DesignCrowd Philippines gives SMBs fresh alternative to ad agencies

Australia’s DesignCrowd has opened an office in the Philippines last week to offer crowd-sourced creative services to local businesses.DesignCrowd connects clients to a pool of over 170,000 designers globally to work on anything from t-shirts, business cards and product packaging to websites, banner ads and logos.Located in Manila, DesignCrowd Philippines will be responsible for providing regional sales and technical support to new and existing users. Around 30% of the company’s customers come from the Asia-Pacific region in 2013.DesignCrowd gives a fresh alternative to ad agencies who have been the chief source of creative ideas for marketing and brand building for years.Rather than stick to a few creatives under one agency, clients post a design contest on DesignCrowd where its army of designers  can submit over a 100 ideas for projects following a brief. The turnaround usually happens within a week and is fairly inexpensive since clients only pay for the design they want.Chris McNamara, chief operating officer of DesignCrowd, is expecting the Manila office to double its size in the next 12 month in response to demand, mainly driven by small and medium businesses (SMBs).To date, SMB’s account for 99% of the total number of registered businesses in the country.“Crowdsourcing is a great way for small- and medium-sized businesses to gain access to a broad range of design talent, without having to spend the big money that traditional agencies charge,” McNamara adds.Creatives can also supplement their incomes by joining DesignCrowd. Some of top designers in the Philippines have earned over P796,000 in just two years. On average, members earn P34,000 per month by submitting designs on the DesignCrowd website.