By Greg Hazley
Ketchum has unveiled a four-month pilot program to "crowdsource" creative ideas for PR services for its clients from students in the U.S., U.K. and Asia.
Client Wendy's is using the service, called Mindfire, for a new product launch.
Participating schools include Bournemouth Univ. (U.K.), Univ. of Colorado at Boulder, Cornell Univ., New York Univ., Carnegie Mellon Univ. and The Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong.
"We're increasingly seeing a desire among our clients for a steady stream of new and creative ideas, along with a willingness to accept good ideas from any part of the marketing discipline," said chief information officer Andy Roach, who oversaw Mindfire's development with partner and chief innovation officer Karen Strauss.
The brain trust includes a pool of 125 participants registered at the schools during a four-month pilot phase of the program, Ketchum said.
The students will receive career coaching, personalized training, job alerts and prizes provided by clients.
Ketchum said if a student's idea is adopted it will work with the individual to determine if they will help execute the program, in which case they will be compensated.
The agency also said it will donate to Room to Read, which buys books for children in the developing world, for every idea posted from the Mindfire program.
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