The headline above could have easily read – You could win $500 I need my car tuned, or WIN $500 I need a tooth fixed. All are ludicrous of course.
No accountant is going to do my taxes on spec, no mechanic will tune up my car, nor will a dentist do dental work in order to win – in this case – $500 One Degree bucks! Or do it for exposure.
But designers and artists will ply their trade for a chance to win. Or gain exposure.
Recently, our good friend Monica Hamburg published a note on Facebook …
"Brings up some Qs – e.g.: is an ad worth only $1K, will the exposure really benefit artist? http://ow.ly/1rZnGm Interested in follow-up"
Well, we are interested too.
I remember thinking when I saw Monica's post about Guy Kawasaki's contest, a while back, for a logo and badge at Alltop. I think you could win $500 and an iPod respectively in these contests.
Guy was at Apple. I did work for Apple. Apple LIKES great brand work. Apple paid well. WTF?
We ALL know that a brand is way more than a logo or a font, or a slogan or an ad. (Or, we should!)
But a company that does a contest – so you can get EXPOSURE, and/or win a cash prize, especially a small cash prize, to get branding work is like saying …
"Hey drive me to Montreal. If we get there, and I really like the trip, I will put gas in the tank."
Trust me, I know how competitive the market is out there, how we ALL desperately need exposure. We all are looking for new biz. But is this going to far? Is this just taking advantage?
I would love to hear what you think?
Oh, any accountants, car mechanics or dentists out there that are interested in the One Degree Contest please email me! We will work something out!
OK I have the approval – Bill Allman a friend of Monica's posted, so eloquently …
In Canada, people DIE from exposure.
Hi Pete,
Thanks for posting about this!
Obviously I agree with you on this imbalance. And my post about the Fluevog competition is now up:
http://monicahamburg.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/exposure-or-exploitation/
BTW, I don’t think I was the one who posted about the Alltop contest. Or at least I don’t recall doing so. 🙂
And love your humor. I look forward to offering a similar deal to my therapist:
“How ’bout, say, I come here for a while, and, if I’m more sane in about a year or two, I pay you for the work you’ve put in?”
Thanks Monica. No, you did not post about the Alltop contest. I saw it when it was happening and was going to rant about it, but I am, or was, a fan of Guy. So I cut him some slack. Now, between the contest and his 2 million Tweets a day (By staffers) and Alltop itself not really doing anything for me …meh.He sadly has dropped off my radar.
Loved your post, we are obviously having a violent agreement here. The one thing that still lingers is the feeling that no matter what the reasons behind a company taking advantage of market conditions, it lessens their brand in my eyes.
And I can’t help thinking that sure $1000 of merchandise is $1000 value to the contest winner. But did not cost the company $1000.
This is hilarious – it takes a wee bit of time to fully download, so grab a coffee and wait – well worth it!!!
http://jhische.com/workforfree.html
It’s great to use analogies like taxes and fixing cars, but good design work goes deeper than this. When no two cars are the same and the tax rules change with each customer, the end result is only going to be successful with an intimate understanding of the customer, their product, and the market they’re serving.
Whether or not the client likes a logo is fine and all, but it’s easy for a client to like a crap logo, particularly when they’re presented with work that was all prepared with the same (lack of) consideration.
Never mind that the pool of designers at 99designs probably don’t get this, or that they’re going to be working for free most of the time. What really pisses me off is that companies are getting conned into thinking they’re getting value out of this process.