Will crowdsourcing disrupt the advertising business?

Can the "crowd" be just as creative as the advertising geniuses at Mad Men's Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Pryce?

Poptent, a video crowdsourcing platform, announced it has raised $5.5 million to promote its video crowdsourcing approach to the advertising industry. The company says it now has a network of more than 50,000 videographers from 140 different countries at the beck and call of advertising firms that need to produce commercials.

As TechCrunch's Ryan Lawler reports:

"To date, Poptent says it has paid out more than $5 million to videographers since being founded in 2007. That might not sound like a lot, but the rate at which its assignments are coming in and the paychecks are cut continues to accelerate. It had only paid out about $2 million by late last year, so it's more than doubled its revenues in less than 12 months. And it's getting some big-name brands on board: Companies like Dell, Intel, Jaguar, and Walgreens have paid for video ads and messaging produced by Poptent's network of videographers."

Poptent-originated ads for Southern Comfort have recently begun airing, and Dannon turned to the Poptent model for a SuperBowl ad aired in February.

Unlike many crowdsourcing engagements, participants have an opportunity to build up portfolios within the Poptent sphere.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com