Crowdsourcing Lures Creativity: Taps Local, Connects Global

Jan. 2, 2012 - PRLog -- Bangalore, 2nd Jan 2012 - When Jagroop Singh from Mohali designed a 2012 New Year greeting card, he had no idea it would end up reaching to people all around the world courtesy Yannig Roth, a PhD student in Paris.

Roth is currently exploring how consumers’ creativity can bring value through community co-creation.  He says he could have easily bought a greeting card from any of the shops, but the one he selected had a story he could connect with, it had a personalized message from the designer Jagroop Singh.

Creative crowdsourcing is all about tapping the world’s creativity to connect with its customers in a more personalized manner. As in this example, it is not a mass-produced greeting card, but something uniquely personalized.
“It’s very moving to see people create for you, especially when they come from remote places” says Roth.
From the designer’s perspective, in a traditional business set up, Jagroop would have never been able to reach out to a French customer without the right agency connections.
Truly, crowdsourcing is opening up opportunities to thousands of creative folks from remote corners of the country, who like to experiment with ideas without having to think about cost risks.
Indeed, the creative freedom combined with the flexibility to work at their own pace is luring many moonlighters and women swap their current jobs in favour of crowdsourcing independently.
It is estimated that nearly 55% of women who are associated with Jade Magnet are willing to quit their full time jobs and are interested in working from home so as to be able to spend more time with family and be able to earn from their creative pursuits. Some providers have started earning regular income from crowdsourcing, even earning more than their previous jobs.
Certainly, it is very rare to find a technology platform that works out to be in favour of both creative talent and businesses. So far in India, there has been no platform where business could reach out without having to spend a bomb on creatives.

Also, while there was no dearth of freelancers earlier, employers found it difficult to manage and track them.

That is where Jade Magnet figured they could bridge the gap between small businesses that could not afford big agency fee, and freelancers who were looking for creative freedom and opportunity without being exploited. Crowdsourcing is definitely turning out to be a boon to both small business entrepreneurs and providers.

As Ashutosh Verma, the CEO of Finelogics says, “During the last four years, we have executed many web application projects with more design centricity for domestic and overseas clients on the JadeMagnet platform. We wish Jade Magnet all the best, because on their growth, depends the success of many creative providers.”
Ashutosh Verma is not alone, Ronak Megnani of Magneto Infotech also accounts for his success to the crowd sourcing platform of Jade Magnet.,

“I stumbled upon Jade Magnet about a year ago. I was amazed to see how great, interesting projects were available that fit our requirement.

Magneto Infotech based out of Pune is amongst the top 20 providers on Jade Magnet and has delivered projects worth more than $15,000. It is not just SMEs that the platform is catering to but even the creative folks who are providing the design are extremely happy with the new business model.

Deepti Goel, a provider on Jade Magnet who has worked on Jade Magnet platform for more than 15 brands doing animationand logos for brands in UK and India, is now doing a website for a Middle East client. She has earned about $7000 in revenue from Jade Magnet comfortably sitting in the environment of her home.

Deepti shares her excitement working on Jade magnet,
“It’s really great to be the part of it and I feel wonderful that it’s growing rapidly. It has provided lot of freelancers, individuals and firms a good platform to work on.”

So what makes crowdsourcing a popular choice among the new breed of entrepreneurs? It is the availability of variety and the comparatively low cost of design in comparison with small and medium agencies.

While low cost is a big advantage, quality is a big concern among those who are considering outsourcing design to the crowd. However, this is not an issue feels Deepti, “if the requirements are spelled out in specific details the designers can match up to client’s expectations of quality.”

Indeed a lot of providers who didn’t have access to business earlier have been able to benefit tremendously from Jade Magnet. Currently, there are about 300 providers who are actively using the platform to generate business.

What is the profile of these providers?

Providers come from all over the country, both men and women included. They hail from cities as far as far as Patna and Pondicherry. It is truly an amazing opportunity for these folks who would otherwise feel unfulfilled and frustrated by not benefiting from their talent and eventually rusted and faded away.

Says Tushar Rastogi from Delhi who has been with Jade Magnet for the last 2 years.

“The best thing about Jade Magnet is its amazing execution process ensuring professionalism and high quality work is delivered. Also, as a platform it provides freedom of thought. Apart from that, Jade Magnet is an excellent paymaster and ensures the payment for the providers is safe guarded which have been issue with other platforms where I have submitted my work in past.

As far as my experience is concerned with Jade Magnet its one of the finest ventures i have ever worked in my entire career of 8 years now. I really wish them “All The Best” for their growth and success and pray for a long term bonding with them.

Jade Magnet has worked with clients in over 45 cities in India delivering value to over 500 clients in 2 yrs spreading across the globe.

Indeed it has been a win-win experience for both the clients and the providers, a vision that both the founders Manik Kinra and Sitash Srivastava had envisaged when they hit upon their entrepreneurial venture Jade Magnet two years ago at the age of 26.

As the number of providers grow on the list, truly, Jade Magnet is one of the fastest growing startup in Asia connecting creative talent with business needs of SMEs on the crowdsourcing platform.

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Jade Magnet is Asia’s largest creative crowdsourcing platform for design, web and marketing needs. The platform has been used by around 500 brands for over 1300 projects ranging from brand identity, web solutions, mobile UI & other creative requirements