We developed a step-by-step CMS (content management system) process where brands are able to post mini-briefs to their Facebook wall as a call for fan engagement.

The Fan Machine technology is not only a social media platform but also a co-creation engine that allows a brand to turn their Facebook page into a fan-driven, virtual ad agency. Harley has used the Fan Machine app to allow their fans to create a new campaign by asking their fans to “Send us :30 TV scripts that promote a new line of bikes.” They’ve also used it to come up with new taglines.

Once the brief is live the fans can submit ideas and vote on the best ones, which rise to the top of a public leader board. As users submit and vote on ideas, their activity is posted on their own walls and timelines, spreading the word about the brand and its briefs across networks.

The technology architecture consists of a several simple objects. The most important object is the Idea and all other objects revolve around it, which allows for moderation, voting, and selection. We leveraged the existing backend from the agency's another proprietary platform called Agency Machine. We use Amazon's AWS so scaling will be straight-forward. Because moderation is difficult to automate, we still involve people to ensure only proper content is published.

Although Harley-Davidson funded the initial development of Fan Machine, our agency retains Intellectual Property rights and controls the tech stack. Plans for future development include self-customizability for other brands, video and language support and other improvements.

The first Harley-Davidson brief was a call to advertise bikes to a more youthful market than their usual target. Over three weeks, Fan Machine collected 222 ideas and 8193 total votes. One idea from Harold Chase, from Tukwila WA, was called E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one) and it struck a chord with both the agency and Harley. We turned Harold’s idea into a 360 advertising campaign that launched in Q2 2012. US retail sales jumped 26% and the campaign is still in-market today. 4,354 Facebook discussions took place about the campaign and 2,548 people tweeted using #StereotypicalHarley.

The agency licenses Fan Machine to several clients and it continues to be a major proof point in the agency’s mission - to change the advertising industry for the better, through increased collaboration between clients and agencies, more access for consumers to brands and harnessing the abundance of creativity in the world.