jovoto

Platform Overview

Jovoto is a freelance platform that is primarily contest-based. They specialize in providing businesses with access to a “talent pool” of “creatives” that specialize in design, art, and branding.^[6] In addition to acting as a broker platform for freelancers and clients, jovoto also sells its design process to clients as a way to “cocreate with your fans.” That is, even if a jovoto contest does not produce a final designed product, the process of using the platform is itself valuable as a way to “Get closer to your customers and create engaging campaigns.” In addition, the platform markets its pool of 80,000 creatives living all over the world as a way of injecting “fresh perspectives” and “unleash[ing] creativity” into clients’ own in-house design teams.^[7]

• Quick Facts

  Registered Workers

  80,000 "creative professionals"^[1] from 153 countries^[2]

  Workers Are...

  • Self Employed

  Payment Model

  • Payment per unit time
  • Contest-Based

  Languages

  English

  Signed Code of Conduct

  Yes

  Official Company Name

  jovoto GmbH

  Year Founded

  2007

  Headquarters Location

  Berlin, Germany

  Subsidiaries

  Jovoto Inc., New York, USA

  Management

  Bastian Unterberg CEO & Founder ^[3]

  Investors

  • Schildhauer Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbh (20 %)
  • Wolfgang Hünnekens (20 %)
  • Ernst Bahner (6 %)
  • Peter Kolling (3 %)
  • GPS International LLC (3 %)
  • Timm Oberwelland (3 %)
  • Hans-Joachim Strüven (2 %)
  • Günther Schulze (2 %)
  • Peter Strüven (2 %)
  ^[4]

  Number of Employees

  36^[5]

  Transaction Volume

  Unknown

  Job Volume

  Unknown

  Official Website

  http://jovoto.com

  Worker Websites

  No known worker websites.

  Tips: websites@faircrowdwork.org

• Platform Details

  Collapse All Expand All

• Platform History

  Jovoto was founded in 2007 by current CEO Bastian Unterberg. At the time, he was a student at Berlin’s University of Arts, and created jovoto “to offer creatives and designers an alternative career path to the traditional route.”^[8] Today the company has two offices — one remains in Berlin, and another in Silicon Valley.^[9] Investor Shaun Abrahamson, former jovoto President Peter Ryder, and founder and CEO Bastian Unterberg co-authored Crowdstorm: The Future of Innovation, Ideas, and Problem Solving in 2013 about their experiences running jovoto.

• Business Model

  Unlike other platforms such as Upwork, jovoto does not charge a commission or fee to freelancers based on their award amount. Instead, jovoto charges clients up front rates for posting their “brand challenges” on the platform. These rates are specific to each project and client:

  How much does it cost? This all depends on the complexity of your challenge, the number of creatives who participate, and a range of other factors from communication packages to prototyping. We encourage you to get in touch with us so we can learn how we can help you and give you an estimate based on that.^[10]

• Worker Classification

  Creatives working on the jovoto platform are self-employed regardless of work tier (public, private, or flex).

• Jobs and Clients

  Example Jobs

  Much work on the platform is graphic design and marketing design work, such as contests for new Swiss Army Knife graphics,^[11] and for a Greenpeace ad campaign.^[12] There are also projects available in copywriting, architecture, product design, and more general ‘innovation’ — such as creating a new lace pattern,^[13] coming up with an idea for a new snack product,^[14] and envisioning a new process for doing laundry.^[15]

  Example Clients

  Clients advertised on the Jovoto homepage include^[16]:

  • Audi
  • Coca-Cola
  • Henkel
  • Victorinox
  • Míele
  • unicef
  • Adidas
  • WIRED
  • Greenpeace
  • Deutsche Bank

• Work Process

  For businesses with “brand challenges,” Jovoto offers three tiers of service: public, private, and flex.^[17] In all three cases, the company writes up their “brand challenge” in a “creative brief.” Jovoto’s own “expert creative crowd strategists” help individual companies develop these documents.^[18] From here, the process diverges depending on the tier of service selected:

  • For Public contests, any of the site’s 80,000 freelancers can reply to the challenge with a design idea. Projects last a minimum of 6 weeks.
  • For Private contests, only a select group of “the top 10 percent of creatives on jovoto” — those who have applied for and recieved “Pro” status ^[19] — can access and submit designs or other work products. For clients, an NDA is available for these projects. For creatives, these projects can be more “complex” and potentially more financially rewarding. Projects last a minimum of 3 weeks.
  • For Flex projects, a specifically tailored “pool of participants” is selected for the project. These “invite only” projects are the work on the platform offering guaranteed payment to workers.^[20][21] For clients, these projects offer an NDA option as well as the ability to integrate the client’s own employees in the Jovoto design process. Projects in this category last a minimum of 2 weeks.

  From the worker perspective, the platform carries a generally familiar interface through all three project types. Workers submit responses to the brief publicly, comment on each other’s responses, revise designs/proposals in response to feedback, and, can team up with one another to submit new collaborative designs/proposals. Workers quoted on the jovoto blog are especially positive about these features of the platform:

  I get to collaborate, exchange perspectives, and see how other talented creatives approach the same brief. And, instead of becoming a competition like agencies pitching for the same client, it turns into a genuinely healthy space to solve problems.^[22]

  Workers win awards based on how judges from the client as well as the jovoto design community rate their submissions. Often multiple submissions win an award for any given brief. In addition to any money earned on the platform for submitting a winning idea, workers also can earn monetary rewards for giving good feedback to each other in the design process, and can earn royalties based on the future use of their designs.

• Worker Reviews

  We have not yet surveyed workers on this platform.

• Terms of Service Check

  Collapse All Expand All

  Ability to Refuse Payment Rejection:positive rating

  N/A

• Change to Terms of Service: Change:positive rating

  Platform operator may change terms unilaterally, but workers are notified of changes by email and have two weeks to object.

• Warranty Warranty:positive rating

  N/A

• Contact with Employers Client Contact:positive rating

  No prohibition.

• Contact with Workers Rejection:positive rating

  No prohibition.

• Notes

  1. jovoto | how it works https://www.jovoto.com/how-it-works/, accessed 2017-06-04
  2. jovoto | open innovation platform. https://www.jovoto.com/, accessed 2017-06-04
  3. About jovoto https://www.jovoto.com/about/, accessed 2017-06-04
  4. From 2010 investor listing, research by M&L Communication Marketing
  5. About jovoto, https://www.jovoto.com/about/, accessed 2017-06-04.
  6. jovoto | how it works https://www.jovoto.com/how-it-works/, accessed 2017-06-04
  7. jovoto | open innovation platform https://www.jovoto.com/, accessed 2017-06-04
  8. “More work opportunities for creatives: Work for a fixed daily rate on jovoto” https://www.jovoto.com/blog/creatives/presenting-invite-only-projects-work-for-a-fixed-daily-rate-on-jovoto/, accessed 2017-04-06.
  9. About jovoto, https://www.jovoto.com/about/, accessed 2017-06-04.
  10. jovoto | how it works, “How much does it cost?” https://www.jovoto.com/how-it-works/#1458124894617-71b47ad4-cfff, accessed 2017-06-04.
  11. Want to earn from €37 500 with your Swiss Army Knife designs? https://www.jovoto.com/blog/creatives/want-to-design-a-new-swiss-army-knife-earn-from-37-500/, accessed 2017-06-04.
  12. jovoto / Stop TTIP / Greenpeace / Homehttp://stop-ttip.jovoto.com/, accessed 2017-06-05.
  13. jovoto / The Lacemaker / A textile supplier / Home http://the-lacemaker.jovoto.com/, accessed 2017-06-05.
  14. Add your snack creation to the Kellogg’s family, https://www.jovoto.com/blog/creatives/design-kelloggs-next-snack/, accessed 2017-06-04.
  15. Break the cycle: Transform laundry with Miele & earn from €18 500https://www.jovoto.com/blog/creatives/miele-washful-thinking-1703/, accessed 2017-06-04.
  16. jovoto | open innovation platform https://www.jovoto.com/, accessed 2017-06-04
  17. jovoto | how it works https://www.jovoto.com/how-it-works/, accessed 2017-06-04
  18. jovoto | how it works https://www.jovoto.com/how-it-works/, accessed 2017-06-04
  19. Be a jovoto pro in 3 easy steps. https://www.jovoto.com/blog/creatives/community/jovoto-pro/, accessed 2017-06-04.
  20. What are the different types of projects on jovoto? https://support.jovoto.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001023309-What-are-the-different-types-of-projects-on-jovoto-, accessed 2017-04-06
  21. “More work opportunities for creatives: Work for a fixed daily rate on jovoto” https://www.jovoto.com/blog/creatives/presenting-invite-only-projects-work-for-a-fixed-daily-rate-on-jovoto/, accessed 2017-04-06.
  22. “More work opportunities for creatives: Work for a fixed daily rate on jovoto” https://www.jovoto.com/blog/creatives/presenting-invite-only-projects-work-for-a-fixed-daily-rate-on-jovoto/, accessed 2017-04-06.