Poptent, which crowdsources commercials and videos for brands and advertisers, is running a contest on behalf of HomeAway - a company that has launched spots during the Super Bowl - to create a new ad for the firm.

Two amateur filmmakers will win $7,500 to produce an ad focused on family vacations, via Social Tech.

Last month NASA, Threadless and Harvard - NASA Tournament Lab announced they were seeking to create a design around the theme of the final frontier via the crowd to honor NASA shuttle program’s contributions. The chosen designer will receive $500 cash, a $500 Threadless gift certificate and a patch from his or her home country that has flown millions of miles around the Earth, provided by the Harvard-NASA Tournament Lab.

All or Nothing No More

Crowdsourcing, still a niche strategy but one that has grabbed the marketing industry’s attention from the beginning, appears to be moving away from its early all-or-nothing approach. Firms, as the above examples show, are more willing to test the waters when there is less riding on the outcome.

As Nick Bennett at Social Media Today writes “it's not just a matter of 'all crowd' or 'no crowd'. When you consider the 'crowd' to be a member of the team, you can be far more selective and find the right phase or portion of the plan.”

Some other suggestions by Bennett that fall in the crowdsourcing category:

• A series of posts in Facebook to help determine a campaign direction

• Voting on live ideas and producing content from suggested ideas

• Polls on Facebook to help decide on key products to mention in a campaign

• An email to select key influencers from your base to join an early beta elite.