Kyle
To get in the door at the world’s top agencies like Ogilvy, Weber Shandwick, TBWA Chiat Day and M&C Saatchi you have to be the cream of the crop. To join one of the top agencies in their design arm you have to know design, really know design. That’s why at 23 years old, having Weber Shandwick on his resume gives Peter Johnston some credibility, especially because at Weber Shandwick he was a Senior Digital Designer.
While Johnston has a keen eye for design and he can create pretty things, he noticed, what a lot of others have started to notice, and that’s that it’s very hard to procure content that’s of equal caliber. It’s not that there aren’t great content producers out there. The world is filled with bloggers, writers and journalists. The problem seems to come from a lack of time and focus.
Hedgehogg is a new platform that cures the problems created from lack of time and focus. Hedgehogg does this through a managed crowdsourcing platform of professionally created content. All this, the brainchild of 23 year old Johnston.
Hedgehogg, which is based in London, puts content creators together with content users and vice versa. However, Hedegehogg limits your writing topics to just three. This way the creators only write on three focused topics, presumably the ones they know the most about.
The platform is a two way street as well. Today’s creator may be tomorrows user and vice versa.
Johnston described it like this:
“There is a colossal amount of information available online and I struggled daily to find relevant information quickly that I could actually rely on as being credible. It’s a really simple concept, write on three topics you are professionally versed in, and follow others who write on similar, we aren’t the only ones who need a platform like this.”
Each user has a dashboard where they manage their topics and can only write on three topics. Apart from the usual social channels links, the interface is minimal, offering users two choices, to create and discover. Users can post articles on their chosen topics, including image and video. They can then search the database of articles via topic or tags. Plain and simple, right?
After talking to agencies and professionals, the team at Hedgehogg realized that there was a need for an internal content sharing tool also. Leo Ryan, Group Head of Social@Ogilvy said “we are excited about the potential Hedgehogg has, we are working closely with the team to see where this product can go, it is a what-you see-is-what-you-get platform, and is seamless and easy to use”. Social@Ogilvy are now using Hedgehogg to take applications from start-ups wanting to attend their Social Spin event at this year’s Social Media Week by asking start-ups to write an article.
Hedghogg is currently in private beta but it’s definitely a startup worth watching in 2013.
Linkage:
Check out Hedgehogg here at hedgehog.gg
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