At the back end of last year I posed the question of whether there was a limit to the kind of things that could be opened up to the crowd. It came after a number of businesses emerged that were trying to crowdsource a range of business related tasks, from business planning to consulting.
Riding this trend is ChiefMO.co, a new site that aims to crowdsource the Chief Marketing Officer role. The site has been developed by web design agency One Sharp Design, and claims to offer a one stop shop for marketing strategy and execution, which is a heady claim indeed.
Camille Moyes, co-owner of One Sharp Design said, “We knew there was a need in our marketplace for transparency. Agencies will claim that they are everything to everyone when in fact branding may be their only strong suit.”
She continued, “The client ultimately pays the price and gets frustrated with some aspect of their marketing experience. We take the time to vet expert tacticians in all areas of marketing: SEO, PPC, Video Development, Content Writing, Design, etc. We believe that the better way to execute marketing is to focus on deliverables instead of hours.”
The company report that each interested client goes through a session they call marketing therapy, whereby they’re told what they should be doing with their marketing, and how this can be achieved. All of this magic is done in a 2 hour session that can be completed online or offline.
Providing the client is happy, ChiefMO.co then crowdsource people to put that plan into action, with the client then billed directly by the person delivering the service from the crowd.
I suppose the thing that stands out right away is that this isn’t really crowdsourcing marketing strategy in any way shape or form, so calling it a crowdsourcing of the CMO role is really over-egging the pudding a whole lot. I also have to question how good an idea of ones marketing needs can be ascertained from a 2 hour consultation.
The cynic in me thinks that this is simply an example of a company jumping on the crowdsourcing bandwagon, although I very much look forward to being proved wrong on this one.
That's one ugly website.
It is horrible. I had a look to try and gather a bit more information and it was really hard work.
Overlooking that though, it is an interesting concept. If the client deals directly with the crowdsourced people though, where is the long-term relationship with ChiefMO?
If the company and the agency are setting the strategy, and then using the crowd to "put that plan into action", it's crowdsourcing the marketing department rather than the CMO.
It sounds like the agency is in the enviable position (what most agencies strive to achieve) of being seen as the CMO – setting the marketing strategy and planning of the client.
Crowdsourcing a C-level manager (let's just call them the Chief!) is a difficult task. Surely there needs to be one Chief to set a strategy and/ or a plan and only then can a group of people implement the plan.
Thanks for the comment Bradley. It does appear to be rather crudely named. Like you say, the strategic element doesn't appear to be crowdsourced at all. There are a few attempts to crowdsource strategic inputs, but few have really achieved any notable successes yet. I'm not entirely convinced they will, but time will tell.
I agree with Bradley. Without a strategist (someone who understands budget constraints, the marketplace, new product development and operations) how could a group of external marketers truly impact results? External ideas are needed and are vital to the health of an organization, but they have to be implemented by a strong CMO or marketing team. Otherwise they languish on someone's desk.
I think that's the role the company is hoping to take on, albeit via a rather scant 2 hour workshop session with the client. I'm far from convinced strategy is something that can be understood in 2 hours.
That site could use a little more improvement, in my opinion.
Hey All,
Im happy to answer all of the great chat! Many of you arrived at the correct conclusion, we are a team of Marketing Officers and become the CMO for all of our clients. We crowdsource all of the creative to our network of "SME's" our Subject Matter Experts.
It truly is a great solution for CEO's of small business to a put a plan together that is specific to their business. We integrate marketing automation systems like HubSpot, Marketo, Infusionsoft, and Adobe. We introduce our clients to crowd groups like 99 Designs, Microlancer, Themeforest and many others.
We're excited about the crowd and how it's shaping the creative industry. I also appreciate all of the comments about our ugly website. Just like the plumber with bad pipes, we're preparing to launch a rad new site early next week.
We encourage you to come back and tell us what you think.
Best,
Having spoken with Matt just now it's clarified a few things in my own mind. Rather than crowdsourcing the CMO per se, they are more marketing their expertise at locating and sourcing the right people via a range of crowdsourcing platforms. It's this exerptise as much as anything else that will add value to people I think.
Suffice to say, there may well come a time when crowdsourcing isn't so novel as to require hand holding, but for the novice in this area, having such a service can certainly be of value I think.
It will be an interesting project to follow for sure.
I think the concept is interesting. Having been on both sides (agency and corporate) I too think there is a place for a "Virtual CMO" but only for the right company. The ultimate strategy of the brand should be owned by the company, thus the accountability. Some companies are unwilling to pay for the correct talent, and may utilize an outside source. The aspect of understanding the brand and the company and translating the true aspect of value adds, don't seem possible in only 2 hours. The crowdsourcing of the execution elements seems like a great resource for smaller companies to manufacture their brand, albeit they are maintaining one brief to execute by. I have used similar aspects in a larger brand, to generate more innovative ways to look at the brand, and challenge others to take on the same aspect. We have a tendency to be too close to the brand we are in, losing perspective of what consumers are actually taking in.