It's been interesting being a new zoopper and talking about this website to others in advertising. I've always felt that Ad Agencies and Design firms have had a stranglehold on creativity. It's almost like the record companies and how they would choose what kind of music we're allowed to listen too. They used to pay 40% of sells to the artists, and now iTunes is giving them about 70% of the sells....and it's working. Record companies are going out of business as a result and Indie music is coming to the forefront because Apple is smart enough to embrace change rather than fight it. A typical ad agency charges about 50K and then gives their clients 3 ideas. These ideas are not vetted out in the community and generally come from 1 or 2 minds. At Zooppa, they get 100s of ideas. The forward thinking agencies are looking to partner with Zooppa because of the viral audience of young creatives who will dialogue about their brand and create ads from all over the world and distribute them virally...agencies just don't have the time, experience or resources to keep a community engaged. Recently, I set my google alerts on Zooppa and most of it's been very positive. However, there are the dissenting parties (agencies) that are coming after our community with both barrels blazing with ignorance as their ammo. CHECK IT OUT: http://twitter.com/THEYdesign Obviously, they haven't engaged in the site (as they don't engage with consumers) and still think they own their brand and the message. The fact is consumers own their brands. We decide what we want and how we want it. Marketing is undergoing a revolution and the corporations are scrambling to see how they can target us with their guns. What they don't realize is we don't watch their TV commercials or their popups anymore. It's come full circle and people are now back to deciding what they purchase by word-of-mouth...and it's usually in the form of a community or a blog. They still don't understand that the internet has taken their TV power away and we choose what we want to see instead of being force fed "Head-On" ads. Because they can no longer target us and they don't know where to fire their guns, they've decided to choose one of the coolest communities and the people they have ostracized...Zooppa. All they say is " Zooppa is a disgrace to the professional design community". WHAT IS PROFESSIONAL? When they say we're not "professional" this is a compliment. What they don't realize is, we are a design community and they are the design corporations. There's a big distinction between the two. One is designing for money, and we are designing to grow creatively and "experience" the brand. Yes, their is the money to fuel the competition, but as we know, competition brings the creme to the top. But more importantly we are growing talent, getting the jobless and talented designers/videographers noticed and we're an outlet for their creativity. On the internet, non-professional videos on You-Tube are generating more views than Superbowl Ads (which many are recognizing by pulling their ads). In fact, you can see ads which deliberately try to make them look less professional to appeal to internet audience. Soooo, are they with us or against us...? Do they fear their monopoly on creativity is coming to an end? Will they embrace technology or be left behind? What is 'professional' and is it relevant?

A good idea is a good idea no matter where it comes from. Advertisers should be able to sidestep the agency model and have access to the brilliance and fresh creativity of amateurs. It may not be right for every brand, but it should provide a low-cost solution to a lot of companies especially in this recession.

First of all it is important to understand the difference between design firms and ad agencies. An ad agency deals with Marketing and Sales while a design firm provides work that can later be utilized in an Ad agency. A design firm focuses on the design discipline and maintains a high level of design aesthetic that is utilized by companies for promotional materials. When he/she is referring to the "design community" and saying zooppa is a disgrace to it, I think he is referring to the level of talent on the website and how zooppa may be setting bad standards for the design practice and possibly marginalizing the profession. I see zooppa as a site that is open to all creative thinking, not specifically designers, so personally I don't see how it is a disgrace to the design community. I do see how designers would be offended by the request to do work on spec, yet there is a chance to get paid and once again it is open to anybody who is feeling creative. Is youtube a disgrace to the design community? Coroflot? Carbonmade? Well they all showcase the communities creative work, free to ALL eyes to feast upon. Zooppa pays real money, inspires new ideas, helps with recognition and gives a powerful voice to user generated advertising...with possible compensation and that is what makes the best shine, in turn raising the standards of visual communication design within the site.

Con: When you have an advertising department, you are paying them to be there to advertise for your business. In situations where you bid out your advertising, you are forcing the same movement that is reaching across the country... get what you want and the creator gets no security. In the brick and mortar style businesses, you have to pay for those people to come to work and in turn you are paying them to do a job but also you are supporting their family... If websites like zooppa continue then those businesses only need to pay for one job... regardless of the man hours it really takes to do it... How many people submit their art? Add all those people's time up to see that the actual man hours are tremendous for that one decision of keeping the best of it all. The economy requires that people and businesses spend money to get what they want. Sometimes that includes spending money to see take a risk on the outcome... when businesses spend money on a risk it is called business and is still good for the economy... when unemployed artists spend time and are the only ones taking the risk, it is called martyrdom and it does not help the economy at all. Do you realize that local artists are not being selected and that every online purchase could be paying people that inherently hate you? (realistically that is not every purchase but it does happen) The concept is that people compete for the best jobs. I understand that. The truth is that by not choosing a local artist, you are causing the issues that directly involve you at your home and in your city... if they don't work you will still be paying extra. You might as well pay someone and watch their children grow and see that you are making a difference than ship all your jobs over the net where you drain your local economy... take advantage of the people that really need money to live... and most importantly, preventing your children from being able to make a living at something they enjoy... like art. Art is not dead... it has just fallen into slavery and the chains are so intricate that the artist can not go anywhere to get a job without creating thousands of ideas to buy their freedom... but by then the 'master' has broken their spirit and the artist turns into a yuppie or worse... a computer specialist. The thing about art... it triggers creativity so this site is actually raping artists ideas... sure people don't copy exactly but all you need to have a new idea is to take a bit from an old idea and adjust it... artists are giving away ideas for free here and going broke doing so... but then again, you became the artist... you like slavery... it suites you so well too... ps "man hours" is short for "human hours" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pro: Come on! who wants to go down the road and see some crappy advertising sign every.... time.. you go to the store? If a person can not be the best then they don't get paid. It is the concept of America and natural Darwinian law... survival of the fittest! If the competition pushes people out to go do something else other than being an advertising artist then good!... If you were not good enough to be an ad artist then you were not in the right field and this site did you a service. It is not that there is an exact perfect artist anyway, it is a matter of preference by the client. I could be the best ad agent for a month, but then during that month, someone else may be chosen and does that make me bad?... no. It means that that business got the real value of art... the whole purpose behind art... the ability to appreciate the art that they like without someone telling them that they have to like anything... that is the spirit behind art as a huge icon of truth... artistic value is subjective to the clients perception and what I call art may not be what the client calls it. If I sold the idea of a totally white board with two words and a question mark in the middle and called it the focal point of my advertising plan... you would think I was crazy... well two words.... Got Milk? yea, what one person likes is not what others like and the only way to really appreciate art is to look through thousands of samples and see the one that says "I rock the companies socks" and once you have that feeling... your belief in it sells itself to the business... that confidence is only attained from believing you have chosen the best of the best... the funny thing is you may have just spent thousands of dollars on two words and a question mark... then again, anyone remember how much the 'Got Milk?' campaign brought the American economy? Simply put... not everyone is an artist and there are still other venues besides this source... stop being so drama filled and see that if you were a good artist you would not care what others said... you would create to create and in time your confidence would sell your art... even if it sucked to my or others opinions... I am sure the cows are unhappy but the farmers are real happy by that lame advertising scheme... that net millions... and fed many families... and increased the economy... What is wrong with centralizing the source of research to make it easier for companies to fine what they want? Why should a company that is interested in feeding their employees be subject to settling with the artistic idea of one small advertising department when their whole business is dependent on getting their product out for others to see? Submit your art and be confident in your abilities, you may find that you are exactly what that big company is looking for when all your local industry thinks you are a fraud... but what do they know?... they are not artists.

Change is not easy for the stuffy corporate models.

Tiff - I agree 100% -- Zooppa allows me to just get some ideas out.. Simple as that.. are they polished 100% perhaps not! but you can conceptualize your idea and get it out. There will always be people that feel you have to spend XXX years of college and read every art history book in creation to be creative. Plus it's not like those same "professionals" couldnt upload thier ideas.. if they wanted...... Raising the bar and strengthening the community. That's right we all love art snob's!

The public in general is sick of being spoon fed what music they will listen to and ,what stars they must consider popular and, what is fit to be news, ---etc..etc..etc... Thank goodness for the Internet; A real bastion of hope for those yearning to be creative and break new ground. So this leads to my rather rhetorical but nonetheless pertinent question. Why should companies that shell out billions of dollars per year on advertising listen to the corporate elite and be spoon fed what is and is not appealing advertising? Because they have to take a chance on unknown talent. That's why. It is a risk; And conventional advertising represents a safe bet for the money. Plus the poor corporate puppet that takes a chance on an unknown also takes a chance on his or her job being there tomorrow should the unknown flop. How about that for stifling creative thinking? Well, with Zooppa they get to see the talent for nothing. No risk. They can compare the high dollar advertising with the same or better advertising before they buy. We need more companies like Zoo-Pa to rewrite corporate thinking. We will all be the better for it. ~the catahoula

Zooppa is not the end of conventional advertising, but a new communication "media". Let me explain better. Zooppa is not necessarily an alternative to design firms or ad agencies, but a complementary solution to common advertising strategies. When zooppers promote their ADs, they just create a multi subject viral message: thousands of "non-definitive" banners, prints, videos, all of them disseminated in the network as a sort of "re-call" message. Are they supposed to be the definitive idea/concept for a brand? Not necessarily. It's not an end, it's not an arrow... it's just a new balance in creativity and strategy.