粉丝的力量：5个品牌的创意海选故事

4. 纳斯卡赛车

    纳斯卡赛车的车迷理事会不是为外行准备的。申请加入这个在线团体的人会受到审查，以确保只有忠实的赛车迷才能加入这个成员多达1万人的组织。原因何在？这1万名赛车迷对纳斯卡赛车的头头们有很大影响力。“我们从他们那里得到了很多建议，”纳斯卡赛车的授权许可和消费产品副总裁布莱克•戴维森说。“建立车迷理事会以来，我们受益匪浅。这是我们从车迷那里获得即时反馈的一个途径，涵盖了方方面面的内容，包括推广活动，（现场）比赛中发生的事情，电视广播等等。”

    2009年，纳斯卡赛车规定每场比赛都采取双列重启方式。戴维森说，这在很大程度上归功于车迷们的建议和想法。（之前，比赛在因为事故或天气原因暂停后重新开始时，赛车会排成一列，而不是并排排列）。纳斯卡赛车的车迷们甚至对该赛事的名人堂人选都有发言权。戴维森说，入选名人堂需要获得55票，而车迷们占到其中的一票，可谓举足轻重。

    纳斯卡赛车的其他赞助者也开展了众包活动。沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）本月在宾夕法尼亚州长池波科诺赛道上举行的比赛的几乎方方面面都采纳了车迷的意见。从比赛名称（波科诺的聚会）到赛场食品（土豆皮水饺），方方面面都是由车迷们来决定。

4. NASCAR

    NASCAR's Fan Council isn't for the uninitiated. The online group is vetted to ensure that only racing's faithful take part in the 10,000-member community. The reason? These 10,000 fans have some serious pull with the sport's head honchos. "We bounce a lot of ideas off of them," says Blake Davidson, vice president of licensing and consumer products at NASCAR. "It's something that's been very beneficial to us since we've started it and a way to get immediate feedback from the fans on everything from marketing initiatives to things happening in the [live] competitions, to broadcast."

    In 2009, NASCAR instituted double-file restarts into every race thanks in large part to suggestions and input from its fans, says Davidson. (Previously, when a race was stopped due to an accident or weather, the race resumed with cars lined up in single-file instead of side by side.) NASCAR fans even have a say in the league's Hall of Fame inductees. They accounted for one of the 55 votes eligible to determine the hall's next members, which carries significant weight, according to Davidson.

    Other NASCAR sponsors are also getting in on the crowdsourcing action. Wal-Mart used fan input to decide nearly every aspect of this month's race at Pocono Racetrack in Long Pond, Penn. The fans chose everything from the race name -- Party in the Poconos -- to the kind of concessions that were served --loaded potato skin perogies.