LEGO
Just like 2020 was a year when people were looking for family and solo pursuits, 2021 was a time when LEGO saw enormous growth as a company and as a brand. And much of it was driven by the company’s crowdsourcing platform, LEGO Ideas.
LEGO Ideas is a crowdsourcing platform launched in 2014 which asks fans to pitch their ideas for potential LEGO sets. It’s seen some fascinating results over the years, although often the company runs up against the problem of licensing, as many fans want pop-culture-themed sets that the brand may not get the rights to.
LEGO addressed that problem in 2021 with what it called the BrickLink Designer program. This collected a number of designs that didn’t make it in LEGO Ideas, but were still extremely popular and set up a crowdfunding program to create limited-edition sets from the company.
While only 13 would make it due to manufacturing limitations, the rest were issued as digital instruction sets so people could build them with the bricks they already had. It both demonstrated the fan base’s love of LEGO and helped encourage the creativity the company is so famous for.
Unilever
Unilever launched the Sustainable Living Program in 2010. The plan’s goal was pretty straightforward: By using both internal company initiatives to reduce waste and change formulations, and public relations and outreach campaigns, it wanted to slash its waste output, reduce its carbon footprint, and be a more responsible corporate citizen.
After ten years of work, the plan was supposed to end in 2021, and the results were impressive. They used packaging design to reduce waste from its consumer products by 32%; cut emissions from their production operations by 65%, including sourcing all of their electricity for production from renewable sources; and changed the formulation of its food products to reduce sugar and meet higher nutritional standards.
Nonetheless, as the pandemic unfolded, the company found itself in a bit of a quandary with much more to get done. So, while it’s set new goals for itself, including zero net emissions by 2039, it’s also developed a hub to help people take action.
The Planet & Society section lays out the company’s overall goals towards topics including climate change, diversity and inclusion, and health. Also, it has a section where its customers can sign petitions, share information, and take action with their own crowdsourcing.
Olive Union
As the world population ages and hearing becomes more of an issue, the need for cheaper and more effective hearing aids has become more pressing. Yet, much of the technology for hearing aids hasn’t advanced since the Jet Age. Olive Union used crowdsourcing to change that.
First, they used crowdfunding platforms like IndieGoGo to test the waters for their ideas, such as a set of hearing aids that used the style and equipment of Bluetooth earbuds like the AirPods. The earbuds would have two modes, one that directed sound narrowly into the ear canal to better register sound, and the other a more diffuse mode for listening to music.
They combined a series of features that were rare in hearing aids but common in earbuds, such as long-life batteries and noise cancellation technology that was carefully applied before it entered the ear. The crowdfunders weren’t just helping pay for it; they were beta testers who tried out the new technology and offered detailed feedback.
Olive Union then applied that feedback and their crowdfunding that collected six times their goal to refine their product while making it available to a broader group of people who struggled to afford hearing aids.
Catalyst
One of the struggles of any fashion company is waste. Not every pattern, design, and fit will be as popular as others, so they often find themselves with less of a hit product and more of a less popular one. Especially as textile waste and the need to clothe the world becomes more visible, this is less and less tenable.
Catalyst, an activewear brand based in the UK, tried a new way of figuring out what would sell and what wouldn’t; swiping left and right. The company designed an app called Open Studio using a Tinder-style interface where fans could vote on patterns, fits, styles, and other aspects of the clothes.
This was useful for reducing waste, of course, as the patterns with fewer votes were left aside. It also connected the company more closely with its biggest fans and gave the products a personal touch. Clothes people love are less likely to get donated or otherwise tossed aside, so the company helped bolster sustainability while giving their customers a voice in the design process.
Starbucks
Starbucks is no stranger to both the benefits and the challenges of sustainability. The product it’s most famous for faces an uncertain future due to climate change, and it serves its food and drink in disposable cups and serving ware that can clutter city gutters, landfills, and recycling bins.
So as part of its greater sustainability efforts, it’s been working to get its customers to buy reusable cups. Most recently, it used crowdsourcing and a common customer habit to make that happen.
The white paper cup it serves its drinks in is often used to doodle on by customers, so it launched an Instagram campaign to share the best doodles, one of which it would pick to put on a reusable cup. When the winner, a Pittsburgh art student, was selected, her design was printed.
But the approach didn’t stop there. The cups were sold both at a low cost, just a dollar, and with a deal where each time you bought a drink with one, you saved a dime. So the cup not only engaged customers, it also saved them money while cutting down on waste.
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This article was originally published on the IdeaScale blog here.
