Poptent recently announced the results of two assignments; TurboTax and Top Flight. And when I say “recently” I mean they announced them last month. If you haven’t seen them yet, here they are:
Purchased by Turbo Tax. Price: $4,000
Several other videos won editor’s awards of $1,000 and $500. You can see those (one of them has a bikini girl in it!) here:
Incidentally, Poptent has four big assignments open right now; Becks Beer, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, 42 Below Vodka and Fed-Ex. The deadline for the Fed-Ex assignment is only 9 days away and only 23 videos have submitted. So this might be your chance to swoop in and get a big pay day. But…and this is going to sound crazy…I heard that the assignment pages for Becks Beer and 42 Below vodka are haunted!! I heard that when you click the “Accept Assignment button” a ghost flies out of your computer and tries to eat your face! That’s some scary stuff right there man. And I’m not just saying all this because I’m shooting submissions for Becks and 42 Below this weekend and I want to discourage you from submitting. I’m telling you because I know you love your face and are scared of ghosts.
For the third year in a row, Taxslayer.com is running their annual commercial contest. I think I’ve got a decent idea for an entry and was looking forward to entering. But this year, the rules of the taxslayer contest are so strange and complex that I think I might have to have to skip it. It’s just giving me a weird vibe. They’re asking contestants to provide a lot more stuff this year even though they are offering a grand prize that is $10,000 LESS than in previous years. In 2008 and 2009, participants were supposed to submit one, 30 to 60 second commercial and one winner was awarded $25,000. This year, the grand prize has been reduced to $15,000 and participants must submit TWO versions of their commercial; one that’s 15 seconds long and one that’s 30 seconds long.
For the first time though, Taxslayer is also giving away $5,000 for second place. But last year, after the contest ended and the winner was picked, Taxslayer turned two other contestant’s entries into commercials. So those people probably got $5,000 a piece at least. Plus, Taxslayer paid to have all three of last year’s selected videos re-shot by professionals. So while they are giving out more official prizes, they will be spending probably at least 20 grand less on this year’s video contest.
If you entered last year, you already know that the a lot of contestants were not happy about the winner that Taxslayer’s judges picked. Here it is:
2009 Taxslayer Winner. Prize: $25,000
No offense to the maker of the video and friend of VCN “HappyJoel” Moss but that video had zero production values. It was a funny idea and he gave a good performance but everyone who entered the contest assumed that the whole point was to make a real Taxslayer commercial that would air on TV. After all, they aired the 2008 winner on TV exactly as it was submitted. (click here to see that one.) The 2008 winner featured a guy in a real knight’s costume riding around on a real horse but the 2009 video featured a guy in a plastic knight’s costume and a print out of the taxslayer logo on his toy shield.
Taxslayer received tons of really great, professionally made entries. Any number of them were good enough to put right on TV. My own entry didn’t turn out so well so I didn’t expect to win at all. But when they announced that the Press Conference video has won, I was still shocked. Taxslayer explained that they loved HappyJoel’s press conference idea so much that they decided to pick him as the winner and planned to pay a production company to shoot a professional version of the ad. (See the remake that’s now airing on tv, here) But that explanation just caused a lot more frustration. If taxslayer wanted to re-shoot the winning ad, why didn’t they just say so right from the start? I personally spent A LOT of time and a little bit of money shooting my taxslayer entry last year and I did it because I thought that I was supposed to shoot something that was “tv-ready.” That’s what a lot of people thought.
So this year, I was looking forward to the contest because I thought they would be just looking for IDEAS for good commercials they could re-shoot. When I heard that the prize had been reduced by 10 Grand, I assumed that they were for sure just going to be looking for ideas. But then I read the 2010 rules and now I have NO IDEA what those people want from us!
Here’s Taxslayer’s video that outlines the official rules of the contest:
The video says that in addition to winning $15,000 this year’s winners “may be broadcast on national television as part of the 2011 taxslayer.com commercial campaign.”
OK, SO WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT MEAN?? Do they want slick, ready-for-TV commercials or do they just care about cool ideas since they plan to re-shoot them anyway? Since the prize is so much smaller and since they re-shot 3 entries last year we should obviously save our money and make simple “Sample” ads, right? But if that’s the case, why do they want one 15 second version and one 30 second version? And why in the name of God do we have to submit copies of our entries on BETA TAPE? They would only need a BetaSP copy of an ad if they were going to show it on TV.
It seems like Taxslayer is trying to hedge their bets. If a contestant submits an ad that’s slick enough to air on TV, Taxslayer will save a ton of money if they pick it since they won’t have to re-shoot it. But just in case they don’t like any of the high-production-value entries they get, they want to still have the option to re-shoot the winning ads.
And here’s another weird thing about this contest; First place gets you $15,000 and second gets you $5,000. But Taxslayer will use both of those ads in their 2010 commercial campaign. So the second place winner is getting a seriously raw deal! Since both 1st and 2nd place videos will probably appear on TV, Taxslayer should purchase them both for the same price.
But there is no guarantee that Taxslayer will actually show any of this year’s entries (or remakes based on entries) on TV. Nothing (that I saw) in the official rules say anything about the winning ads appearing on TV. That is because Taxslayer doesn’t want to be contractually obligated to air any commercials. They say the winning videos MIGHT air on TV and they only say that in the rules video. They probably will air at least one winner but it’d be nice if they were willing to commit to that in writing.
Oh! I almost forget the icing on the cake. The ultimate winners of the contest will be picked by taxslayer’s judges. But they will pick the winners from a pool of 20 finalists. Those finalists will be determined by view counts and star ratings on youtube! So if you even want to be considered, you better already have a decent number of subscribers and nice, deep social network. Hey wait a second…I run a blog that gets thousands of hits a month! Maybe I should enter. If I appealed to VCN readers for support I should at least be able to get enough views and votes to land in the top 20. Hmmmmm….
Like I said, I’ve been looking forward to entering this year’s Taxslayer contest. But there are so many other HUGE contests running right now I’m not sure I should spend my time and resources on one that is so vague about what they want. I wanted to write taxslayer and ask them to clarify some of their rules but I couldn’t find any contact info on the contest site; just an e-mail address for submissions and the rules say “this email address is for submissions only, we will not respond to questions or other communications.” So I thought maybe I’d just ask my questions into the ether of the internet and see if anyone else had any theories about what exactly taxslayer is looking for.
Unless Taxslayer comes out and clarifies their rules, I think I’m going to pass on this one. Or maybe I’ll got for it…I don’t know. Anybody out there plan on entering?
Unless your Internet has been down for the last week or two, you’ve probably heard about Godaddy.com’s huge, new commercial contest. It’s one of the absolute, best video contests I have ever seen. First off, the prizes are huge. Third place wins you $25,000, second place is $50,000 and first place is $100,000. Second, many big-money contests host all the entries themselves. But for this one, participants just submit their entries via youtube. So unlike last year’s Doritos and Butterfinger contests, no entries will disappear in the depths of the sponsor’s servers and contestants won’t have to wait for days for their videos to appear online. The only catch is that you have to sign up for a goddady account, which is free.
I think the thing I like best about this contest though is that the top three winners will be picked by Godaddy judges and not by a public vote. That means the quality videos actually have a chance of coming out on top. But the folks behind this contest did something else very smart. Visitors to the site will be able to vote for their favorite entries but those votes have no impact on which videos win the top prizes. Instead, there are smaller (but still pretty good) prizes for entries that are the “audience favorites.”
The deadline to enter is April 23rd so you still have a good, long while to get your submissions in. To kick things off, the Godaddy team created a sample entry.
Godaddy sample entry:
Here’s what the godaddy team had to say about their sample entry:
“If we expect you to make a commercial for the GoDaddy.com Commercial Contest, we should be able to make one ourselves, right? This is an idea we (Go Daddy’s Social Media Team) put together to give you an example of a potential submission for the contest. Of course, we’re not eligible to win. Also, our example’s a bit longer than the 30 second limit…”
I think it’s funny though that the sample video is 16 seconds longer than the official time limit. Just goes to show how hard it is to keep an idea under 30 seconds. Having their “social media team” create a sample entry is just the kind of thing that gives me a good feeling about a video contest. It shows that the sponsor is holding the contest partly for the fun of it. I’ll tell you, not only will I be entering this contest, I plan to throw everything I got at this one.
Important Note! If you live in New York, Florida or outside of the US, don’t bother entering because you ain’t eligible for some reason. Check the official rules for more details about who can enter.
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.
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.
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!
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.
I usually don’t post about new contests since there are plenty of other sites devoted to doing that. But the 2nd Annual Louisiana Hot Sauce Video Contest is a great example of what a GOOD contest looks like. What makes this a contest well worth entering?
1. First place gets you $5,000
2. There are two runner up prizes of $2500 and $500
3. There are no time limits on entries
4. There is no required info
5. Videos can be about basically whatever you want
6. View counts and votes don’t matter
7. Judges alone pick the winners
8. Just by entering you get a free t-shirt!
That’s how it should be done, son! Essentially there is only one rule in this contest; use a bottle of Original Louisiana hot sauce in your video. Having loose requirements will help insure that the sponsor gets a whole lot of interesting and crazy entries.
The deadline to enter is….January 31st!?!? That’s almost four months from now. Pfffft. If you’re anything like me you won’t be shooting an entry for this one until around January 25th.
Since this is the “Second Annual” Louisiana Hot Sauce Video contest I thought I’d look up the winning video of the First Annual Louisiana Hot Sauce Video Contest. It turned out to be a not so super-great rap video. I read that more that 70 videos were submitted to last year’s contest but this video was deemed to be the best of them all. Judges make odd choices sometimes.
Doritos: One is too many and a million's not enough
Know what I’m doing right now? I am…honest to God, eating a bag of Doritos. I haven’t consciously bought a bag of Doritos in at least a year. And even then I’m sure I bought them to take to a party. I’m just not really a “chip” guy if you know what I mean. But here I am with orange fingers, crunching away.
So clearly Dorito’s Crash the Superbowl contest has been a tremendous success. In a survey I conducted with myself, 100% of participants indicate that since the announcement of the Dorito’s contest, their Doritos consumption has gone through the roof. (margin of error: +/- 100%)
I really want to shoot an entry for the Crash the Superbowl contest but I’ve got a bad case of filmmaker’s block. (that’s a thing, right?) So I thought I’d actually buy the kind of giant bag of Doritos you always see in commercials. The good news is that I’ve learned that eating like 30 Doritos for lunch is a pretty F#$%ing fun way to pass a Monday afternoon. The bad news is that all the ideas I’ve been coming up with are kind of weird and complicated. Right now I could shoot a really awesome short film or two about Doritos but I just have not been able to come up with a solid 30 second idea.
And the pressure to get shooting is building. There are now 35 DAYS left to submit an entry for the challenge and already 47 entries have been submitted. 47 entries! That’s more than a lot of video contests will get after 6 months. Who are these freaks that are submitting their commercials 5 weeks before the deadline!?
Click to see the first 'Crash' entries
Because I am crazy, I watched all 47 sentries over the last few days. The Verdict? There are some funny ideas but none of the videos have the necessary production quality to be shown on TV. That’s not really a huge surprise though. I’m guessing most of the people who will make the finals are in the middle of pre-production right now.
In the last week I’ve gotten a few facebook messages from friends about Home Run Inn Pizza’s “Halloween Video Contest.” This is happening because my friends all know that if there’s anything I love more than video contests it’s Pizza and Halloween
The idea for this contest is one of the best I’ve ever heard; make a horror film that includes a Home Run Inn Pizza. Now….take a second to think about that. You already have 3 great ideas you can film, don’t you? How about Night of the Living Pizzas!? Or Pizzaface the serial killer that wears a mask made of pizza!? Or maybe a giant Pizza the Hutt type pizza blob starts getting some payback for all the pizza we’ve been eating and starts eating people!?
It’s great to see a contest that actually has a unique concept and isn’t just “shoot a commercial for us so we don’t have to pay an ad firm to do it.” Even the contest website is one the absolute nicest I’ve ever seen; cool layout, easy to use and filled with cute monsters and pictures of delicious pizza.
No, how about I eat YOUR face!?
There is only one grand prize in this competition. First place will get you $2,500 but ten runners-up will each get 12 free pizzas (and Home Run Inn is like the best frozen pizza out there) and a flip video camera.
Even though there aren’t a bunch of big prizes, I was ready to start shooting just because I know me and my friends would have a ton of fun making a pizza-based horror film. I bet you would too. But don’t start charging up your camera battery yet. The way this contest is being run is screwed up that no one should even bother to enter.
Here’s how the winner is selected:
The submission period runs from 9/21/09 to 10/19/09
The submission period is also the voting period. Viewers cast a vote for their favorite video during this time.
At the end of the submission/voting period the 10 videos with the most votes become the finalists. Their scores are then reset.
“Round two” starts and runs until 10/26. During that time, viewers again vote for their favorite video.
Finally the video with the most votes, wins.
SCREW….THAT……NOISE. That sucks! Any contest that lets viewers pick the winners sucks already but this plan seems like it was designed to make sure a really crappy video winds up the winner.
Google "pizza zombie" and you'll get some strange results
The biggest problem is that voting is happening during the submission period. Right now, the video in First Place has 1,422 Votes! The deadline is still 20 days away but anyone who entered right at the start of the contest has a gigantic advantage over people who submit later. How is anyone who uploads a video today going to be able to catch up to 1,422 votes? And to make things worse, all you have to do to vote for a video is register your e-mail address. In the end, the winner will be whoever feels like registering the most accounts and voting for themselves over and over.
So this is a contest that you should stay a million miles away from because it will only break your heart. What a fricking bummer. You know what though? It’s a pretty effective marketing campaign. I seriously need some Home Run Inn Pizza now.
This site has only been up and running for a few weeks and even though I haven’t really done much to promote it we’ve started getting a small but growing stream of visitors. We’ve even heard from a few contest organizers which I think is a good sign.
VCN’s un-written policy is that if a contest organizer asks us to post about their contest, we’ll do it no mater how big or small the contest is. On that note, here’s some info for a contest called The Scariest stories Ever Told. The top prize is $500 plus some prizes and it sounds like a very, very easy contest to enter. All you have to do is sit in front of a camera and tell an original scary story. Scariest story wins!
Jawbone.tv is running a video contest to discover The Scariest Story Ever Told, and we’ve got more than a thousand bucks in cash and prizes to make it happen. Contest opens today (September 22, 2009) and runs through until October 22, 2009.
Today marks the official start of the 2010 Dorito’s Crash the Superbowl commercial contest. Until today, the site was locked but it is now open for business. New this year is a really interesting feature. There is a multi-chapter commercial tutorial hosted by the winners of last year’s competition, the Herbert Brothers. The videos are pretty funny but they are also chock-full of good advice about stuff like writing, production and copyright. The brothers even explain how the USA Today AD meter works and what kind of videos do well in it. Spoiler Altert: The entire AD meter rankings are decided by 300 subjects in two locations. Crazy. I plan on shooting a Doritos entry myself and I’ve been focusing all my attention on one single idea. But watching the video about the AD meter made me realize my idea would be kinda dark and would turn off too many viewers. (It would have been hilarious though!)
The tutorial videos are actually helpful for anyone interested in shooting entries for any type of video contest. So you might want to check them out even if you’re too chicken to shoot a Crash the Superbowl ad. DEADLINE TO ENTER THE DORITOS SUPERBOWL CONTEST IS NOVEMBER 9TH!
Doritos must be very, very VERY happy with the attention they got with their last “Crash the Superbowl” commercial contest because on Thursday the company announced that they would be raising the stakes for the 2010 competition. The 2009 installment of Crash the Superbowl was easily the biggest in the (short) history of video contests. The 2009 winners were a pair of brothers from Indiana and not only did they get to see their work air during the Superbowl, they received a one million dollar bonus when their ad was named the top commercial of the game in USA Today’s annual Superbowl Ad Meter.
It was huge news when the work of two dudes from Indiana beat out all the high priced ad agencies in the USA today poll. Doritos must have loved all that free publicity because this time they are challenging filmmakers to capture ALL THREE spots on the Ad Meter and as incentive they are offering more that 5 MILLION DOLLARS in possible prizes! Can you believe that shizz or what?!?! Here’s how it all breaks down:
-Doritos will select 6 finalists from all the ads that are submitted. Each finalist will be awarded $25,000.
-The public will vote on the finalists and 3 of the 6 will be selected to air during the 2010 Superbowl.
-If one of the videos ranks #1 on the Ad Meter it wins a $1,000,000.
-Ranking #2 on the Ad Meter wins that video $600,000.
-Ranking #3 is good for $400,000.
-And finally, if the Crash the Superbowl commercials rank numbers 1, 2 and 3 on the Ad Meter each video wins a one million dollar bonus.
So if you do the math that’s $5,150,00. That is just mind blowing. I think it’s a safe bet that this will be the most entered video contest ever. But it’s definitely not impossible to win. Check out the very great winning video that aired during the last Superbowl:
That commercial cracked me up when I first saw it. But not only is it funny, it was “TV ready.” What do I mean by that? I mean it didn’t look and sound like garbage! Apparently it was shot for $2,000. That’s astronomical for a video contest entry but any video that will be good enough for air will have to have some production value behind it. Here, check out the other 4 finalists from the last installment of Crash the Superbowl:
All of those have a professional feel to them. That means that if you shoot a video with your cell phone or if you don’t pay attention to lights and sound then you won’t make the final round no matter how funny your entry is. So while three thousand people might enter the contest only a small percentage will be serious contenders. That means that if you’re willing to invest some time and money you might just have a shot.
Of course, the winning video of the 2007 Doritos’ Superbowl contest literally had a budget of only 12 bucks so what do I know?
The contest officially starts accepting entries on September 21st so there’s plenty of time for you to write, shoot and edit your masterpiece. Here’s where the magic will happen: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/
I know what you’re thinking; “Video Contest News? WTF is this supposed to be? Aren’t there a ton of websites out there that list video contests already?” Well yes…yes there are. That’s why we ain’t doing that. You might find an occasional listing here but those will only be for contests that are begging to be entered and won by someone with a tiny sliver of talent. For the most part, this website will be dedicated to providing something that is lacking on the web; commentary and news about video contests.
These days it seems like every marketing guy and their momma is trying to entice us Joe Handycams into shooting ads for their company. 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!
But you’re a busy guy/gal/contest winning robot. There are roughly 103,628 (editor’s estimate) video contests open at any time so how are you supposed to stay on top of them all? How many times have you wondered what video eventually went on to win what contest? A million? And how many times have you wondered why the heck a contest was being run so crappily? A billion maybe!? Well wonder no more. Not only will we be posting results but we’ll also be digging up news about how and why video contests are being run the way they are. So you guys focus on winning ‘em and we’ll cover the aftermath of your glorious victories and/or pathetic defeats!
In the meantime, if you have some video contest news that you think we should be covering, drop us a line at VideoContestNews@gmail.com.
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.
