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Archive for November, 2009

Crash the Superbowl: Winners of the past

Posted by Beardy on November 7th, 2009

I haven’t been spending much time working on this blog because Beardy has been hard at work making his own entry for the Doritos Crash the Superbowl contest. The thing is pretty much done I think so hopefully I’ll be able to upload it this weekend.

With just 2 days to go before the deadline, more than 1,000 entries have been submitted and some really high quality entries have been coming in. The production values have gone through the roof in the last week but that was expected. I’ve seen a good number of entries that, if they were shot for a different video contest, would win easily. But…I only seen one, really, REALLY great entry so far and I suspect that it won’t even make the finals. If I had to pick 6 videos that were going to make it to the finals, I bet I’d get 4 of them wrong.

As I said, the videos are getting better but I think most people are missing the true point of the contest: To get a top spot on the USA Today ad meter. That means a perfect video would appeal to as many people as possible. But I’ve been seeing tons of good videos that would turn off a large portion of the audience. Dudes might love watching chip crumbs fall down the cleavage of a beautiful woman, but are women going to score that high on the ad meter? And sure, some people might thing liking doritos dust off of a sleeping dog is ingenious but that will just completely gross out some people. The thing that amazes me the most though is the amount of violence against women I’ve been seeing in the videos. Ok, a shot of one girl tackling another if one thing but I have seen many good videos ruined by shots of women getting hit, tackled, and even punched in the face in realistic ways by MEN. Doritos might be looking for edgy spots but there are some lines that just shouldn’t be crossed.

This might be a little late to help anyone who plans to enter the contest this year but let’s take a look back at the kind of videos Dortitios DOES like. Here are ALL the finalists from the two previous years that Dortios held the Crash the Superbowl commercial contest.

2007 Finalists


Aired During the Superbowl:

Aired During the Superbowl:

2009 Finalists


Aired During the Superbowl and won a million bucks:

Aired during the Superbowl:

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Vita-Mix’s double dip

Posted by Beardy on November 3rd, 2009

You know how video contests websites often feature videos explaining what the contest is about and all the rules and stuff? Well someone finally realized that those videos could be created by “users” too. This week, Vita-Mix announced their “Pitch Me” video contest. They’re looking to give 10 grand to…..wait, let me just post their contest commercial:

Now what makes this contest special is that the above commercial itself is the product of a video contest. To announce the Vita-Mix pitchman contest, Vita-mix first went to Poptent and held an open call for commercials to promote the contest.  Top prize in the Vita-mix contest is 10 grand but the filmmaker who made the above spot made himself $5,000! Maybe I’m just a big dork but I think it’s really interesting that vita-mix decided to “crowdsource” the content on both sides of this contest.

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Crash the Superbowl: 7 days to go

Posted by Beardy on November 2nd, 2009

Well, we’re getting down to it. If you haven’t shot your entry for the Crash the Superbowl contest but are still planning to do one then you are really cutting things close. About 460 entries have already been submitted so far and let me tell you people something….over the last few weeks I’ve watched every, single one of them! Well, technically I watched at least a few seconds of every entry. After about 5 seconds it’s pretty obvious which commercials are serious entries and which ones aren’t.

So after all these weeks and after watching hundreds of entries, here’s my big conclusion: There are some good spots but I wouldn’t be surprised if none of the videos so far posted make it to the finals. The quality of the submissions is going up and every day now, at least a few decent commercials appear on the site. But out of 460 entries, there isn’t one I would point to and scream, “winner!”

However, in the next 7 days, I’m guessing you’ll see at least 500 new videos get posted. Once it gets to the point that 100 videos a day are going up even I’ll probably have to give up trying to watch them all. Still, don’t let that big number scare you. Seven days is a long time and so if you have an idea, just go shoot it already!

The million dollar winners of last year’s Crash the Superbowl competition were recruited by Doritos to make some tutorial videos for contestants. They’re actually really great videos. If you’re new to video contests I recommend you watch them all. They’ll give you a lot of tips about how to tell a funny, fast, well-produced story in just 30 seconds:

1. Intro to the Crash: http://vimeo.com/6646967
2. Crush the Ad-Meter: http://www.vimeo.com/6985731
3. 30-Second Joke Telling: http://www.vimeo.com/6986471
4. Pro Spot on Crash Budget: http://www.vimeo.com/6986535
5. Copyrights and Wrongs: http://www.vimeo.com/6986562
6. Film Making 101: http://vimeo.com/6956378
7. Practice Makes Perfect: http://www.vimeo.com/6986591

Here’s my favorite installment:

30 Second Joke Telling

Good advice for any contest entry you plan on shooting. Keep it short and hilarious.

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Drive Smarter winner

Posted by Beardy on November 1st, 2009

drive3

The Drive Smarter Challenge was an odd contest.  Participants were supposed to create videos that illustrated gas-saving tips but the prizes were donated by companies like Exxon Mobil.  So there’s this obvious “see, we care about conservation too!” vibe to the whole thing.  But there were a lot of prizes for this contest.  Just for entering you recived a $25 Exxon gas card which is a nice little prize in and of itself.  But this contest, like so many others, picked its winners by a public vote.  Drive Smarter at least picked an initial list of 10 ten finalists though.  There isn’t much talent needed to get all of your friends and family to vote for your video, but for what it’s worth, here’s the first place winner:

First Place. Prize: $5,000

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