This week, we distill insights around PlanBig - a platform created by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank to connect changemakers and support them in bringing their ideas to reality.  100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have further synthesized the insights to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part People’s Insights annual report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement, now available as a Kindle eBook. For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/future-of-engagement

1. crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data
PlanBig
People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 18

2. Volume 2, Issue 18,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
PlanBig
100+ thinkers and planners within
MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring
projects on social data, crowdsourcing,
storytelling and citizenship on the
MSLGROUP Insights Network. 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.
We have synthesized the insights from
our year-long endeavor throughout 2012
to provide foresights for business leaders
and changemakers — in the ten-part
People’s Insights Annual Report titled
Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future
of Engagement.
People’s Insights
In 2013, we continue to track inspiring
projects at the intersection of social
data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and
citizenship.
Do subscribe to receive our weekly
insights reports, quarterly magazines, and
annual reports, and do share your tips and
comments with us at @PeoplesLab on
Twitter.
People’s Insights
weekly report
People’s Insights
quarterly magazines
People’s Insights
Annual Report

3. 3
What is PlanBig?
In February 2010, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank in
Australia created the PlanBig platform to connect
changemakers and support them in bringing
their ideas to reality. Changemakers create
plans for personal or social good projects and
solicit advice, resources and support from the
community to successfully execute the projects.
Community members offer feedback to help
their favourite plans succeed and to build their
own reputation on the network.
Source: planbig.com.au
Source: happyzine.co.nz
Blogger Jason Berek-Lewis wrote:
“PlanBig works so that anyone and their idea, as
small as it might be, can work towards something
big with the help from others. Anyone can put their
own idea up on the interactive site and anyone can
support it. It brings together “a community who is
passionate, engaged and eager to lend a hand or
an ear” and sometimes, it’s that hand or ear which
can make all the difference.”
Marketer Kate Kendall noted:
“It’s a place for sharing ideas and making them
happen. Kind of like a Kickstarter or Pozible without
the crowdfunding aspect.”
Three years later, the platform is still active and
has succeeded in creating a vibrant “community
of people with tools, skills & know-how turning big
ideas into reality.”
Purpose-inspired initiative
PlanBig was created by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank as
part of its purpose to help people realize their dreams.
Blogger Charlotte wrote:
“The website is an initiative of the Bendigo and
Adelaide Bank, which started as a building society
in 1858 to create prosperity and strength for the
community. The Bank has not forgotten its roots,
and its core business ethos today remains to
behave as banks once did, by providing resources
to keep communities sustainable and prosperous.
PlanBig is the online iteration of what the Bank has
always done – facilitate community outcomes.”

4. Volume 2, Issue 18,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
PlanBig
Source: planbig.com.au/resource
Source: planbig.com.au/resource
Blogger Kathie said:
“PlanBig draws on the strengths of social
networking to enable people to efficiently share
information, build partnerships and support each
other to make their plans become reality”.
How PlanBig works
Changemakers and project-starters share their
plan online and continually request help in areas
such as advice, goods and space.
Pro Bono Australia explains how it works:
“Users upload their plan to the free website,
including information on their motivation and what
help they need for their plan.”
“They can then participate in a wide range of
activities - asking people to volunteer their time,
seeking or providing space for events, and seeking
donations for specific items. In a similar vein to
Facebook, users can ‘like’ a plan, subscribe to
updates from the plan, and share it across other
social media sites.”
In turn, community members provide advice, encouragement, ideas, resources and publicity for their
favorite plans.
After the plan has been successfully completed, project starters share their experience. The entire plan,
process, request for help, conversations and case studies are presented in one place, for the benefit of
future project starters.

5. 5
Source: planbig.com.au
Source: planbig.com.au
“Help Cards”
Help Cards are an interesting element unique to
PlanBig. Help Cards are designed to help people
kickstart their plan and cover a wide range of
topics.
Source: planbig.com.au/helpcard/list
The “Becoming Thirty” team blogged:
“One of the most challenging things with any plan
can be knowing where to start, however, PlanBig
has a range of Help Cards available on the site,
created by experts on a variety of topics, which
can help people propel their plans or overcome
roadblocks.”
Project starters can bookmark help cards for
future reference and request Help Cards on
specific topics. Both community members and
PlanBig community managers have created Help
Cards.
Rewarding activity
PlanBig uses elements of gamification like
points, badges and leader boards to encourage
activity and reward the most active members.
Chris Jovanov, the art director who helped design
the PlanBig platform, shared:
“The latest update to the site has focused on using
gamification to encourage engagement and create
a more addictive user experience.”
For instance, community members can earn 200
points for helping out on projects. Points are
visible one each member’s profile page and also
on an activity stream on the PlanBig homepage.
Like many social platforms, PlanBig uses badges
to encourage specific activity and establish the
reputation of active community members.
PlanBigger Luke Owens shared:
“I have been personally motivated by Points & Badges
earned; they provide a cheeky little incentive which, if
you’re like me, you will want to attain them all!”
Quid pro quo system
The more active members are on the PlanBig
platform, the more visibility their project gets and
thus more support.
BusinessMomBlog’s Melissa noted “as with any
other networking opportunity, the more you get
involved, the more you get out of it,” and recommends
members to actively engage with others:
“Spend a bit of time browsing other plans and
answering questions. Not only will this help people
get to know you, but you are also likely to get people
checking out your plan.”
Several members, like Nick, reach out to their
personal networks to kickstart activity around
their project:
“The more people we get jumping in there and
liking the project, adding comments etc the higher

6. Volume 2, Issue 18,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
PlanBig
Source: openideo.com/open/mayo-clinic Source: sparktherise.com
it will track on the site, and the more likely we are to
receive some assistance to polish or even redevelop
our web platform – for a future Australian launch
and network.”
Since most members follow the unspoken rule of
helping others to attract help for themselves, most
members are able to find the support they need.
PlanBiggers Lisa and Duncan shared:
“I like the collaborative underpinnings of the site
and that it creates a place (online) that people
can come together to talk about ideas, share
inspiration, offer advice and assistance to help
make ‘Big Plans’ happen, regardless of geography.”
Blogger Rebekah Lambert noted:
“People are genuinely supportive and you can great
some great free advice along the way. You can also
discover new ideas you may not have uncovered on
your own!” Source: The power of a community
Ecosystem to support changemakers
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank hopes that PlanBig will soon become a self-sufficient ecosystem to support
changemakers and project starters.
Broadly speaking, the PlanBig platform is similar to collaborative social innovation platforms, like
OpenIDEO and Mahindra Spark the Rise; each has its own nuances and collaboration framework, but
they are all designed to “connect, catalyze, crystallize, and celebrate.” These four dimensions, which we
explore in our Now & Next: Future of Engagement report on collaborative social innovation, are crucial
to facilitating collaborating and creating a sustainable ecosystem for innovation:
“First, platforms need to connect stakeholders so that they have a context to engage with the organization
and with each other. Then, platforms need to catalyze interactions so that new ideas and projects can
emerge organically. Next, platforms need to synthesize these ideas into solutions that benefit from and build
upon the best ideas. Finally, platforms need to celebrate the most powerful or popular ideas, actions and
stories by highlighting them.”
Celebrity PlanBigger Sarah Allen reflected that
her collaboration with others added to her own
personal growth and success:
“Providing advice and ideas to other Planners
on their journey, whether a message of support
or feedback or specific suggestions, buying and
reviewing their product or donating to their cause or
attending their event – all which gave much more
back to me than I gave to them!”

7. 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
Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab

8. For People’s Lab solutions, contact
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com