learn . CEO, John Chambers, on his vision for Cisco
All of these visions have some things in common. They’re focused. They’re emotive (and, not descriptive of products or services). They’re unbelievably easy to remember. To create a vision so simple is anything but easy. But it is powerful.
What’s yours?
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QR codes have been gaining in popularity for a while now…but in 2010 we saw a big upswing in the use of these 2D codes within events. If this Google traffic trends report for QR Codes doesn’t reinforce this point well enough, let me tell you that “QR Codes Events” is the second highest search term for incoming traffic to my blog (only behind “ready2spark”). So, I thought I’d use this trend as an opportunity to share some great resources with you. Below is a mega list including event case studies, tools, ideas and resources. I hope you enjoy!
Case Studies
ESET uses QR Codes at SXSW – “The Benefits & Pitfalls of QR Codes”
Chevy uses geolocating + QR Codes to get people interacting
Ideas
QR Codes as art – The “QR Code Show” at Pink Hobo Gallery
QR Codes in Times Square for Internet Week New York
Dayton ScanVenger Hunt in Miami Valley
Luis Vuitton pairs with designer Murakami to create beautiful QR Codes
London’s Festival of Architecture introduces Tales of the City
Starbucks lets you pay for coffee with QR Codes
Rochester Jazz Festival informs attendees of the daily schedule through QR Codes
Tools
QReate & Track lets you create QR Codes with event details
Learnings
How not to use QR Codes: “Down the mobile anti-marketing hole”
Out of the box
Wine for tech lovers features personalized QR Codes
Audi makes a giant QR code out of people
To learn more ideas, check out my post on QR Codes for Events.
Have you used QR Codes for you events. If so, what were your learnings and what would you share with others looking to implement them into their events?
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Hire Lara to Build Your Business
Hire Lara to Speak
Subscribe to our Newsletter
The best way to get in touch with me is hello@ready2spark.com
There are many reasons why crowdsourced design sites like 99designs and crowdspring are gaining a good deal of buzz. The idea behind these sites is that you post a project (like website design, logo design or writing services), you set the fee and you provide the brief and in return designers & copywriters submit concepts at no charge to you in a bid to win your business. You select a winner, pay them your pre-determined price and all design work is transferred over to you. For small businesses especially, the pay-what-you-want cost and the large number of designs you can receive in return are very appealing. But there is a darker side that companies need to consider when weighing whether or not this avenue, versus hiring a professional the more conventional way, is better for you.
1. Strategy
Ask yourself this, if a client emailed your business and said they wanted to hold an event, but didn’t need to meet with you and instead sent you a written brief that was 2-3 paragraphs long – no opportunity for a face to face or telephone dialogue – how good do you think your solution would be? It would be a challenge to really know if you’ve hit the mark. As an expert in your field there’s value in challenging what the client may think is best for their business. There’s value in delving deeper into the needs of the client. There’s value in asking questions the client never thought of answering. This valuable two-way dialogue is missing from the exchange that happens on sites like 99design.
2. Industry / Market / Regional Expertise
Having a designer with industry, market or regional expertise or at least experience can be a huge asset for your business. It’s important to know that a good number of the people who submit designs to crowdsourced design sites may be outside of your geographic area. In some cases this can mean that cultural needs, nuances and necessities may be overlooked. Another thing to consider is that a very big part of brand design development should include auditing competitors, target market and the industry. This won’t be done for $99.
3. Liability
This is an area that greatly concerns me. Unlike hiring a professional designer, you don’t know the quality of the individuals you award your business to. Although there’s a money-back guarantee, the 3rd party sites still absolve themselves of liability if a design is deemed defective. This area is really murky and I’d recommend speaking with a lawyer about who is ultimately responsible if the designer you award with your business has ripped off another designer, or worse, an existing brand. If another company goes after you for trademark infringement, I can pretty much guarantee that a) the designer will not have money laying around to pay you for lawyers fees and b) finding them or going after them in a foreign country may prove difficult.
4. Quality
Having spent some time investigating these sites, I’ve seen very blatant acts of plagerism and artwork recycling. Does the image below look familiar? It was created as a concept for a start up brand but looks oddly reminiscent of this logo.
As for design recycling…It seems to be common practice for some designers to resubmit the same designs over and over again, regardless of the project. Look at a few active request for design projects and you’ll see the same logo designs, but different names. Unless you plan on being on these sites 24/7 to compare the concepts submitted for your projects to others, you’ll likely not be able to tell what has been recycled and what hasn’t.
Contrary to what you may think, the purpose of this story is not to smash crowdsourced design sites, it’s to provide an overview of potential pitfalls that every business, small or large, should be aware of.
So tell me, have you used one of these sites? What was your experience (good or bad)?
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