Posts Tagged ‘$5000’

Think Fed-Ex first when shipping body parts

The “Think Fed-ex first” assignment over at Poptent.net closed last week when the brand purchased three user-created ads for $5,000 a piece.  All three ads are pretty good but this one is just genius:

Purchased by Fed-Ex. Price: $5,000

That right there was more memorable than any commercial I saw on TV all week. One reason I really like spec ads and video contest stuff is because you never know what you’re going to get. That’s probably why so many marketing people like contests too. Would a big money ad agency ever have the nerve to pitch a spot to Fed-Ex called “Human Head?” This seems like the kind of idea that a bunch of pros would joke about and then shove in a file because the client might think it was too dark. But when you shoot a project on spec you’re feel to do whatever the hell you want because you have nothing to lose. 99 out of 100 times, the results are a mess and the creator misses the mark. But when off the wall ideas actually work, the client winds up with something far more interesting than the average old commercial.

You can see see the other two purchased ads over on the Poptent blog. The one with the Teddy Bear is especially amusing.

Louisiana Hot Sauce winners

hotsauce

The deadline for the Louisiana Hot Sauce video contest was on my calendar for probably 3 months but I never got around to shooting an entry.  Probably for the best since the winners were announced yesterday and I don’t think I could have topped two of them.  The second place winner is just ok but the first and third place winning videos are great.  I’ll post all three below.

The best video contest entries are those that include a quick moment of magic that makes the viewer want to watch the video again as soon as it’s over.  As I was watching the first place winner I was thinking “oh this is neat, and it’s making me hungry…very effective…I can see….whoa!….HOW DID THEY DO THAT!?!”  Watch the first place winner and you’ll know the “whoa!” moment as soon as it happens.   Very nice work.

First place.  Prize: $5,000

Second Place.  Prize:  $2,500

Third Place.  Prize:  $500

Special congratulations to friend of VCN, Danny Winn for taking third place.  That song is good enough to be Louisiana Hot Sauce’s actual jingle!

Looks like Louisiana Hot Sauce got around 80 entries for this contest.  That’s a pretty good number for a contest of this size.  If you’re interested, you can see all the other entries on the company’s youtube channel.

Snickers and Bounce results

If there’s one thing I love, it’s candy. And I’d say my 5th favorite candy bar out there is the Snickers bar. Two weeks ago I would have ranked it my 7th favorite candy bar (after Hershey’s Symphony bar but before the Heath bar) but Snickers earned itself a bump in my candy ranking last week when they purchased $15,000 worth of commercials (3) that were made by Poptent users. Here’s my favorite of the three selected ads:

Purchased by Snickers. Price: $5,000

Heh heh. Nice. And if you read the “creative brief” that Snickers worked up for this assignment, you’ll see that the team who made the above video really nailed the “guys being guys” theme Snickers was looking for. You can see the other two ads that Snickers purchased for $5K a piece here.

But that ain’t all. Last week, Bounce also bought $10,000 worth of ads for their Bounce Dryer bars (2) created by Poptent users. The deadline for the Snickers assignment was in December but the Bounce deadline was way back in September. Man, what the heck took them so long to pick 2 videos? That procrastination is one reason the Bounce Dryer bar doesn’t even crack my top 10 favorite candy bars. Also, they taste like lint. Here’s one of the selected Bounce ads:

Purchased by Bounce. Price: $5,000

You can see the other ad that Bounce purchased for $5K as well as several amusing editor’s choice winners here.

Ripe for the plucking: Lending Tree Contest

lendingtree

Lending Tree is running a video contest to promote its new “You to the rescue” campaign on the contest site, Tongal.  The top prize in this one is 5 grand and you don’t even need to come up with your own idea!  Five approved concepts have already been posted and are just waiting for people to film them.  The deadline was originally supposed to be a few days ago but even though 20 entries had already been recived, the contest deadline was extended until Monday, November 2nd.

That might mean that none of the 20 submitted entries are good enough to take the top prize.  So you have three days to swoop in and win this one!  Cancel your Halloween party and get filming.

2nd Annual Louisiana Hot Sauce Video Contest

hotsauce

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.

  • Having Contest Problems?

  • 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.
  • Posts of the Past

  • Designed by: Free Cell Phones | Thanks to Highest CD Rates, Domain Registration and Registry Software