Co-creators.co.uk

Someone once said “Don’t write a blog if your circumstances are about to change”. I haven’t written a post for co-creators.co.uk in over 9 months and it was due to exactly that reason. If you have other stuff going on in your life it becomes hard to focus on writing a regular and well thought through blog.

The change that happened is that I first moved from Edinburgh to London and then on to Dubai. The first move didn’t mean too much change, but the move to Dubai has certainly brought about some changes that are worth writing about.

A topic close to my heart is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and in today’s world of shrinking resources and an increasing divide between the industrialized world and the world’s poorer nations, it is becoming more of a topic by the day.

Reading this, you may recall a number of the large CSR initiatives by large companies. BP’s Carbon Footprint campaign, for example, or the fact that Shell is now the new sponsor of the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.

John Winsor regularly writes on Co-creation and his recent post “A Co-creative Tipping Point?” highlights some of the big players’ realisation that customer involvement and loss of control is not dangerous but beneficial to a brand, if managed correctly.

How many more - or should I ask, which other brands does it take to commit to co-creation, before we reach the tipping point?

Pete Blackshaw writes on Clickz.com about his new model - Listening-centered Marketing. He makes some very interesting observations that will hold true for a long time. Co-creation is one of the building blocks of his model and he argues that listening, conversations, word-of-mouth and contact (or touch-) points are further key areas.

He makes his, in my opinion, most important point in his closing paragraph when he observes that the participation as the consumer will open up our understanding of the consumers’ needs. I agree with this point 100% and would add that only a business that allows its consumers to participate will survive in the long term - companies that manage this participation and open it up to a larger degree will do better than others.

For my German readers, the Hamburger Abendblatt today has a report on Co-creation, using several big names in the German FMCG industry, such as Henkel and BMW as examples. While the example of Henkel is more about market research, others manage to be more co-creative and allow their consumers to have more than just an opinion. The main example, however, remains the all time favourite for Co-creation - Danish company Lego.

It is good to see that some of the developments go beyond a mere marketing stunt, and actually involve consumers as real creators.

Read more about it on Abendblatt.de.

I just got an email from John Windsor, who recently asked his readers to estimate the amount of ‘Co-creation’ posts Technorati would register on September 1st, 2006, March 1st and August 1st, 2007, respectively. The prize for each closest answer is $50, and it would appear that my estimate was the closest.

John has agreed to my suggestion to donate the $50 to the Carbon Fund. Thanks John!

In my previous post I reported on my intentions to do the West Highland Way (95 miles) for charity and help a small community in South Africa to help themselves. The target was to complete it in 6 days, which meant daily stages of between 12 and 22 miles. The route was to take us (my girlfriend’s Dad, his mate Phil and myself) from just north of Glasgow, past Loch Lomond and into the Highlands to Fort William and Ben Nevis.

A small project close to my heart is my mother’s own Co-creative effort in South Africa – to build a school for a remote rural community with no other access to schooling. She has asked for my help and I decided to help by doing a Charity Walk with two friends. We will be doing the 95 mile long, 6-day, West Highland Way in Scotland.

In 1997 she started her own initiative to build a school in collaboration with the local community. She is doing this without State funding and under the condition that the local community provides all the manual labour for free, while she raises the money to pay for the raw materials.

Maybe this is slightly off-topic, but has anyone ever noticed that there are Blog Pockets all over the place?

I was doing some research the other day, both on co-creation and other topics and it would appear that it is difficult to escape the pocket you are in. What I mean by “pocket” is that the circle of blogs you frequent and even come across using your regular search through tags and keywords. It is easy to always come across the same names and resources.

Whether you are new to Co-creation, or already practising it - the following 40 points on Co-creation should give you a good checklist to compare your notes with. If you agree, disagree or simply want to suggest more, please get in touch!