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DSBtheMovie: Crowdsourced film created quickly and with zero budget

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

Social Media  |  Viral Marketing  |  Crowdsource  |  Research and Analysis  |  Best Practices



While in Amsterdam where I keynoted the Marketing Pioneers event, I met Jan Willem Alphenaar, Producer and Director of DSB the Movie.

The film tells the story of the Netherland's DSB Bank NV which was declared bankrupt by court in October, 2009.

Dsb_movie_logo Amazingly, Jan crowdsourced everything for the film including the film's logo, producer, scriptwriters, soundtrack, editor, camera, actors, and publicity. The film will be completed in just four months and with zero budget.

Here is my interview with Jan which includes the film's trailer at 0:55.

Direct link to my video here.

Direct link to the film trailer here.

Jan tells us that no money changed hands in producing the film! People wanted to be a part of the project and to get a credit in the movie.

He put out the call on social networking sites including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Hyves. Then the media picked up on it from the social networking and the project scored a front page story in the largest newspaper in the Netherlands which then generated even more media coverage and social networking interest.

When Jan put out the call for logos, he had 42 submissions to choose from!

Just think about the normal way to do a film. It takes more than a year and a large budget. Jan did his film in just a few months and at no cost.

I agree with Jan that crowdsourcing has huge potential for marketing projects. (I’ll share another example in a few days.)

“Your audience is willing to help you,” Jan says. “They don’t need money, they just want credit.”

Here is some great information (in English) on how Jan created the film.

Thank you to Remco Janssen for introducing me to Jan Willem Alphenaar.

Note: When I asked Jan if he had an English language site for the film, he responded to me via Twitter to say that he had crowdsourced a translator and an English language site will be up in a few days! (How fast is your site creation effort?)