By Remy Raitt

“Co-creation in the digital space plays not just a vital role, but it’s the essence of everything we do on a daily basis,” says Conrad David, the founder and CEO of Hashtag South Africa. “We’re able to engage with individuals that have skills, borderless of any country.”

Finding your meeting point

In Hashtag South Africa’s case, David says they enlist the help of people from around the world. “In order for brands and companies to garner co-creation online they would need to first have a common ground. They would need to find a place to meet in a central location and that can be done utilising community social platforms, simple emails or getting people together in the same room in their countries and then united on a central online platform,” says David.

He says at Hashtag South Africa they have created their own cloud interface, merging Google Apps for business with Facebook API’s and Twitter Bootstrap. “This system allows us to communicate within different time zones and sends messages off in triggers. We have a global time clock that works as a trigger so deadlines are effective in each city of our operation.”

Reaching outside your organisation

Co-creation also allows customers to get involved. At Digital Edge Live, chief scientist of the global social giant Lithium Technologies, Dr Michael Wu explained the opportunities this offers. “Conversations happen on social media but people still just approach it by acquiring and then monetising. Digital acquisition is strange, you can’t keep what you acquire,” he says. According to Wu, if you want to sustain monetisation you need to engage.

“Enlistment helps you scale acquisitions and gives leverage for your customers to do the work for you,” he says. “You need to acquire, engage, monetise, and enlist all at the same time or it won’t work.” Wu believes that the most compelling stories are brand narratives co-created with your customers.

David cites Knorr’s What’s For Dinner? campaign as a good local example of this. While promoting their own recipes (and product)  online, they gather Knorr recipes from their followers too. These are then collected and compiled into a cookbook which is sold at Pick ‘n Pays across the country. He says this provides motivation for followers to get involved, plus generates revenue for the brand.

What it offers

In an article for Vision Critical, Stephen Benson says collaborating with customers offers many benefits including; increased innovation capacity, increased innovation velocity, reduced innovation risk, increased flow of quality ideas and concepts into the development pipeline, and accelerated time to market new products and services.

“It offers brands and companies a global perspective and offers an opportunity; you no longer have to create products and services based on your location,” says David. “You can now tap into the greatest minds that live on planet Earth today, rather than read about them in years to come, and they’re accessible by searching for them simply on the internet or by tweeting them.”

“Co-creation allows your perspective conclusion to change. So, when you have a think tank on a specific agenda or a brief, by opening it up to people in different parts of the world, but staying in the same interest group, you’ll be able to have more than just a 360 perspective; it kind of 3D-fies the object that you’re looking at,” David concludes.

Co-creation has the ability to allow ideas to come alive, and gives brands the chance to tap into information sources that were previously not considered or reachable. All you have to do is get online.

How do you think co-creation will affect marketing and brand building in years to come? Tell us below.