New Platform Tongal Crowdsources Advertising

By Erik Oster 

Tongal

A new platform called Tongal allows users to pitch ideas for ad campaigns directly to brands.

The way it works is pretty simple. A brand announces it is looking for a new ad campaign, and users can then pitch a tweet-length to them. The brand then picks their favorites, pays the people who came up with them, and gets in touch with directors (also part of the Tongal community) to shoot the ads. Once the process is complete, the winning video is chosen as the brand’s official new ad. The site already boasts over 50,000 users participating in daily ad contests. Brands involved include McDonald’s, LEGO, Ford, Pringles, and Oral-B.

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“Myself, Rob (Salvatore) and Mark (Burrell) had come from Hollywood studios and were frustrated about how much waste we saw with creative talent,” Co-founder James De Julio told PSFK. “It seemed to be a closed system – the same people receiving multiple offers because of personal connections, seniority…we wanted to change that. That’s why the Tongal platform works, it gives everyone access to work. We like that we’ve created a meritocracy where people can earn real money and get their best work on a global stage.”

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