Yep, even ear plug companies are running video contests these days! Hearos brand ear plugs announced the winners of their “Pretty in Pink” video contest on wednesday and all of the selected videos are pretty decent. Here’s the entry that took the top prize, Caution, it’s kind of loud.

Grand Prize Winner. Prize: $5,000

Once again, a video featuring white people rapping comes out on top.  The submissions that took 2nd place ($1,500) and 3rd Place ($750) are actually pretty slick and worth checking out.  But the entry I really want to spotlight is the one that came in 5th.  What you are about to see is one of the most elaborate video contest entries ever made.  It’s not especially hilarious or anything but trust me, this shit is bananas.

5th Place Winner.  Prize: An ipad.

Is that a fucking masterpiece or what!!?  I’m sure they recycled some actors but by my sloppy count, I saw about 80 different people in that video!  I’m guessing these guys threw a filming party and invited everyone they knew to act as crazed extras.  But I know a lot of people and it’d still be nearly impossible for me to get 30 of my friends in one place on the same afternoon.  And the action everyone was doing was just ingenious.  Did you notice the guy at the very end who was about to repel off the balcony?

Now… think of all the work and trouble and expense that went into that video and now imagine how the filmmakers and their friends must have felt when they found out that all they had won was a $500 ipad.  That prize is an insult for a video like that!  So why didn’t this video at least win one of the top cash prizes?  I’m guessing they got the boobie prize because they made one giant mistake.  They used (what I assume to be) copyrighted music and sound effects.  The rules of the hearos contest specifically prohibited “music, image and/or artwork that you did not create.” These folks seem like a talented bunch but there is no way they produced the angelic music heard during the second half of the video.  It had to have been pulled from a movie soundtrack or something.  So let this be a lesson to all of you!  No matter how awesome your video is, contest judges can’t pick it if it breaks the rules and uses content that other people own the rights to.

2/20 UPDATE: That elaborate party-themed entry was created by a film group called Team Awesome Seattle.  They have credits for their video on youtube and they list 38 actors.  So I guess they used everyone more than once but 38 actors in one video is pretty impressive.  It looks like the group has shot a lot of video contest entries in the last year.  If you’re interested, you can see more of their work here.

First Place Winner.  Prize:  $5,000:

click to view

Caution:  Viewing this video may result in you having the “Chicken is my Best Friend” song stuck in your head for a few days.

1/10 UPDATE: An eagle-eyed reader posted a comment saying that he thought that the guy in the video might also be the guy who just won $20,000 in the AT&T Simplify Your Life contest. I checked and it definitely is him. And his AT&T video might be even more ingenious than his I Love Chicken Video. Here it is.

AT&T Simplify Your Life, Grand Prize Winner. Prize: $20,000:

That dude is on fire. Bigtime congratulations to him.

I think I must be slipping. I never even heard of the AT&T Simplify Your Life contest. There were a bunch of other winners and you can see them all here: http://simplify.att.com/awards

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.

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.

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.

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 2^nd.

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.