Pressrelease: Victors & Spoils Launches First Advertising Agency Built on Crowdsourcing Principles

OOoh, lookie here. Victor and Spoils just sent us a press release six hours after I posted this. It's pretty late here, so I'm going to go ahead and share it in full with you.

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John Winsor, Claudia Batten and Evan Fry today announced the launch of a new advertising agency, Victors & Spoils, the world’s first creative ad agency built on crowdsourcing principles. Crowdsourcing is the act of digitally delegating a task to a crowd of people or community that passionately participates in developing a solution. The new agency will provide businesses with creative solutions to their marketing, advertising and product-design problems, by engaging their customers as well as a creative department made up of the world’s most talented people. Perceived crowdsourcing flaws will be addressed through world-class creative direction delivered through the use of the reputation-ranked Victors & Spoils crowd. Winsor will serve as Victors & Spoils’ Chief Executive Officer, Batten assumes the role of Chief Operating Officer and Fry comes on as Chief Creative Officer, effective immediately.

Victors & Spoils represents a fresh agency model that offers brands an alternative to ad agencies and current crowdsourcing platforms by offering the strategic direction, engagement and relationship management that brands rely upon their agencies to provide, as well as delivering the engagement, return on investment and results that marketers seek from crowdsourced solutions.

“The stage is set for a new model to rise up and permanently disrupt the traditional agency structure – whether that’s a digital agency, a traditional agency or some kind of hybrid,” said Fry. “And with the engagement, connectivity and creativity of communities today, this kind of shift is inevitable. Is crowdsourcing the answer? Maybe not in its current state. But if we build on its principles by including planning, strategy, insightful brief creation and great creative direction - while attracting and truly rewarding the best creatives - it can be a fundamental part of what we see as a potential revolution. But you still have to give your clients partnership, guidance and direction. And they still want and need a human face. Oh, and they also have to like you. We believe we can deliver this combination.”

“Claudia, Evan and I realized we were witnessing the perfect storm of digital transparency, consumer involvement, and a growing cost consciousness regarding clients’ budgets that has made crowdsourcing especially timely for today’s marketers,” said Winsor. “Crowdsourcing is not a passing fad, but until now, no crowdsourcing option has included a built-in method to guide clients through both the executional and strategic components.”

Winsor and Fry both come to the agency from Crispin, Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), where they pioneered innovative marketing programs for clients and pushed the boundaries on how “advertising” is defined. Winsor, after selling his company (Radar Communications) to CP+B, was made VP/Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation and led the effort to reinvent planning. He also launched CP+B’s lauded product-innovation department and is the author of three acclaimed innovation and branding books, the last, “Baked In,” co-authored with CP+B’s Alex Bogusky. Fry spent the last seven years entrenched in the creative department of CP+B as an integral part of the agency’s meteoric rise. He helped lead new business wins as well as award-winning campaigns and never-been-done ideas as VP/Creative Director on such brands as Domino’s, Miller, Nike, Burger King and Best Buy. Batten has more than a decade of experience in the technology sector, including four years as a corporate attorney specializing in commercial and technology law, and was a founder of Massive, the company bought by Microsoft in 2006 that launched the first-ever network for video game advertising in the world.

“The recession and the new reality of digital transparency will leave this industry forever changed,” said Batten. “Challenge upon challenge currently faces a marketer looking to take advantage of the increasingly connected digital world we now live in. Identifying who they need to interact with, how to sift through the ideas, how to edit them and identify which are on-brand, etc. Whether through crowdsourcing, social media or some other digital solution, there is no quick fix. Our plan is to paradigm shift, not give some kind of one-size-fits-all ‘stick a whatever label on it and automatically deliver results for cheaper solution.’ What marketers need is a real solution that allows brands to engage with their consumers and get the results they need to move their brand strategy forward. We will deliver that solution.”

About Victors & Spoils
Victors & Spoils is the first advertising agency built on crowdsourcing principles, with both curation and direction. Co-Founders John Winsor, Claudia Batten and Evan Fry launched Victors & Spoils as a strategic alternative to the current advertising landscape and as a marketing partner in crowdsourcing that offers the strategic direction, engagement and relationship management that brands rely on their agencies to provide. Victors & Spoils is located in Boulder, Colorado. For more information, visit: www.victorsandspoils.com.