A new company called IamaSource (I am a Source) presents an innovative alternative to the traditional advertising and marketing business module. Instead of hiring a team of advertisers who may or may not be capable of producing the results they need, companies are given the opportunity to take advantage of the concept of streamlined crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing is a portmanteau of the words crowd and outsourcing. When crowdsourcing, companies take tasks that are usually assigned to a department or a single employee within their business, or a contractor, and offers them to entire communities.

Crowdsourcing offers many advantages to advertisers. They get to see proposals from a diverse group of people, instead of just one. IamaSource opens its doors to freelance designers and writers from around the world. And, instead of paying for each proposal, advertisers only have to pay for the one that they like, at a price that is set when the call for proposal is made. Much like a design contest, the designer with the “best” design gets paid.

The danger for advertisers is that there is no guarantee that they’ll meet strict marketing deadlines. No one can be held liable for not finishing the work, or not coming up with a good enough idea.

IamaSource aims to support the advertising industry and even inspire creativity in it. By creating an alternative to traditional advertising, they’re raising the bar for creative executions.

On the other hand, the designers and writers who participate in crowdsourcing have to take care not to be exploited. For every designer that wins one of the contests posted by IamaSource, there can be dozens and potentially hundreds of designers and writers that do legitimate work and end up not getting paid one cent for their efforts.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Innovation.