This is the fifth report from our upcoming People's Insights Annual Report titled “Now & Next: Future of Engagement”, also available as a Kindle eBook and soon as an interactive iPad app. The report will highlight the ten most important frontiers that will define the future of engagement for marketers, entrepreneurs and changemakers: Crowdfunding, Behavior Change Games, Collaborative Social Innovation, Grassroots Change Movements, Co-creation Communities, Social Curation, Transmedia Storytelling, Collective Intelligence, Social Live Experiences and Collaborative Consumption. In each of these reports, we start by describing why they are important, how they work, and how brands might benefit from them; we then examine web platforms and brand programs that point to the future (that is already here); then finish by identifying some of the most important features of that future, with our recommendations on how to benefit from them. Do subscribe to our email newsletter to receive an invite to download a free copy of the interactive iPad app. Find out more: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights/future-of-engagement/ Get the Kindle eBook: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D8ZZMDY

1. 5. CO-CREATION
COMMUNITIES
People's Insights Annual Report
Now & Next:
Future of Engagement

2. We are delighted to share that we will be
publishing the People’s Insights Annual
Report titled “Now & Next: Future of
Engagement” in February 2013 as an
interactive iPad app. The report will
highlight the ten most important frontiers
that will define the future of engagement
for marketers, entrepreneurs and change
makers: Crowdfunding, Behavior Change
Games, Collaborative Social Innovation,
Grassroots Change Movements, Co-creation
Communities, Social Curation, Transmedia
Storytelling, Collective Intelligence,
Social Recommendation and Social Live
Experiences.
Throughout 2012, 100+ planners on
MSLGROUP’s Insights Network have been
tracking inspiring web platforms and brand
programs at the intersection of social data,
citizenship, crowdsourcing and storytelling.
Every week, we pick up one project and
curate the conversations around it — on the
MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also
on the broader social web — into a weekly
insights report. Every quarter, we compile
these insights, along with original research
and insights from the MSLGROUP global
network, into the People’s Insights Quarterly
Magazine. Now, we have synthesized the
insights from our year-long endeavor in future
scanning as foresights into the future of
engagement.
We believe, like William Gibson that, “the
future is already here; it’s just not very evenly
distributed.” So, innovative web platforms
in the areas of social data, citizenship,
crowdsourcing and storytelling point towards
interesting possibilities for brand programs
that leverage similar models to engage
people. In turn, the web platforms and brand
programs of today give us clues to the future
of engagement tomorrow.
In our reports on the ten frontiers that will
define the future of engagement, we start by
describing why they are important, how they
work, and how brands might benefit from
them; we then examine web platforms and
brand programs that point to the future
(that is already here); then finish by identifying
some of the most important features of that
future, with our recommendations on how to
benefit from them.
For the next ten weeks, we will publish
these reports one by one, then present them
together, in context, as an interactive iPad app.
Do subscribe to our email newsletter to receive
each report and also an invite to download a
free copy of the interactive iPad app.
People’s Insights Annual Report

3. 3
What are Co-creation
Communities?
Source: ngmmemuda on Flickr
Brands and people
partner to bring in a new
renaissance of creativity.
Co-creation involves organizations,
entrepreneurs, artists, experts and people
coming together people to create new artifacts
including books, movies, music, art, software,
products and solutions. Artists, entrepreneurs
and organizations benefit from the contributions
of community members, while contributors
showcase their insights and creativity, and get
rewarded in terms of recognition or prizes.
The rise of co-creation can be attributed to
three broad trends. First, millions of people
all over the world are expressing themselves
not only by posting blogs, photos, and videos,
but also by hacking software and hardware,
and making art and craft. Second, people are
increasingly thinking of themselves as creators,
showcasing their creations in online portfolios
(Behance (video), deviantART, SoundCloud),
and selling their creations in peer-to-peer online
marketplaces (Etsy, Cafepress, Zazzle (video),
BandCamp, Lulu). Third, people are teaching
each other how to create things (Howcast,
Instructables (video), Skillshare (video), Craftsy
(video)), and learning by making things together,
in online (DIY.org) and offline (MakerFaire
(video) communities, often building upon
easy-to-use open-source kits (Arduino). Author
Patricia Martin calls this cultural movement "The
Renaissance Generation".
As a result, we are seeing a number of platforms
focusing on different aspects of co-creation.
Threadless (video) invites its community
members to submit t-shirt designs in theme-
based challenges. HitRecord invites artists to
upload their creations, remix others’ creations,
and participate in collaborative projects. Quirky
(video) and Ahhha (video) invite wannabe
inventors to collaborate with the community
to convert their ideas into products. Cut On
Your Bias (video) invites fashion enthusiasts to
collaborate with new fashion designers on their
upcoming collections. Other platforms, like
OpenIDEO (video), which we have covered in our
report on collaborative social innovation, focus
on bringing together businesses, governments,
non-profits and changemakers to co-create
innovative and sustainable solutions around a
shared purpose.
In the public consciousness, co-creation
communities are best known for the free user-
created encyclopedia Wikipedia and the free
and open source operating system Linux,
but they have also resulted in books (The
Mongoliad,Business Model Generation), movies
Source: Threadless

4. (Life in a Day (video), Britain in a Day (video), One
Day on Earth (video), One Day in Venice (video),
The Cosmonaut (video),CollabFeature (video)),
music (Genetic Music Project) and art (The One
Million Masterpiece).
Some of these co-creation platforms and
projects have had significant impact. For
instance, Threadless’s community of 2.3 million
members have submitted and voted on 260,000
t-shirt designs and won $7.1 million in awards.
National Geographic and YouTube received 4,500
hours of footage in 80,000 submissions from
192 countries for Life in a Day and the YouTube
channel has been viewed 34 million times.
Typically, the platform owners, or their partner
organizations initiate co-creation projects
(Threadless, Cut On Your Bias, OpenIDEO, Life in
a Day), but community members can also initiate
projects (HitRecord, Quirky). On many platforms,
community members retain the right to their own
contributions, but winners usually give over their
rights for prize money, or licensing fees. In some
cases, the initiators share the ownership of the
project by releasing it under a Creative Commons
license.
Most co-creation platforms enable community
members to submit contributions, activate their
social networks, and rate, vote and comment on
contributions. Some also provide gamification
features like points and levels to encourage
community members to participate more
(OpenIDEO, Quirky). A few platforms also enable
community members to collaborate with others
and form teams. Some platforms are more
restrictive, and only allow community members
to vote on options (Cut On Your Bias).
Most co-creation platforms rely on challenges to
attract contributors and encourage participation,
so community members often end up competing
with each other. However, many co-creation
platforms incentivize community members
to support others’ contributions by rewarding
them with social influence (OpenIDEO) or cash
(Quirky), or creating a culture of quid-pro-quo
collaboration (Threadless).
In essence, all co-creation communities are
designed around four dynamics: connect,
catalyze, crystallize, and celebrate. First,
platforms need to connect community members
around a shared interest so that they have a
context to engage with the platform and with
each other. Then, platforms need to catalyze
Source: Quirky.com/Learn
Source: Life in a Day
The success of co-creation platforms like
Threadless shows that people don’t only desire
to express themselves creatively, but they also
want to create together with likeminded creators,
in online and offline communities. Equally
importantly, the success of co-creation projects
like Life in a Day shows that it’s possible to break
down big creative endeavors, like making a movie
or creating a product, into small tasks, inspire
thousands of contributors to engage in the task,
then aggregate the contributions back into a
meaningful artifact.
How do Co-creation Communities
work?
Co-creation communities can be classified across
three important dimensions: the relationship
between initiators and contributors, the
possibilities for participation, and the nature of
collaboration.

5. 5
contributions, often by running time-bound
challenges. Next, platforms need to synthesize
these contributions into meaningful artifacts and
products. Finally, platforms need to celebrate
the most powerful or popular contributions by
rewarding them.
Co-creation Communities for
Brands
“Consumers are beginning in a very real sense to
own our brands and participate in their creation…
we need to begin to learn to let go.”
- A. G. Lafley, former CEO and Chairman of P&G
Branded co-creation communities can be
classified into three models: branded challenges
on niche crowdsourcing platforms, branded
co-creation challenge platforms, and ongoing co-
creation communities.
In the first model, brands run short-term public
or private challenges on niche crowdsourcing
platforms to tap into their specialized
communities: designers, developers, animators,
filmmakers, engineers, or scientists. Challenges
typically have phases for entry submission,
community voting, and selection of winners
by jury members. Creativity-driven challenges
related to creative designs, branded videos and
animation films (Zooppa, PopTent (video), Tongal
(video), Eyeka (video),MOFILM, Springleap,
Talenthouse) are typically public, and winners
are often selected based on a combination
of community voting and jury judgment.
Solution-driven challenges related to software
applications, product innovations, and business
solutions (Top Coder, Kaggle (video), Local
Motors (video), Innocentive (video), Jovoto
(video)) are sometimes private and winners are
sometimes selected based on objective technical
criteria.
In the second model, brands create their own
co-creation challenge platforms to engage their
community members and crowdsource branded
videos (Doritos Crash the Super bowl, Pepsi
Halftime (video), Tata Indica Xeta Shootout)
and product innovations, including limited
edition designs (Nescafe Dolce Gusto’s Euro
Design Contest, Citroen You Like It We Make It
(video), Heineken Your Future Bottle (video),
Nike ID (video)), new food and beverage flavors
(Mountain Dew Dewmocracy (video), Lays Do Us
a Flavor (video)), Domino’s Australia Social Pizza
(video), McDonald’s Mein Burger (video), Lec Ice
Cream), new product designs (Fiat Mio (video))
and business solutions (GE Ecomagination
Challenge (video), GE Healthymagination
Challenge, GE Imaging Innovation Challenge).
Some brands host the challenge on niche
crowdsourcing platforms to tap into the
community, but also promote them on their own
branded destinations (GE Quest (hospital video,
flight video), Domino’s Ultimate Delivery Vehicle
(video)). Other brands need to create their own
branded destinations to provide sophisticated
dashboards to community members to pick
and choose product options to customize their
product (Nike ID, McDonald’s Mein Burger, Fiat
Mio). Some challenges offer separate community
prizes based on community voting, and jury
prizes based on jury selection, and some reward
community members who offer constructive
comments and feedback with prizes.
Source: Jovoto
Source: Fiat Mio
In the third model, brands build and nurture their
own co-creation communities and encourage
contributions through a series of challenges
(Heineken Ideas Brewery (video), Domino’s
Think Oven)). The most successful of these co-
creation communities, like Nike ID (video), not
only run a series of challenges but also create
value for consumers between challenges, by
enabling them to customize the products on an
ongoing basis. Other co-creation communities,
like LEGO CUUSOO (video), rely on the almost
unlimited passion of their brand fans to sustain
engagement, and only need to regularly review

6. Source: lego.cuusoo.com
In 2011, LEGO opened up its Japanese
crowdsourcing platform CUUSOO to global
audiences, inviting adults to submit and vote for
new LEGO product designs.
Levent Ozler, editor-in-chief of Dexigner,
summarized the process:
“Ideas that are supported by 10,000 votes have
a chance of being selected to become part of the
LEGO Group’s product portfolio and sold in LEGO
Brand retail stores and the LEGO online shop.
Consumers who have their ideas chosen will earn
1% of the total net sales of the product.”
popular submissions, and launch them as new
products. Several brands have invested heavily
in ongoing ideation platforms to co-create the
brand experience with their customers and
launch product and process innovations based
on customer ideas (BarclayCard Ring(video), My
Starbucks Idea, Dell Ideastorm, Best Buy IdeaX).
These communities rely less on challenges and
rewards, and more on community engagement
and customer support, to sustain participation
from community members.
Source: Nike ID
Source:
LEGO® CUUSOO Process and Summer Review Results
CUUSOO’s 10,000 vote requirement helps
streamline the crowdsourcing process. The Idea
Connection team noted:
“Lego receives original ideas but is not weighed
down by too many which can be costly and time
consuming to examine. And fan support can
provide some kind of indication of the potential
popularity of a concept.”
The fan-facing effort has challenged LEGO to
increase the speed of its product release cycle.
Matthew Kronsberg, a writer at Fast Company,
said:
“Such an outpouring of [fan] interest would be
squandered though, if that consumer desire
was left to wither through a traditional product
development cycle. And this is where the second,
and possibly more significant piece of the Cuusoo
endeavor comes into play: Lego Minecraft will go
from concept to release in roughly six months,
rather than Lego’s typical two- or three-year
process.”
There are currently 3,787 live projects at LEGO
CUUSOO. Three co-created products have
been launched to date, and a fourth one is in
production.
All the three models need brands to incentivize
community members to submit and support
contributions. Incentives can range from social
influence and gift cards on one extreme, to a
Super Bowl TV spot (Doritos Crash the Super
bowl), a million dollars or 1% of net revenue (Lays
Do us a Flavor), or a $10 million commercial
contract (GE Ecomagination Challenge).
Co-creation Communities Case
Studies
Throughout the year, we have tracked the
conversations around a number of branded
cocreation challengesin our weekly insights
reports and quarterly magazines; here are a few
highlights.
Branded program: LEGO CUUSOO
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare

7. 7
LEGO has launched several efforts to nurture
and enable a spirit of creation amongst adults
and children alike, with digital tools LEGO Digital
Designer and LDraw, and social networks LEGO
Club and ReBrick.
Joren de Wachter, an IP strategy consultant,
noted:
“The genius of Lego is to embrace and share that
creativity, rather than trying to own it.”
Branded program: McDonald’s
Germany Mein Burger
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare
Blogger Reuben Halper noted:
“It’s all about the execution in this case as
Razorfish created a compelling experience for
users to generate their own bespoke burger
creation. Perhaps more importantly, they also
provided the tools to for users promote their
burger creation and encourage their friends, as
well as the general public, to vote for the eventual
winners.”
The five most popular burgers were featured in
McDonald’s TV commercials and served at 1,415
McDonald’s locations in Germany for a week
each.
Online, 116,000 burgers were created, 12,000
user-generated marketing campaigns were
created and 1.5 million votes were cast. In real
life, the campaign set local benchmarks for
promo burgers sold, customers gained and
revenue raised.
Source: Mein Burger Case Study
Source: mcdonalds.de/mein_burger
To celebrate its 40th anniversary in Germany,
McDonald’s launched Mein Burger, a six-month-
long crowdsourcing campaign that invited
Germans to make their own burgers online.
People used a ‘Burger Configurator’ tool to
choose from 70 ingredients (bread, meats, sauce)
to build their dream burgers, and to give them
personalized names.
Nidhi Makhija, member of the MSLGROUP
Insights Network, pointed out that these names
served as an outlet for creativity and acted as
content pegs people could push out while asking
for votes:
“It helps differentiate the crowdsourced burgers
without having to scrutinize the ingredients. The
burger inventors can name their creations after
themselves for an ego boost. And the comedians
out there get to have some fun (someone even
suggested a “Mc Gyver” burger!).”
People then gathered support from their social
networks using a DIY marketing tool kit from
McDonald’s.
In two years, more than 460,000 recipes were
created and voted upon – an abundance of data
and insights for McDonald’s. The campaign has
been launched with adaptations in Austria, the
Netherlands and Spain.

8. Source: Ideas Brewery – 60+ Challenge – Brief
In March 2012, Heineken launched Ideas
Brewery, a platform through which the brand
shares co-creation challenges and connects with
consumers. The first challenge asked people for
ideas on Sustainability, the second challenge
asked people to Reinvent the Draught Beer
Experience, and the third challenge asks people
to share insights on the 60+ demographic.
To participate in the Ideas Brewery challenges,
people submit their elevator pitch online in the
form of text, images or video.
Raz Godelnik, a contributor at TriplePundit,
wrote:
“In Heineken’s contest, not only can everyone
access ideas…but they can also vote for their
favorite ideas. Participants are also encouraged
to promote their ideas via social networks, as
number of votes is factored in to which ideas win
the contest.”
A jury selects finalists who are invited to a co-
creation workshop in Amsterdam to refine their
ideas with Heineken experts and make their final
pitch. Then, three winners are announced and
receive a share of $10,000.
Source: Ideas Brewery – Reinvent the Draught Beer
Experience – Workshop
Source: ideasbrewery.com/Idea
Future of Co-creation
Communities
Co-creation challenges around crowdsourcing
designs, videos and stories have already
become the norm for adding a social media
component to brand campaigns, and many
creators are becoming fatigued with them,
forcing brands to support them with bigger
paid media budgets, more attractive prizes, and
celebrity endorsements. We foresee that, going
forward, the best way to run such challenges
on a small budget would be to partner with a
niche creative crowdsourcing community like
Jovoto or MoFilm. We also expect such creative
crowdsourcing communities to specialize by
country and language, with Neocha Edge in
China and Brandfighters in Netherlands being
early examples.
At the same time, we expect more brands to run
higher order co-creation challenges focused on
product innovation and incentivize contributors
with a percentage of revenue (Lays Do Us a
Flavor), and even create ongoing co-creation
Branded program: Heineken Ideas
Brewery
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare
The team at Coverstories highlighted the need to
co-create designs and products with consumers:
“For a company with consumer products it
should be regular way to work out new ideas.
Whether public or a closed focus group, tapping
into real customer thinking can’t be wrong
and offers a valuable reality-check on product
development. In terms of Innovation
Management it is currently the most effective and
productive way to go.”

9. 9
platforms to invite ideas from customers (Dell
Ideastorm) or enable customers to customize
their products (Nike ID). We also expect third-
party product innovation communities like Quirky
to create end-to-end new product development
solutions for brands, beyond ideation.
Author Nilofer Merchant lists co-creation as one
of the 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social
Era:
“More and more companies embrace consumers
as “co-creation” partners in their innovation
efforts, instead of as buyers at the end of a value
chain. Consumers, traditionally considered as
value exchangers or extractors, are now seen
as a source of value creation and competitive
advantage. This collaboration shares power
between the participants as we start to recognize
value creation as an act of exchange, not simply a
one-way transaction. As an exchange, all parties
need to do it sustainably as each must have
equilibrium to stay viable.”
We also expect that more organizations will
follow PepsiCo’s example in replicating co-
creation best practices across brands (Mountain
Dew Dewmocracy, Doritos Crash the Super
bowl, Pepsi Halftime) and countries (Lays Do
Us a Flavor), and run them over multiple years
(Doritos Crash the Super bowl, Lays Do Us a
Flavor) to maximize the benefit from them.
Even as white label co-creation solutions like
MSLGROUP’s People’s Lab, Brightidea and
Spigit mature, we expect more players to enter
the markets with niche offerings. Some of them
will specialize in platform-specific co-creation
apps (like Napkin Labs for Facebook), while
others will specialize around use cases (like
product customization). We also expect more
niche crowdsourcing communities like Zooppa
and Innocentive to offer specialized white label
solutions for brands to host both short-term and
long-term co-creation communities.
Finally, we also expect crowdfunding platforms
like Kickstarter to differentiate themselves by
adding features and incentives to encourage
community members to not only fund projects,
but also co-create them.

10. Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab
People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary
crowdsourcing platform and approach that
helps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
helps organizations build and nurture public
or private, web or mobile, hosted or white
label communities around four pre-configured
application areas: Expertise Request Network,
Innovation Challenge Network, Research &
Insights Network and Contest & Activation
Network. Our community and gaming features
encourage people to share rich content, vote/
comment on other people’s content and
collaborate to find innovative solutions.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
and approach forms the core of our distinctive
insights and foresight approach, which consists
of four elements: organic conversation analysis,
MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-
specific insights communities, and ethnographic
deep dives into these communities. The People’s
Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our
capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing
insights from conversations and communities.
People’s Lab:
Crowdsourcing
Innovation & Insights

11. Write to us to start a conversation on the future of engagement.:
Pascal Beucler,
SVP & Chief Strategy Officer
(pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com)
Janelle Dixon,
North America Head of Insights
(janelle.dixon@mslgroup.com)
Dominic Payling,
Europe Head of Insights
(dominic.payling@mslgroup.com)
Gaurav Mishra,
Asia Head of Insights
(gaurav.mishra@mslgroup.com)
mslgroup.com | twitter.com/msl_group
MSLGROUP is Publicis Groupe's strategic
communications and engagement group,
advisors in all aspects of communication
strategy: from consumer PR to financial
communications, from public affairs to
reputation management and from crisis
communications to event management.
With more than 3,700 people, its offices span
22 countries. Adding affiliates and partners
into the equation, MSLGROUP's reach
increases to 4,000 employees in 83 countries.
Today the largest 'PR and Engagement'
network in Europe, Greater China and India, the
group offers strategic planning and counsel,
insight-guided thinking and big, compelling
ideas – followed by thorough execution.