crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data

Peoples Insights Volume 2, Issue 20

KBC banks Gap in the Market

Peoples Insights
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 Peoples 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 Peoples Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement. 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.

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Volume 2, Issue 20, April - June, 2013

Future of Money

KBC banks Gap in the Market

What is Gap in the Market?

In February 2013, KBC bank in Belgium launched The Gap in the Market a collective intelligence platform to crowdsource local business opportunities, aggregate data and present it back to local entrepreneurs. The bank accompanied the platform with a vote-based contest to crowdsource business ideas and supported popular ideas with coverage and prizes.

Source: twitter.com/zhangcheng_uk

Blogger Pierre-Nicolas Schwab commented: Kudos to KBC. We usually see banks as a hurdle in the entrepreneurial process but this time someone seems to think differently and wants to re-invent the process. The program is quite timely too, as copywriter Hugo pointed out: KBC has done what any bank would do given the current economic situation: truly help citizens to start businesses and thereby improve the economy.* Indeed, purpose-inspired programs are becoming the new standard, as MSLGROUPs Pascal Beucler points out in his reflections as a PR Lions juror: Its a purpose-led world: more and more big corporations and brands are embracing a bigger-than USP and even old style social responsibility. For engaging Gen Y, and soon Gen Z, this is no longer an option.

Source: lareclame.fr*

171,157 gaps in the market were reported in three months an average of 560 reports per town or city and 1,500 business ideas were submitted. The program also piqued the interest of marketers and advertisers and won a Gold Lion in the Direct category at Cannes Lions 2013.

Purpose-inspired marketing
With The Gap in the Market, KBC establishes a sound overlap between peoples interests and business interests. The program helps local entrepreneurs identify opportunities and also helps KBC promote its banking, loans and insurance services for entrepreneurs. In addition to helping entrepreneurs identify opportunities, KBC also encouraged entrepreneurs to discuss their ideas with local KBC executives and awarded 20 contest winners the use of company cars for 6 months, to help them set up their new business.

Crowdsourcing gaps
People submitted gaps in their local market online using the Gap Finder tool. Then, entrepreneurs browsed through this data on an interactive map, and filtered to see the top businesses needed in a specific region and compare needs across regions.

*Translation via Google

Source: hetgatindemarkt.be/nl/8500/viswinkels*

The interactive map displayed gaps shared by people and also statistic data collected by yellow pages business Truvo.

Using statistical data as seed content

KBC pre-seeded the map with statistical data to create a base of content, which would then inspire the first wave of visitors to create additional content. Heres a slide from KBCs The Gap in the Market case study that explains the value of seeded content:

Reactions to the program

The program sparked conversations around local businesses, as people shared gaps, analyzed the data and commented on the methodology of the platform.

Source: twitter.com/hannelulu*

Bart Rosseau commented on the presentation of data:

Source: slideshare.net/cleverwood

Typically, we see marketers use social conversations around a hashtag or real-time data feeds and indexes to populate content on collective intelligence platforms.
Source: twitter.com/BartRosseau*

Volume 2, Issue 20, April - June, 2013

Future of Money

KBC banks Gap in the Market

*Translation via Google

Olivier Maes and Wouter Lecluyse noted the use of the data in identifying general trends.

Source: twitter.com/playzone_be*

Sixteen cars were awarded to the most popular idea in each of the 16 regions where KBC operates. The remaining four cars were awarded to the next most popular ideas in four other regions.
Source: twitter.com/WouterLecluyse*

Crowdsourcing business ideas

After the gaps were identified, KBC invited entrepreneurs to fill the gaps. To help entrepreneurs come up with ideas, KBC created videos featuring stories of successful entrepreneurs. Bart Claeys, a creative director, wrote: The second phase of the campaign is now focusing on the potential entrepreneurs. Three TV spot and five different ads show examples of original companies and companies that should inspire people with good ideas to venture.

Promoting The Gap in the Market

KBC promoted The Gap in the Market through localized PR stories and advertisements posters, radio ads, TV spots, online ads and innovative outdoor ads on empty store windows.

Source: haberdasher28 on Instagram

Bart Claeys reported:

Source: Moustache vond het gat in de markt

The program then entered Phase III: Social Battle a contest in which participants gathered support from their networks for the chance to win one of twenty company cars.

Every village, town and city received personalized posters in their offices KBC (eg: What is missing in your opinion Halle?). Messages were stuck on vacant premises in shopping areas. Regional sections of the newspapers elaborated on the specific needs of each municipality.

*Translation via Google

KBC partnered with leading newspaper Het Nieuwsblad to provide local coverage across the country and to create a special micro-site nieuwsblad.be/extra/gatindemarkt which presents interviews with participants, results by region and top business opportunities based on third-party data and peoples submissions.

Trend: Move from saying to doing

Marketers from across the industry are calling for more programs, like The Gap in the Market, that highlight peoples problems and deliver effective solutions especially as technology creates new opportunities to do so. Razorfishs chairman Clark Kokick penned the entire book Do or Die to inspire what he calls effective marketing: moving from just saying things to your audience to actually doing things people find entertaining, useful, and relevant: In the past, you could simply turn up the volume if you wanted to get your message across. Today, you have to turn up the value. You have to give consumers something they actually prize in order to have them pay attention to you. AKQAs chief creative officer Rei Inamoto just recently argued that Brands should aim to solve real problems by providing connected services over 365 days and by inventing new businesses that benefit people, not just the brand: Creativity and innovation are about finding unexpected solutions to obvious problems or finding obvious solutions to unexpected problems. We should use our creativity to provide better businesses and solutions rather than constantly trying to disrupt what people are doing. Other examples of brands that are actively helping people include Adelaide and Bendigo Bank with PlanBig, and beyond money, Nike with the FuelBand.

Source: nieuwsblad.be/extra/gatindemarkt/

The micro site also features results of an iVOX survey commissioned by KBC to study peoples satisfaction with the shops and services around them.

Entering national discourse

The Gap in the Market brought attention to the lack of local businesses and inspired both people and public leaders, like Daphne Dumery, to join the conversation.

Source: twitter.com/ddumery

Source: KBC: The gap in the market

Volume 2, Issue 20, April - June, 2013

Future of Money

KBC banks Gap in the Market

Peoples Lab: Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights

Peoples Lab is MSLGROUPs proprietary crowdsourcing platform and approach that helps organizations tap into peoples insights for innovation, storytelling and change. The Peoples 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 peoples content and collaborate to find innovative solutions. The Peoples Lab crowdsourcing platform and approach forms the core of our distinctive insights and foresight approach, which consists of four elements: organic conversation analysis, MSLGROUPs own insight communities, clientspecific insights communities, and ethnographic deep dives into these communities. The Peoples Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing insights from conversations and communities.

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

For Peoples Lab solutions, contact

pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com