Click to view and vote!

One of the things I like best about filmmaking is that sometimes you have to plan a shoot and just hope that you get lucky and something crazy/amazing/perfect happens while the camera is rolling.  Last sunday I was shooting an entry for a contest about globalization when I had one of the luckiest breaks I’ve ever had while filming.  My entry is a Top 10 list of “fun facts” about doing business with people in different parts of the world.  The sponsor is a company that helps other companies work “globally” so each fact was actually related to an issue the sponsor can help with.   Last Sunday was the annual Chinese New Year parade in Chicago so I decided one of my facts could be about how people in different countries celebrate different holidays.  A friend and I went to the parade and the plan was that I would say my line as the parade went past.  But the parade sucked this year!  I’ve been to it before and it used to be a lot more fun.  There were almost no floats or dragons and it was insanely crowded.  So the parade ended and we were never able to get the shot.

I was really bummed and I didn’t know what to do.  So I told my friend we should just stick around for a while and maybe we’d get lucky.  And we did!  We just happened to meet a guy who was a “lion” in the parade.  (They look like dragons but they’re called lions.)  He was letting people take pictures with him and well, he let me do something pretty ridiculous.  I got to wear the freaking lion head!

Anyway, I’m pretty happy with how the video turned out and I think I have a real shot at winning.  But first, I have to get enough votes to make the top 20.  There are only like 36 submissions so I’m really hoping I can make the finals.  The grand prize is $15,000!  If you’d like to help me out, I would really appreciate a vote.  To vote, all you have to do is click on the facebook “like” button while logged into your facebook account.  And that’s it!  You don’t have to “like” a page or allow any apps.  And if you have a twitter or Google + account you can cast votes using those to.

Thanks for the support everybody!  To view my video and to cast a vote, CLICK HERE.

I was watching the Today Show this morning and they were interviewing Michelle Williams when my mouth dropped to the floor.  Just look in the background of the photo I attached to see what I mean.  And no, there was nothing on the show program today that even mentions CTSB.

And here’s the photo he sent me:

Screen shot of the Today Show

Sling Baby is of course one of the five Crash the Super Bowl finalists.  That stunt was funny but I’m not sure that type of thing will generate a lot of votes.  So anyway, who will win?  Damned if I know.  But I’m predicting HOT WILD GIRLS will wind up receiving the most votes.  Why?  Because its title is “Hot Wild Girls!!”  Imagine you were a random guy who didn’t enter the CTSB contest.  But you saw an ad online and you decided to to cast a quick vote so you could have a shot at winning one of the Voter Prizes.  Which of these 5 ads would you want to click on?

Just from the titles and the thumbnails you can tell that two commercials are about dogs and one is about a baby.  “Bird of Prey” just looks like it’s about some guys in an office.  So I think most people (both men and women) would click on Hot Wild Girls just out of curiosity.  And if you don’t care much about who wins, you’re just going to vote for the first video you watch.

Final predictions:  Doritos is scheduled to air 2 commercials on Sunday but I bet they’ll air three.  I think Hot Wild Girls will get the most votes and I think Fritolay’s picks will be Bird of Prey and Man’s Best friend.  That’s a nice mix; you get one ad about a hilariously giant dog, you get one about a crazy bird man and you get one that’s about technology….and rottweilers.  The other two ads, Sling Baby and Dog Park are getting crushed in the unofficial view count race on the CTSB youtube channel.  So I think Doritos will have to go with the most popular, most exciting ads.  But I don’t think any CTSB ads are going to land in the Top 3 on the USA Today ad meter.  A lot of this year’s Superbowl ads have already been made public and the competition is looking very, very tough.  Seriously….have you seen Volkswagen’s official Super Bowl commercial??  Holy shit!  Not only does it have a dog, it has Hammerhead and Ponda Baba from the original star wars!  If you haven’t seen it, head here to check it out.  And man, don’t even get me started on that Ferris Bueller ad.  If a CTSB entry lands in the Top 3 this year it will really be an amazing accomplishment.

Quick Note:  We’ve got a big post in the works so check back tomorrow for some very interesting inside information about the Crash the Super Bowl contest.  Quick Update:  Actually, I’m going to wait to post that story until after the Super Bowl.  More details coming soon!

The entry went on to be featured on the front page of Yahoo, CBS This Morning, NBCsports.com, Mashable and a ton of other websites.  But things really got crazy when Make Your Own appeared on the front page of Reddit.  After that the video just went fully viral.  Today, Make Your Own has recived 2,378,000 views on youtube.  Here are the current stats for the five videos that actually did win the contest this year:
 

Man’s Best Friend:  199,903 views

Hot Wild Girls:  199,966 views

Bird of Prey: 200,486 views

Dog Park: 128,736 views

Sling Baby:  112,536 views

Combined total views:  841,627

 
So Make Your Own has a view count almost three times larger than all the finalist ads combined!  That is simply an amazing accomplishment and it’s certainly no fluke.  This is an awesome submission and I think it would have made a kick-ass finalist.  The hilarious dude playing the host is named Byron Brown.  The concept is great but I think it’s the Brown’s performance that added just a bit of insane magic to this ad.  The guys who actually made this entry are three friends from Austin TX; David Ward, Jack Dreesen and John Ramsey.  This is their third year entering the Crash the Super Bowl contest and this time around they shot 3 (very good) submissions.  You can seen all their various entries on Ward’s youtube channel.  Oh wait a second….as I’m writing this I just noticed these guys created one of my favorite Doritos submissions of last year’s contest!
 

 
Back to Make Your Own; because the ad has become so popular, the producers have been asking fans to tweet at Doritos and ask them to “reconsider” their entry.  Obviously it’s way too late for this ad to become a finalist but Doritos does love to pull surprises on Super Bowl night.  I think it would be freaking amazing if they actually decided to run this spot; if not during the superbowl then maybe at some later date.  After all, I think Doritos really owes these guys.  Look at all the free advertising they got out of this one entry that didn’t win a dime!  If Fritolay were paying one cent per view, they would owe the producers of Make Your Own more than $23,500!  if you’d like to join the campaign to get Doritos to air this ad, click here: http://clicktotweet.com/dlO2L

Now that I think about it, this commercial might actually have a decent shot of scoring well on the USA Today ad meter.  It’s very likable and the comedy keeps building and building so I bet it will get a really high score.  Wouldn’t it be funny if this consumer-made spot beat out all of Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl ads??

Besides the top winner, Chevy gave out a ton of prizes to finalists in different regions of the globe.  Actually, they wound up awarding even more prizes than promised.  You can see the full list of winners on Mofilm’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MOFILM

The phrase "Most Notable" wouldn't fit on the banner so I went with "Best"

Back in December I was planning on doing an article about the “Best Video Contest Entries of 2011.”  I did one in both 2010 and 2009 but I never got around to doing the 2011 list.  The thing is, 2011 wasn’t really a kick ass year for “consumer generated content.” There just weren’t many big stand outs.  So I figured that before we get any deeper into 2012 I’d just do a quick run down of the best video contest entries of the past year.  But here’s the thing; these entries aren’t really “the best.”  Anyone who has entered even a single video contest knows that the “best” entries don’t always win.  So let’s say that these are the most notable contest entries of 2011.  Basically this will be a list of the biggest winners of the past year.

In February, the Crash the Super Bowl finalist Pug Attack aired during the Super Bowl and scored the Million Dollar ad meter bonus.  But you know, I never really liked Pug Attack since it was just kind of a re-do of the CTSB winning ad, Underdog. One CTSB spot I did like though was the Pepsi Max commercial, Love Hurts.  That ad also aired during the game and won a $400,000 ad meter bonus.

The spring of 2011 was a very good time for a Lexington, KY man named Walt Arnett.  In March his “Cash America rap” won first place and $10,000 on Cash America’s Cash Rap video contest.  In May this video won him 1 of the 6 Mini Coopers that Dairy Queen gave away in their Mini Blizzard Treatment video contest.  And then just a week or so later his entry won the $150,000 grand prize in Excedrin’s What’s Your Headache video contest.  Interesting note: All three of these contests used facebook votes to determine the winners.

During the summer, Gain detergent awarded a million dollars to this video in their Smell Like a Million Bucks video contest.  The winner of that contest was determined by a public vote so of course the winning entry wasn’t that great.

And….that’s it.  Those were all the big contests on 2011.  It used to be that there were several big video contests a year where the grand prize would be at least $25,000.  And as far as I can remember, there weren’t any “make our TV commercial” contests last year either.  I guess that sites like Poptent, Tongal and Mofilm have made those kind of big contests unnecessary. But a few contest entries did make it onto TV in 2011.  In November, Triaminc started airing a Poptent-made ad entitled 102.  And this cool Mofilm-made ad, “Chevy Runs Deep” actually aired during the MLB AllStar game.

Now that I mention it, Mofilm ran a ton of huge video contests in 2011.  Each contest was based around a different film festival or arts event and each competition had an over all winner.  You can see all of the top Mofilm winners of 2011 in this convenient youtube playlist:  http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL42175AE837CCDF68

Finally, I think I’ll close out this list by naming VCN’s pick for The Best Video Contest Entry of 2011.  This was an easy call.  Top honors go to “Duct Tron” which won first place and $4,750 (?) in Tongal’s Stuck on Duct Tape competition.  Not only is it an amazing on a technical level, it actually has a hilarious surprise ending.  This ad wound up going viral and recived a crazy amount of love from the Internet.  Watch it and you will understand why.
 

 
If I missed any big 2011 contest entries leave a comment and let me know!

Way to go, dork!

I did it! I finally freaking did it! I accomplished one of my personal “video contest goals!” I won….an iPad!! Can you believe it? If you’re a frequent video contest-entrant you already know that like half the contests on the web offer iPads as prizes. I’m guessing it’s because they’re a coveted and cool piece of technology that costs under $1,000. Somehow I knew I’d eventually win one of these things and I finally did it! The iPad 2 is part of my prize for coming in first in my category in Randstad’s “Inspiring Experts” video contest. Oh….and the other part of my prize is $10,000.

Ok, technically I don’t get to pocket the whole ten grand. I get 5K and the iPad and another 5K goes to the charity of my choice. I’m excited about the cash but in a weird way, I’m more excited about the money I get to donate. Yo, I feel like friggin’ Bill and Melinda Gates over here! I try and donate to a few charities whenever I can but I can never afford to give more than a few hundred dollars a year. So having the power to donate $5,000 to any cause I want is a rush. I’ve been thinking about this for days and I’m having a really hard time picking just one organization. My friends on facebook sent me some really great suggestions but I wanted to really do something huge with the money. I wanted to….you know….alleviate some human suffering with the cash.

This is totally amazing! I won first place in a video contest that was run by a company named Randstad and as part of my prize, the sponsor will donate $5,000 to the charity of my choice.  Yo, I feel like friggin’ Bill and Melinda Gates over here!  I try and donate to a few charities whenever I can but I can never afford to give more than a few hundred dollars a year.  So having the power to donate $5,000 to any cause I want is a rush.  I’ve been thinking about this for days and I’m having a really hard time picking just one organization.   My friends on facebook sent me some really great suggestions but I wanted to really do something huge with the money.   I wanted to….you know….alleviate some human suffering with the cash.

So I’ve decided to donate the whole nut to a group called Charity: Water.  The group’s mission?  “To bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.”  Water is the most basic of human needs.  If you don’t have water, nothing else matters.  There are a lot of water-related charities but one thing really makes Charity: Water special.  Here’s a quote from their website:

When we started charity: water, we made a bold promise to the general public — 100% of all their donations would always go directly to water project costs. Even the credit card fees from your donation today are taken care of, so a true 100% goes to people in need. Private donors, foundations and sponsors cover our operating costs; everything from staff salaries to basic office systems to office rent and supplies. This allows us to continue using 100% of public donations for water projects.

Is that an ingenious idea or what?  I think a lot of people are hesitant to donate to charities because they figure most of the money will be spent on salaries and other bureaucratic stuff. So finding a few millionaires to cover all the operating costs will make average joes like me feel like this group delivers the biggest bang for our charitable buck.

The thing that really sealed the deal for me though is that a donation of $20 gives one person in the developing world access to clean water.  And a single donation of $5,000 can fund an entire, large-scale water project for an entire village!  It takes 18 months to complete one of these big projects but apparently, people who fund an entire well get updates and photos of of how the project is progressing.  I haven’t really gotten into the final details of this with Randstad yet but hopefully they’ll be able to keep me in the loop as far as the updates go.

Randstad ran an amazing contest and they gave out a ton of prizes.  A bunch of other winners also get to send money to charity.  You can see all of the winning videos here:  http://www.inspiringexperts.com/videogallery  Rather than post my own entry, I thought I’d instead use this space to post a video or two explaining how Charity: Water works.  They’re a really awesome organization and there are a lot of thirsty people in the word.  So if you ever win a nice, big, fat contest prize and want to share the wealth, this is a very worthy cause:

More info at http://www.charitywater.org