Harley-Davidson Motor Company shifts its commitment to crowdsourcing into a higher gear by launching a new Facebook application that sources advertising ideas directly from Harley-Davidson’s millions of Facebook fans.

Fan Machine allows Harley-Davidson’s Facebook community to review an advertising brief, submit ideas and vote on ideas from other community members. After selecting and rewarding the winners, Harley-Davidson will work with existing marketing partners to bring the best creative ideas to life. Harley-Davidson has crowdsourced ideas like this for a year, but not with the massive scale of Facebook.

Harley-Davidson is in the midst of transforming its business to be customer-led throughout the company, which includes marketing approaches such as the pioneering use of crowdsourcing.

“This is not a publicity stunt, or a limited time engagement. We’re committed to crowdsourcing, because these ideas naturally flow from our passionate fans,” said Mark-Hans Richer, Harley-Davidson’s Chief Marketing Officer. “As the true stewards of our brand, our fans now have a huge new platform to share their ideas.

“It works for us because their passion for our brand is second-to-none. They’re going to light this thing up, and it will be fun to watch. Facebook also proves this passion is passing along to the next generation, where 40 percent of our fans are between the ages of 18 and 34.”