Have you seen those Coors Light commercials where a bunch of “average” dudes ask football coaches goofy questions during post-game press conferences? Yes? Ok, well Coors wanted 6 more coach spots that they could air on Tivo so they turned to poptent. Coors provided the coach footage and interested filmmakers had to go out and shoot their own press conference scenes.
Today Poptent announced that Coors Light would be purchasing 6 user-created ads for $3,500 a piece. And guess what, one of those ads just happened to be made by your pal Beardy. Boosh! Here’s my spot “Blue Mountains” followed by two other selected submissions that I especially liked:
All the filmmakers whose ads were purchased really went all out. I can tell you from experience that getting a bunch of extras, some still cameras and several believable TV cameras together into a room that looks like it could be used for a post-game press conference isn’t easy. I shot my submission (and two other spots that didn’t get picked) in the TV studio of my old college. A few friends played extras but almost everyone on camera were actors hired via craigslist. Oh, but I recycled the Yeti from my non-winning careerbuilder entry! Glad he finally got his moment of glory.
NOTE: This post has inspired a pretty interesting discussion about payment amounts for video contests. So check out the comments to read the opinions of a variety of past contest winners.
Man, T-Pain is a damn genius. He not only helped make Auto-tuning popular but he’s been smart enough to attach himself to the trend. Basically he’s been able to brand auto-tuning as a T-Pain thing. And now you too can get auto-tuned with the “I Am T-Pain” iphone app. It’s got music and lyrics so you can sing along (auto-tuned style of course) to your favorite T-Pain tracks. Sweet.
Now, another example of T-Pain’s brilliance is his participation in Lonley Island’s “I’m on a Boat” music video. He scored major points in my book with that one. The song is awesome and hilarious and a dash a of T-Pain put it over the top. If you’ve never seen it, click here and thank me later. That song and video are so good that even though it was a “comedy” song it just got nominated for a grammy for best hip-hop song of the year.
Anyway, to promote the “I Am T-Pain” iphone app, the company behind it held an “I’m on a blank” music video contest. Whoever could make the best parody of “I’m on a Boat” would score themselves 5 grand and a “bigg ass chain.”. Here’s the winning video which is pretty great. I especially like it since it may be the first video contest entry I’ve ever seen that was filled with profanity. So be aware, it is NSFW.
Grand Prize: Prize: $5,000 and a Big Ass Chain
By the way, if you don’t know what Auto-tuning, iphones apps, T-pain, Lonely Island or “NSFW” are then you need to spend less time reading books and more time on the internetz, grandpa.
Santa Beardy says: "Merry Christmas to all the non-jerk asses out there!"
Thanks in large part to the Crash The Superbowl contest, traffic to our little blog has really been on the rise lately. And the good news is, it looks like many readers are sticking around. So if you’re new to the site, thanks for checking us out! And if you haven’t done so already, why not subscribe to our RSS feed?
It’s been really great hearing from our readers (well, our readers who don’t think I’m a “douche pumper”) and if you’re enjoying the site, please feel free to throw your voice into the mix and leave some comments. I especially like hearing from other regular video contest entrants so if you’re feeling friendly, drop me a line, introduce yourself and tell me about your contest track record. I love hearing about success stories so if you want to do some bragging, go for it. We may even want to cover some of your victories here on the blog.
But the thing we are most interested in hearing about are they ways you’ve been screwed by a contest! Have you sat and watched helplessly as some jerk-ass cheated their way into a victory? Know of a contest organizer that’s been ignoring their own rules? Are you starting to suspect that a company is never going to actually pay you the winnings the owe you? Well let us know!
Video contests have become so popular, so fast that the scene is pretty much a lawless, disorganized mess. If you see someone who is obviously voting for their own video over and over in a vote-based contest or if you suspect that a company is screwing filmmakers out of what they’ve eared, what could you do about it? Well now you can tell us. Companies hate negative press, even if it comes from a Podunk little blog like ours. It’s easy to cheat or to mess with filmmakers when you think no one will ever know what you’re doing. But if we call out these people in public, there will forever be a record of their crappy conduct on the web.
Just a few weeks ago a filmmaker e-mailed me and explained that a video contest site had been jerking him around for almost a year. He won a $500 prize from them that they would just never pay up. He e-mailed them over and over and he always got the same response “Sorry, we’ll send the check out ASAP!” He told us that other users of the site were having the same problems. We e-mailed some users of the site and before we could even start writing out story, the company in question contacted us and asked what was going on. Long story short, that dude has his check and an apology about 5 days later.
So please folks, use this site as a tool for keeping jerks in line. Maybe you want to complain about a contest but you’re worried about wrecking your chances of winning. Well if you find yourself in such a circumstance, let us know the details and we will consider lodging a complaint on your behalf. As always, you can contact us at VIDEOCONTESTNEWS@GMAIL.COM.
Again, thanks to everyone out there for checking out the site. Merry Christmas and of course, good luck!
News flash: Sausage is delicious. Ok, we all know that. But did you know it can sorta, kinda be healthy too? Al Fresco Chicken Sausage is trying to get that message out on the “social networking sites” so they held a video contest of course. The objective was to create a “potentially viral video” that would promote their sausage and emphasise specifics about how they were not as bad for you as pork sausgaes. They gave 2 runners up a thousand dollars each and the first place vid got $6,000. I can’t emebed the winning entry so click the image below to see all top 3 submissions.
The winning video was cute but does it really have “viral” potential? I see so many contests where the company’s goal is to get a “viral video” about their product but sometimes I have to wonder if the contest organizers actually understand how viral videos work. A viral video is one that spreads on it’s own…you know, like a VIRUS. Will people really be posting a sausage commercial to their facebook page or e-mail it to friends? Probably not. But Al Fresco also wants to use the winning video in on-line marketing and at trade shows so in that case it seems like they made a good choice. Plus they did say that they wanted a video that could “potentially” go viral so maybe I’m just being snippy.
Over at Tongal, Tyson is running a video contest designed to promote hunger-relief efforts. Filmmakers were to go out and shoot short documentaries about individuals who were trying to make a difference by collecting food, organizing food drives or working in pantries or shelters. The thing I like best about Tongal is that they have a strict “No Voting” policy on all of their contests. Instead, they often hold “prediction contests” to go along with the main competition. For the hunger relief contest though they are giving several bonus prizes (biggest is $750) to those entries that receive the most views between now and January 6th. The submission period for the competition just closed and the entries can be seen here. Judges will award several prizes but the best of the bunch will get $2,500. But that’s not all! In addition to the prize money, the food bank featured in the winning video will receive a donation of 35,000 POUNDS of food from Tyson!
This was a tough contest to create an entry for so only 12 submissions were recived. And one of them just happened to come from Beardy’s “good friend” Dan. So if you want to show VCN a little support, why not throw him a view by clicking the play button below? Important note: To prevent fraud, Tongal only counts one “view” per IP address. That’s the only way to keep things legit so good for them.
If the video is choppy, try turning off the “HD” button. If the player won’t come up, click here to watch the video on Tongal’s site.
On Wednesday we announced the 6 videos that we HOPE Doritos will consider for the finals of the Crash the Superbowl competition. (Scroll down two posts to see them) They’re all great entries but to be honest, they are all kind of long shots. But those were our recommendations. Today we’re going to make our official CTSB predictions! Rather than try and guess all 6 finalists I thought I’d just go with three submissions that I think are basically locks for the finals and in one case, the superbowl and one of the top 3 spots on the ad meter. Here we go:
3. Doritos Please by “Senor Queso.” Video #1614
This video is just mind-blowing. I can’t even imagine how much time, money and effort went into create what might be the most amazing video contest entry EVER.
And I hope it doesn’t win.
I’d be amazed if this spot didn’t make it to the final six but I think it would be a bad idea for Doritos to pick it. Why? Oh come on….you know why.
If “Doritos Please” aired during the superbowl, at least 50% of the people who saw it would immediately think the same thing; “Hey, did Doritos just rip of the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the world commercials?” Obviously, those two spots are very, very different. But that is the reaction I had when I first saw it, it’s the reaction friends had when I sent it to them and it’s the reaction many commentors have been having over on the contest site.
It’s important to note that “Doritos Please” was created by the same team that created one of last year’s finalist videos, Too Delicious. They didn’t make it to the superbowl and I’m guessing they vowed that 2010 would be their year. It’s an amazing entry and a valiant effort but Dos Equis did the cool, world-traveling latin guy thing first. I predict it will make it to the finals but if I were a Doritos judge, I’d pass on this one in favor of something more original. But how can they?? Wouldn’t they feel bad considering how much work and money went into this entry!? And it’s from someone the CTSB team probably already knows well so it’d be tough to say “sorry guys, thanks for working so hard but once again, you’re not going to make it to the superbowl.” So I think that sentimentality will ensure this spot will make it to the top 6 but if I were Doritos, I’d leave it out. It just makes us “average joes” look like we can’t come up with our own original ideas.
2. Kick Hunger by “Silveroaks.” Video #1669
This is one of my favorite entries but it too just happens to be a little too similar to a series of commercials that are already on the air……
But unlike “Doritos Please” I think that this Hunger commercial is different enough from the Weight Watchers commercials to earn a pass. People will make the connection but at least there’s a nut shot and that will probably win folks over. I can see this one making the top 6 and even the superbowl.
1. Animal Cruelty by “jwsvboda.” Video #5503
If it were up to me, this spot right here would get the first spot in the top 6. It’s funny, new, unique, subversive and it even manages to look and sound like a professional ad. But it’s just rough around the edges enough so that viewers will appreciate and understand that it’s not a multi-million dollar, Madison avenue created commercial. It’s slick but not too slick and it’s got a dog who gets revenge against a jerk who was trying to abuse an animal. Who wouldn’t rate a commercial like this really well?
So here’s Beardy’s big prediction; Animal Cruelty will make the top 6, it will make it to the Superbowl and it will place in the Top 3 of the USA Today Ad meter poll. It has just what it takes to rank well during polling. It’s funny early and gets funnier as it goes on. As soon as viewers see that shot of that dog lifting up his collar, every dial in the ad meter poll will go all the way to “This is great” and it will stay there for the rest of the spot.
So there you go folks. If you have seen or made a spot that you think I’ve overlooked, leave a link in the comments of this post. If I see one that really blows me away, I will add it to our list.
Note: Scroll down if you want to just skip my blabbering and see which 6 entries we recommend Doritos consider for the finals.
Since the passing of the November 9th deadline I’ve tried to watch as many of the entries for this year’s Crash the Superbowl contest as I could. But alas, Beardy is only human and I probably managed to look at only 2,800 or so of the 4,069 submitted videos. That means chances are good that I completely missed some of the most awesome submissions. So, though I’ve said that I planned to announce this website’s predictions for which entries will make it to the final 6, I don’t think that’s really a fair thing to do.
Instead, I’m going to completely ignore some of the highest quality spots that I saw and post 6 entries that I really enjoyed but that I suspect Doritos may overlook. So let’s call this list VideoContestNews.com’s official recommended CTSB entries! Before I get into my humble video recommendations, I’d like to first make one general recommendation to the judges of the Crash the Superbowl contest: Think Small.
While watching all those entries, I saw a lot of very, very well made and expensive spots but with two or three exceptions, none of the high-budget/high concept submissions had much heart. On the other hand, I did see a number of really cool, really creative commercials that seem to have been shot by semi-pros and amateurs using consumer and “prosumer” grade video cameras. But a little googling will tell you that 4 of the 5 finalists last year shot their entries with RED One cameras. Don’t know what that is? It’s a very, very high-end camera that starts at about $17,000. So it’s clear that last year Doritos wanted the slickest commercials that filmmakers outside of the ad industry could make. (If you can get your hands on anything nicer that a RED camera you’re probably already a well paid pro.)
And all of last year’s finalists were stellar. They were slick enough to look like actual TV commercials but they were also funny, subversive and surprising. But after watching almost 3,000 of this year’s entries I just don’t see many that had top notch production values and were also FUNNY and ORIGINAL. Basically this year’s slickest entries just come off as hollow versions of “real” commercials.
So what happened? Two things I think; One, Doritos put up millions of dollars in prize money and then marketed the contest like crazy. So tons of people who never picked up a camera before jumped on the bandwagon. And two, all of last year’s finalists were so F***ing amazing that many pro and semi-pro filmmakers assumed the bar would be way to high and didn’t bother to enter. People like that know the look of the RED camera and they did the math in their head and realized that to be a serious competitor, you’d need to have access to a RED camera (or at least a high end HD camera). So right off the bat you’re already looking at a budget of $1,000 to rent a RED camera for a day. And not just any shmuck can run those. So unless you’ve used one before, throw in another $500 for a D.P. who knows what he’s doing. So that’s $1,500 minimum. And I’ll tell you, it takes a very, very special person to be willing to gamble that much money on a production when they see that 3,000 entries have already been uploaded.
So basically this means that there are two kinds of good videos among this year’s batch of entries. There are cool, funny, inventive videos that were made by non-pros or semi-pros who used consumer and prosumer level gear, and there are ok, but not super funny, big-budget entries that feature pretty graphics, lots of fancy but unnecessary dolly shots and in some cases, established characters actors, B-list celebrities and in one case, a semi-well known indie band.
My recommendation to the CTSB judges is to forget the slick, not-so-funny entries and give a few of the littler guys a shot. The first year that Doritos ran the Crash the Superbowl competition (2006), the winning commercial had a budget of only $12! That’s probably why so many pros jumped in in 2008. (Doritos did something else for the superbowl the year in between) They knew that if they could make a funny spot that also looked like a “real” commercial, they could crush the competition. Well this year I don’t think the pros delivered and so Doritos should do something bold; forget about only picking finalists that look like “real” commercials. Obviously they can’t air a spot with crappy lighting and muffled sound during the superbowl, but they can and should give serious consideration to the “prosumer” level filmmakers that submitted. If they don’t, I don’t think CTSB spots will go on to take all three top spots in the USA Today ad meter.
And making the “Top 3” of the Ad meter is the entire point of this contest. That right there is exactly why Doritos should go with videos that are attention-getting and big on laughs, rather than videos that are super-slick but only mildly amusing. And while the point of the contest is to make the top 3, the MESSAGE of the contest is that if given the chance, creative, regular Joes can beat the Madison Avenue crowd at their own game. Even many of the people in the Ad Meter poll will understand that’s what this contest is about and I suspect they will give extra points to the CTSB finalists IF those finalist videos actually look different that all the other spots that air during the game.
What I’m saying is that Doritos should pick at least a few finalists that are a little ROUGH AROUND THE EDGES. Yes, they might be seen by 100 Million people and yes they will stick out like a sore thumb. And that’s why it’d be great! If you’re watching the game and all of the sudden, some crazy thing that some dude shot in his back yard comes on the TV, you’re going to sit up and take notice. And if that “imperfect” ad makes you laugh, then it has been a success, even if only cost 12 bucks to make. If Doritos wanted to shoot a commercial featuring Flavor Flav they could seal that deal during a single lunch meeting. If they wanted to cast the secretary from Ferris Bueller in a commercial they could make that happen in less than 4 phone calls. And if they wanted their own version of the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials they could have a team crank that out in a week. So why should Doritos pick spots that an ad firm on Madison Avenue could slap together without breaking a sweat? If you’re going to create a new and completely different way to get your superbowl commercials, shouldn’t the commercials you get actually seem completely different than everything else that’s going to air during the game?
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents. Finally, here are the 6 entries that I really hope Doritos considers for their 2010 Crash the Superbowl finalists. These are in order with #1 being my favorite:
#6. Don’t Be that Guy by “Moedirty.” Video #2530
This spot really only has one thing going for it; the super-serious guy at the end. But you know what? That guy is PERFECT. If this aired during the Superbowl the next day people in offices all across the country would be saying the hot new catchphrase “You have to leave.”
#5. Want More? by “Shonky.” Video #2081
If this commercial was shot by a major ad company you wouldn’t think about it twice. But knowing that it was just a couple of crazy dudes who made this adds a sweet level of insanity to it.
#4. So Worth It by “tgo0116.” Video #307
This is a Superbowl-style comedy of errors commercial shot for (probably) nothing. But that low-budget, indie look gives it the heart that so many of the slicker entries are lacking. This guy wanted to win so bad he cut a hole in his mother f***ing roof. Hell yeah.
#3. Doritos Make Everything Better by “Keithhopkin.” Video #951
It looks like it was shot for a high school film class but this will keep viewers smiling all the way through. The shot of the dog wincing when the Doritos fall on him might hurt this video’s chances but the dog probably didn’t mind, right?
#2. Battlestations! by “Laserbunny.” Video #4097
This one has actually got some nice effects but it still has a nice indie vibe to it. Despite the CGI they use, the “fractal Dorito” was apparently real. I think this one can make the official Top 6.
#1. Wrong Commercial by “knewacheck.” Video #3742
This commercial is just flat out stupid…and I love it. It’s so weird and goofy and you can tell that it was made for fun. Maybe the “Got Milk” bit at the end will cause a copyright problem big enough to keep it out of the finals but I hope not. The spot’s absurd but it’s absurd in a very smart way. Right off the bat, the characters let the viewer know that what they are seeing is a commercial submitted for a contest. That gives the spot license to be imperfect and look like it was made by three random knuckleheads. But I’m over thinking it. It’s funny and it works, that’s all that should matter.
Now as I said, I also shot an entry for this year’s competition but of course it’d be pretty shady of me to include it in my top 6. So instead I’ll just place a link right here if you want to check it out:
Despite all my talk about low-budget spots, I shot my entry on HD and it cost about $1,600. We even through a crane shot in there! Do as Beardy says folks, not as Beardy does. We used a prosumer HD camera though so I consider it to be a “medium-sized” production. Plus it is sorta rough around the edges I think.
So what do you think folks? Are we right or are we crazy? Did we overlook any potential winners? Let us know in the comment box. And because I can’t help myself, check back on Friday to see which two, more slickly-produced videos we predict will make it to the finals and the Superbowl.
Though the Hartz “Crunch n’ Clean” video contest (objective: create a funny video of you brushing your dog’s teeth) had just one grand prize of $1,000, all 24 contestants got a nice surprise from Hartz after the winner was announced. Everyone would be getting a special prize pack just for entering. Grateful contestants recived their packages last week and posted some photos on the contest’s facebook page. Check this out:
That’s a lot of stuff. All too often contest organizers totally forget about all the people who took the time and made the effort to create an entry for their video contest. So it’s great to see a company that realizes that it’d be a good idea to say “thank you” to people who are obviously loyal to their brand. Maybe the prize packages only cost Hartz 50 bucks each to put together but the good will they will receive in return is really valuable. All 24 contestants will tell God only knows how many people about the super cool prize pack they got just for entering. So giving away sweet prizes to the “non-winners” is good for their reputation in the long run. Way to go Hartz!
If you have a camera, a piece of paper and 5 spare minutes you should probably go ahead and shoot an entry for the Infolinks “Double with a Bubble” video contest. This video will tell you everything you need to know about entering:
So that’s it. Take some footage of yourself showing off a bubble or a sign that says the word “double” and you could win one of 61 prizes. 61 PRIZES! Sure, 40 of those are t-shirts and tote bags but Infolinks is also giving away 10 video cameras and 10 ipods. Plus the best video of them all gets $1,000.
The deadline to enter is January 1st and so far, only 10 entries have been submitted. So if you’re a cheap bastard and you’re heading to a Christmas party next weekend, bring a camera and some bubble gum with you. You can tell your friends that your present to them is that you will shoot, edit and upload a “Double with a Bubble” entry for them!
The total number of entries in the Crash the Superbowl competition has inched up from 4047 to 4062. Over on the contest forum there seemed to be a lot of frantic people who’s entries never appeared in the gallery. So hopefully this means that all those folks have had their issues resolved and all entries that were submitted by the deadline are now up.
Officially, Doritos will be announcing their 6 finalists for the Crash the Superbowl Competition on January 5th. But from what I’ve read around the interwebs, they will start notifying those finalists in the middle of this month. So if you haven’t heard anything by Christmas you probably should make other plans for the Superbowl.
Recently we asked you guys to send us tips for what you thought were the best Crash entries submitted this year. We’ll be announcing our picks for our favorites next Wednesday. So check back to see if you’re a winner! (in our hearts) And if you have any other entries you want to bring to our attention, leave the links as a comment to this post.
Friend of V.C.N and frequent video contest winner Joel Moss AKA “Happy Joel” was recently interviewed by another friend of V.C.N., Matt of Films4Prizes.com…and you can watch said interview right here, right now:
If you’re like really, really new to the concept of making money and winning prizes by entering multiple video contests, Happy Joel is a guy you should study and Films4prizes.com is a site you should bookmark and check every, single day. Joel’s won like a billion dollars by entering video contests (correction: figure is closer to $200,000) and shares his secret to winning in the above interview. Spoiler alert: His secret tip is just to put the work in and enter ‘cause you never know when you might win. That’s simple but excellent advice. I know a ton of filmmakers and I tell them over and over that they should give video contests a shot. Some seem tempted and I’ve even helped a few people find contests and plan entries but in the end, the chicken out. They don’t want to risk spending their time, money and effort on something that might not pay off.
And that right there is why video contests ARE worth the time, money and effort. Though they’ve really grown in popularity, there are still a ton of video contests that are getting very few entries. So don’t be a wuss. Get over to films4prizes.com, pick a contest that sounds fun and go for it.
You know what Lonely Planet is, right? If you don’t, go google it and come back. We’ll wait…
Back? Ok, good. Earlier this fall, Lonely Planet announced a very neat idea for a video contest. People were supposed to create their own travel videos that fit one of a variety of categories and the winner (as determined by a public vote) would get a trip for to San Francisco and would get to shoot a segment for Lonely Planet. I know, it sounds like actual work but the trip was valued at $10K.
LP picked the finalists for each category. This announcement vid will give you a taste of each of those entries.
Unfortunately, LP left the selection of the winner up to the “public.” I’ve seen so much ballot stuffing in so many contests by now that I automatically assume every video contest “winner” in vote-based competitions won because they just voted for themselves over and over. Of course, I have no idea if the winner stuffed his ballot box or not. Like I said, I’m just suspicious of all vote-winners. Anyway, here’s the winner:
This video is actually well made and funny. There’s a moment in this video where a kid asks “does it smell like bacon around here” in a totally non-ironic way that’s great. To most editors, that would have been a funny outtake. But whoever edited this vide did a great job and incorporated some weird, random moments that a normal travel show would leave out. So I hope the editor gets to go on the trip and work on the video too.
If you’re a fan of video contests, you know that a lot of them can be sort of frustrating. There are so many ways to screw up a video contest that it’s rare to find one that is run just 100% right. So I decided that maybe we should take a moment every once in a while and profile contests that were done especially well. I thought long and hard about all the contests I’ve entered or read about and one of the best run-contests I’ve ever seen had to be the one that SkinIt.com held earlier this year. I actually ran out of time and didn’t get a chance to shoot an entry for this one but I did pay attention from the sidelines. And I have to say, I was very impressed with the entire operation. SkinIt by the way is a very interesting company. They design stickery-decal like things that you can stick on laptops, ipods, cell phones etc etc. Check out their website to see what I’m talking about. You can even order custom “Skins” and I’ve bought a couple to use in other video contest entries. They’re very handy for dressing up props.
So anyway, what made the Skinit contest so sweet? Well to start, they offered a huge prize for first place; $10,000. That ensured that they would get a mountain of great entries. Then they followed that up by offering large prizes for second and third place (something I always look for since Beardy tends to wind up in 2nd a lot!) They even threw in a $5,000 prize for the best story board idea. Aside from the big prizes though, Skinit did the best thing any company holding a video contest can do; They picked the winners themselves! So Skinit chose to reward quality and not whoever had the willpower to vote for themselves over and over again on youtube.
But that’s enough out of me. Let’s let someone from Skinit tell the rest of the story. Shreya Doshi, one of the organizers of the SkinIt video contest was nice enough to answer a few questions for us and provide a rare look into the other side of video contesting. Next time you see a contest that is being run in a really lame way, you might want to forward the organizers a link to his interview so they can see just what makes a video contest a success.
VCN: Where did the idea come from to hold a video contest to promote Skinit.com? Why did Skinit decide to hold a contest of their own?
SD: Video contests are on the up-and-coming these days – a lot of businesses, small and large, have used them as a way to interact with their customers and build their brand. We wanted to give our customers the chance to contribute to our brand and give them a chance to show us who and what Skinit is to them. We were hoping to open up the creativity gates and see just how much we could do with the Skinit brand, how far we could take a simple product. It’s easy to get stuck in the “same old, same old” when you live and breathe the same concepts day in and day out. Why not let someone fresh take a stab at it? The ideas people came up wit they were definitely refreshing and quite impressive!
VCN: The prize of the contest was very high: $10,000. Plus there was a storyboard competition that had a prize of $5,000. Why did Skinit decided to post such large prizes? I hate to be crude but in the end, did the company get its money’s worth from the contest?
SD: Quality. The prizes were intended to both motivate and reward entrants for quality contributions. We know it isn’t cheap to film and produce a commercial – it involves a lot of resources, time, and effort. It’s important to remember that and make sure we make our contest worth that effort.
VCN: Were you happy with the entries you received?
SD: We definitely received a wide range of entries and I think we ended up with some really professional and fun commercials. We have actually put a couple different ads on the air, not just the winner, and have seen a lot of great response to them! It was really interesting to see the variety of concepts that people came up with and the different ways the Skinit brand was portrayed.
VCN: Filmmakers who enter video contests are usually left in the dark when it comes to how the winners are selected. In the Skinit contest, who picked the winners?
SD: Our judging panel consisted of Paul Buss, CEO of Skinit, Steve Kovsky of San Diego 6 TV (XETV), Pete Weitzner who runs the broadcast journalism program at Chapman University, and Scott Wells, an award-winning commercial director and producer. The goal was to create a panel involving both members of the community and industry specialists that could objectively evaluate the entries.
VCN: How was the judging done? Did the judges all gather together in one place to watch every entry? Or did they watch them on their own? Or maybe the judges only saw a group of finalist videos? (this kind of insight into how a contest is run might seem boring but filmmakers will find it fascinating)
SD: The judges were all given evaluation forms and asked to rate each entry on a scale of 1-6 for each given criteria, including “popularity” based on comments left for each video on the SkinitTV YouTube page. The judges each reviewed the entries individually and then submitted their forms to Skinit. We tallied up the votes and averaged out the scores to determine our top videos. We then had a results meeting with all the judges and revealed the winners. Everyone had a chance to discuss the highs and lows, any surprises, their favorite ads, and their thoughts on the results.
VCN: Which video won the contest? What did everyone at Skinit like best about the entry?
SD: The Grand Prize winner was jaredcicon’s “You Dream It” entry. 1st and 2nd place were actually quite close – within fractions of a point! Made for an interesting discussion during the judges’ results meeting! “You Dream It” had great overall appeal, calling out to all of us who can think of “that crazy Dad.” It not only caught your attention, but held it all the way through the hook. It demonstrated the breadth of our products and the desire of personalization – an important element of the Skinit brand. And of course, it had a memorable punch line with the wife yelling “Jaaaareeedd.” I think that every person I saw watch that ad let out at least a little chuckle when they heard that!
VCN: What were some of the benefits for Skinit for holding a video contest?
SD: Well of course we ended up with some great ads and, like I mentioned earlier, have already aired a few of them – not just “You Dream It.” But beyond that – I think we had our first chance to interact with our customers and get a peek into how they see the Skinit brand. There was a lot of brand exposure for us as well as word of mouth spread and news of the contest got around. We definitely had a lot of fun watching all the entries and seeing the limitless creativity that exists out there. Having been our first contest – we also learned a lot about running contests! A lot of good ideas and entries came from this contest, but we’re hoping to really improve and expand things the next time around…
VCN: Thanks for your time and for setting a great example for other contest-holders!
UPDATE: Looks like Skinit will be doing another video contest next year. Check out this comment we got from them: “Wait until you see the 2010 contest- AWESOME PRIZE(s)! Way bigger than last year’s!” Sounds sweet. Better start thinking up some ideas now!
Do a google image search for "Camel Toe" and this is the only PG rated pic you will find
I don’t even know what to say about this but it’s pretty funny. Video contests seem like an obvious marketing gimmick for tech companies and candy makers but I guess they’ve become so popular that companies of all types are getting in on the action. Case in point, this awesome new video contest for a company called “Camel Ammo.”
The contest is being run over at the contest site Tongal.com. Click on the link above to read through their innuendo-laced explanation of the competition. Long story short, “Camel Ammo” is a thing a woman can slip into her underwear to prevent her from getting what the website calls, “Frontal Wedgies.” Do you get what I’m saying here? This is a video contest for a product that prevents camel toe.
The top prize is only $1,500 but you can’t put a price on the glory you would receive as the winner of this contest. And no, I am not being sarcastic. If you won, you’d have a great story to tell for months. Imagine being a part of a conversation like this:
SOME DUDE: Hey man, how’ve you been?
YOU: Pretty good! I just won a thousand dollars for a commercial I shot for an anti-camel toe device.
SOME DUDE: Holy Sh&%! That’s hilarious dude. You rule!
Winning this contest will make you just a tiny bit cooler/quirkier/more interesting. And you need all the help you can get. So get out there and use your God given talents to save the world from Frontal Wedgies!
Invest in Your Love is a reoccurring video contest created to promote tourism to Tahiti. Every couple weeks a new competition is announced and couples can send in videos explaining why the need a free island vacation. Four couples have won so far but I don’t think I’ve posted the results before. The winners are picked by online voting and you can even vote once per day so some videos wind up getting more than 5,000 votes which is pretty ludicrous. Anyway, because the winners are picked in this way, quality entries don’t usually win so they’re not worth posting. But I just saw the latest winning video and I thought it was worth sharing for one very important reason. Here it is:
Kinda cute, right? At the very least it was amusing to see little kids talk about Bernie Madoff and Enron. But it’s sorta of odd that parents would use their kids to get a free trip to Tahiti, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not a free trip for the whole family. Only mom and dad get to go. I’d kind of feel gypped if I were those kids, But I digress. Here’s the thing that really caught my eye. At the very end of the video, for like three seconds, this message appears on screen:
Seriously? All images and music were used with permission? Including the seven or so seconds of the movie Rocky that is shown playing on a TV? (check the 1:16 mark) I just spent 5 minutes googling and I couldn’t even pin down which studio actually owns the rights to that movie. So I’m going to guess that these contest winners didn’t actually clear that footage.
And that is not a small deal. Is it likely that Sylvester Stallone or Warner Bros or MGM or whoever will come along and sue some contest winners from Lexington, KY? Hey…you never know. Did you ever think that you’d see the day when the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) would sue 15 year old kids for downloading music? And those kids didn’t even make any kind of profit from their acts of infringement.
Point is, be careful what you put in your contest entries. Maybe you’ve heard the term “Fair Use” but fair use isn’t as fair as you’d think. If you’re shooting documentary and a TV is playing in the background of a shot, that’s not copyright infringement. But if you shoot a video contest entry and deliberately play a well known film on a TV set for a laugh, you technically just broke the law. And if you end your video with a disclaimer saying “all images and music were used with permission,” then some could argue that you are also committing an act of fraud. No….I’m serious. If the rules of a contest state that only entries that don’t violate the copyrights of others are eligible to win and if you lie about the legal status of your entry you are intentionally deceiving the contest organizers into allowing your ineligible entry in to the contest. So worst case scenario, the couple that made this Tahiti video could be sued by the contest organizers, the losers of the contest and whoever owns the rights to the movie Rocky! Oh, and Sly Stallone and Talia Shire since actors are supposed to get paid to appear in commercials/videos/whatever and they are being used to promote tourism in Tahiti without their knowledge. (just look what happened to American Apparel after they put a picture of woody allen on a few billboards in NY without his permission)
As always, the best advice I can give anyone entering a video contest is this: Read and Follow the rules to a T. The use of copyrighted material has sunk the chances of many great contest entries. These Tahiti folks got away with a little copyright infringement but it’s always better to err on the side of caution.
Seems like every marketing guy and their momma is trying to entice us Joe Handycams into shooting ads for their company these days. There’s a lot of cash and a ton of prizes waiting to be won in online video contests and if you have even a smidge of writing, shooting or editing skills, all that awesome stuff could be yours. So you guys focus on winning ‘em and we’ll cover the aftermath of your glorious victories and/or pathetic defeats!
Video contests can get pretty ugly. Organizers do not always want to play by their own rules, other contestants flagrantly cheat and poorly run competitions cause frustrations for everyone. Wish you could bring a problem to the attention of a contest’s organizers but you’re worried that you might be branded a no-good troublemaker? We can help. Let us know about your problem and we’ll try and kick a little ass on your behalf. E-mail us at Videocontestnews@gmail.com.
