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On Friday, I received an email from the Membership Director of MarketingProfs, Sharon Hudson. The title of the email was simply “3-Question Survey.” Out of pure curiosity, I decided to open it and see what insight they were trying to glean from such a brief, 60 second questionnaire. To my surprise, the email simply stated that MarketingProfs was considering adding a new feature to their website that would allow “members” to upload their own creative and to comment on the creative of other members. A so-to-speak “social-networking/peer review board” for marketers.

I quickly completed the survey and started thinking about the pros and cons of such a site. As a marketer in my past-life, I recall countless instances where we debated the effectiveness of our email creative and tried to prophesize whether or not our user-base would find the creative (and message) compelling enough to take action.

Also, having the ability to screen your creative prior to a campaign-launch is a comforting thought, especially if the success of your campaign is tied to your boss’ expectation of a strong ROI.

And on a total side note, it’s a purely ingenious way to increase the MarketingProfs membership subscriptions and drive revenue (props to you, Sharon!).

But on the other hand, what restrictions are put in place to prevent a competitor from “borrowing” your creative ideas and implementing them as their own? Surely this concern has been brought up and debated at MarketingProfs (perhaps the reason for their survey?). A few other questions:

• Is your creative archived for future review?
• Are comments made public?
• Can you really trust your peers?

Overall, I’m intrigued by this potential offering and am curious to find out what direction MarketingProfs decides to take. I’m also interested to hear what other marketers think about this new form of peer review. Does it unite marketers or pull them apart? Would you consider purchasing a membership to receive “free” feedback? How much faith are you willing to put in the opinions of others?