There’s an unconventional concept that has been implemented internationally and also in many countries(nation-specific) and has successfully been executed by many entrepreneurs worldwide : “Creative Crowdsourcing”.
The very recent “Google’s latest favicon” has been a baby of this concept only.Users from all over the world poured in their creative inputs to inspire the next Google favicon.And “Creative Crowdsourcing” has a lot of fantics in every corner of the world.
Springleap,a South African startup implements the very same concept but finishes it with a commercial outcome,T-shirts .It reaches out to many of the creative souls in South Africa and gives them all,a platform to submit their “Creative Designs” to compete in a socially controlled(think of Digg,Stumbleupon…..hope you got it) environment.The unofficial(may be professionals) designer,who wins maximum public votes over a certain period(till the running competition ends),gets to have his creation,printed on T-shirts and sold commercially to users all over the country.
Once you’ve joined the Springleap community, you can create your own profile; upload,vote and list your favourite designs; comment and respond to what others are saying about the latest entries or celebrity duals and update your status – similar to Twitter and Facebook.
Like i mentioned earlier,this same concept(creative crowdsourcing for commercial production) has been replicated in other countries as well and we’ve already profiled another startup called Inkfruit,doing almost everything same for Indians designers and Fashion freaks.
Talking more about Springleap,the overall UI is quite pleasing and fun to get along with.In simple words,great job has been done by the creative folks at Springleap in branding their service in a different and ‘freaky’ way to appropriately suit the theme and concept of the site.
One thing that’s really deserves appreciation is the way the winning designers are rewarded.It’s not just the prize money but a lot more than that(royalty,publicity…anything still left ?).Prize money is kind enough too($750).
Springleap is currently scoring around 250,000 uniques every month,with more than 90% of them belonging to South Africa.They are probably missing out with one important thing at the moment….Affiliate programs.They can really churn out more sales,taking help from their affiliates(website/blog owners).