4711: first crowdsourcing project

The world-famous 4711 brand is inviting professional and amateur designers to submit creative reinterpretations of its iconic design. As part of the “your 4711 design” competition, the company is seeking innovative and unconventional brand merchandising ideas. Young designers and professionals, amateur artists and fans of the brand are all invited to take part in an online crowdsourcing project.

All designs are to be submitted by 22 November 2011, and a total of €10,000 in prize money awaits those who contribute to the discussion and development process.
“The unmistakable design in Bremen blue and gold and the famous Molanus bottle have shaped the appearance of the 4711 brand for many decades. All over the world, people associate it with specific values, characteristics and personal memories. Now we want to see what products and ideas 4711 is associated with outside of the perfumery world”, said Dr. Hermann Wirtz, Managing Partner of MÄURER & WIRTZ, explaining what motivated the company to launch this international competition.

The “your 4711 design competition” is the first crowdsourcing project the 4711 brand has initiated. On the special website at www.your.4711.com participants can upload their designs for innovative and practicable merchandising products and discuss them with the community. A trendy lounger, a nostalgic motorcycle or an elegant bikini featuring the 4711 look – as long as it harmonises with the 4711 brand, anything goes. To enable everyone to participate in this competition, both free crafted ideas and designs created using an application can be submitted: the website features a configuration tool to enable less experienced users to design one of a choice of two shoulder bags or a smartphone cover with as few as two mouse clicks.

After the competition closes on 22 November 2011, an expert jury will be selecting the best ideas. In the ‘free crafted designs’ category three designs will be sharing up to €3,000 in prize money: a further €2,000 will go to the ‘most unconventional & freaky product idea’. Innovative technical or design features will be just as important in this category as emotional and visual aspects. Three prizes of up to €1,000 each will be presented in the ‘configured design’ category. And for the participant who has provided the best, most valuable contributions to the discussion there will be a special prize consisting of an iPad 2 and a fabulous selection of 4711 products.

Fabian Krone, Managing Director of MÄURER & WIRTZ and member of the jury, expressed his delight at the amazing ideas and designs that had already been posted only a short while after the competition launched: “The designs submitted so far all make clever, creative and very appealing use of the key visuals and the colours of the 4711 brand. This kind of crowdsourcing project offers us completely new strategic perspectives. It rejuvenates the image of 4711 and underscores just how alive this traditional brand is in the hearts and minds of people across all generations.”

As well as MÄURER & WIRTZ Managing Director Fabian Krone and 4711 Senior Brand Manager Jessica Bönisch, the jury includes Professor Peter Schmidt (designer and founder of the Peter Schmidt Group), Otto Husten (Editor-at-Large, Elle Decoration), Michael Schmidt (Managing Director and founder of the Hyve Innovation Agency), Monty Shadow (founder of Laureus and St. Moritz Art Masters) and Giorgio Pace (freelance fashion consultant to V Magazine and V Man amongst others).

More than 200 registered participants have already uploaded almost 400 designs, all of which can be viewed on the website www.your.4711.com. The competition closes on 22 November 2011; the best ideas will subsequently be checked to ensure that they can be realised. From mid-2012 on, 4711 fans will be able to buy the winning  products from the 4711 flagship store in the Glockengasse and through the brand’s online store.

[Text/Photo: 4711]