There are a lot of video contests that I regret entering last year.  Some of them were terribly run, others wasted contestants time by requiring them to shill for votes and still others yielded winners that were so inexplicably bad that you couldn’t help but wonder if maybe the whole thing had been rigged.

But there’s one 2009 contest I regret NOT entering; the Skinit.com TV challenge. Skinit makes sticker-type things that are designed to fit any kind of electronic device you can think of.  Visit their site and you’ll get what I’m talking about:  Skinit.com.  Anyway, I was so impressed with their contest that after it ended I reviewed it in an article called “Profile of a Great contest: Skinit.com.”  I interviewed a nice representative from Skinit for that piece named Shreya and last week, she e-mailed to let me know that Skinit had just announced that they were bringing the contest back for 2010 and that it was going to be even bigger than last year.

And she wasn’t kidding.  Last year, the first place winner took home $10,000, a runner-up got $5,000 and the winner of the best storyboard entry also go $5,000.  This year, there will be 6 categories: 1. Consumer Electronics ( 30 sec) 2. Consumer Electronics (60 sec) 3. Tailgate Packs (30 sec) 4. Tailgate Packs (60 sec) 5. WallSkins (30 sec) 6. WallSkins (60 sec)

One winner in each category will get $5,000 and then one overall winner will be awarded and extra $20,000.  And as a bonus, the winning entry (and maybe even some of the runners-up) will have the chance to be shown on TV.

Last year, I entered just about any contest I could find if I thought I had a chance of winning.  But this year I’m really trying to focus my efforts.  And the skinit challenge is just the type of contest I love coming across.  My favorite contests are those that provide lots of opportunities for people to win.  It’d be awesome to win $25,000 but winning 5 grand would be pretty sweet too.  The only thing that worries me is that the rules say that “popularity/public vote” will be one of the criteria used to determine the winners.

Hopefully it will not be a significant factor though.  I don’t care how much money is at stake, I’ve pretty much sworn off all video contests that let “the public” pick the winners because those winners invariably turn out to be whoever has the largest social network or the time to vote for themselves over and over and over.  But based on the skinit rules, it doesn’t seem like this is going to just be a popularity contest.

The deadline to enter the contest is still 99 days away so there’s lots of time to plan for this one.  I for sure will be entering and I’m planning on going completely overboard….assuming I can think of an idea, that is.