Crowdtap Launches the First On-Demand Consumer Participation Network

NEW YORK, March 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- After an enormously successful beta with over 25 Fortune 500 brands and partnerships with top agencies that include GolinHarris, Kirshenbaum Bond, Mr Youth and Weber Shandwick, Crowdtap is opening its platform to all marketers.  Crowdtap will celebrate their launch at their official party on March 13th at South by Southwest.

Crowdtap is striking a strong cord with marketers by enabling them to easily engage targeted crowds of influential and insightful consumers through a variety of marketing actions, including real-time market research, distribution of online content via peer networks and even offline sampling and brand sponsored house parties. Crowdtap is the first company to give marketers the ability to launch these participatory actions to consumers using a self-service, pay-per-action model.

"Marketing is no longer a battle for eyeballs, it is about participation," said Brandon Evans, CEO and founder of Crowdtap. "Crowdtap will help marketers take a big step in creating and executing marketing programs that are truly collaborative with their consumers. People today are very savvy and while they are highly adept at tuning out traditional marketing, they welcome brands that invite them into the process. Consumers can add tremendous value by providing deep insights and ideas as well as connecting brands they care about with their peer networks. Crowdtap is the first service to enable marketers to purchase this type of participation with the ease and measurability of an online ad buy."

Crowdtap has two core focus areas that create a full suite of ways for marketers to collaborate and participate with consumers:

• Insight – Brands utilize insight actions like polls and discussions to stay close to targeted crowds of consumers to create, ideate and test new products and marketing programs as well as to understand consumer trends and perceptions.
• Influence – Brands leverage influence actions like web share, sample and sponsored parties to drive measureable peer-to-peer marketing both online and off.  

"Crowdtap has been an amazing platform for us to utilize for our clients. We instantly learned from and ideated with highly targeted segments of consumers. We easily mobilized them as advocates as well," said Idil Cakim, SVP, Interactive Media for PR agency GolinHarris.

Crowdtap has more than 50,000 members who have all signed up with their Facebook logins ensuring real identities are used and putting a face and real person behind their participation. Marketers can also easily recruit their own existing brand communities on Facebook, Twitter and CRM databases to participate through integrated tools on Crowdtap.

These "Crowdtappers" have helped more than 25 major brands plus many startups and non-profits during the 6-month closed beta that began in August 2010. Crowdtap members have received more than $100,000 in rewards during that period for themselves and their selected charities which include charity:water, Invisible Children, To Write Love on Her Arms and GiveBack.

Members participate because Crowdtap is a fun, real world social marketing game, enabling them to earn points and rewards for completing opportunities launched by brands.  Crowdtappers get inside access to brands, enabling them to provide honest opinions, ideate with brands and get VIP access to products and content which they can easily share through their on and offline peer networks.

About Crowdtap

Crowdtap is the first on-demand consumer participation network.  Crowdtap allows marketers to easily tap targeted crowds of insightful and influential consumers for real-time research and ideation as well as peer-to-peer marketing actions that include sponsored house parties, sampling and online content sharing through social networks. For the more than 50,000 participating members, Crowdtap is a marketing-themed social game that lets them gain status and earn rewards for gift cards and charity for collaborating with brands. The company, which is now officially spun out, was initially funded and incubated within Mr Youth, #7 of Fast Company's 10 Most Innovative Companies in Marketing in 2010.

Members can sign up at crowdtap.com and marketers can learn more at crowdtap.it.

SOURCE Crowdtap