Here are  few other random things I want to mention:

If you’re here for Crash the SuperBowl info, we’ll be running a whole bunch of posts about the contest over the next 2 1/2 months. Next week we’ll even be featuring an interview with one of the 2011 CTSB finalists.  And of course, we’ll post the Top 5 videos (along with reviews and analysis) as soon as Doritos makes the results public.

Next I want to say Thanks to all the filmmakers out there that sent in the links to their Doritos entries.  I’ve decided to extend my “free mini-review offer” for a few more days.  So far, I’ve crtiqued more than 100 submissions and I am pretty sure that at least one or two of the videos I’ve seen will wind up making the finals.  If you’d still like to get a mini-review of your ad, please post the link in the comment section of this article:  videocontestnews.com/2011/11/21/we-want-to-see-your-crash-the-super-bowl-entries/

As I’ve mentioned, I’m trying to do the impossible this month.  I’m trying to watch at least a few seconds of every, single Crash the Super Bowl entry.  (By the way, there were just under 5,000 submissions this year.)  My goal is to compile a list of the 50 or so best submissions.  The list will be posted on December 14th.

If you’re a new reader, I just want to mention that Video Contest News is a year-round operation.  We run two or three posts a week about different contests.  If you’re having a problem with a contest, let us know!  Companies hate bad publicity and a single article about a crappy contest can sometimes inspire the sponsors to fix whatever has gone wrong.  Or hey, you can even let us know if you have some good news to report!  We post a lot of winning entries so if you’ve recently won a nice contest prize, I want to hear about it.  You can reach me here:  VideoContestNews@gmail.com.

Finally, if you like you can only stand to read 140 characters of video contest news at a time, follow us on twitter here.  This month we’ll be “following back” all of our new followers!

Brought to you by the US Dept. of Video Contests

I don’t know what’s changed but the amount of people who visit this website on a daily basis has just been going up and up all summer!  And that’s weird because usually the summer is VCN’s slowest time of the year.  But as far as traffic goes, July was our 3rd biggest month of 2011 and it looks like August’s numbers are going to crush July’s.  Maybe we moved up the google rankings a bit or maybe this is just another sign of how popular video contests in general are getting.  But I think one thing that’s happening is that the number of “regular readers” we get really shot up this year.  So if you’re one of those people who have us bookmarked and who check the site every week (or even every day!) thank you for your support!

We’re now getting so much traffic that I feel like I’m not really keeping up with the demand for new content.  This used to be a “2 posts a week” type of blog.  But lately I’ve been trying to do 3 posts a week.  For future reference, new posts will usually go up on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  Because VCN will be doing more posts per week, I’ve decided that it might be cool if I let someone else stand on my soapbox every once in a while.

So for the first time ever, Video Contest News will be accepting submissions for “Guest Blog Posts.”  If you care about video contests enough to read this blog, you probably have some strong thoughts and opinions about this growing micro-genre of filmmaking.  I’ll consider all types of articles as long as what you write is true and won’t get me sued.  So if you want to brag about your latest big win or if you want to share your secret strategies or if you just want to bitch about some crappy contest where you got screwed over somehow, let me know.  Hell…I might even let you plug your contest-related website or post a vote requests if those plugs and requests are part of an article that someone would actually want to read.

I’m kind of psyched about this idea and I’m looking forward to hearing what you folks have to say.  I think adding other voices to this site will give it a little more depth and variety, if you know what I mean.  For now, my plan is to ease into this and run just 2 guest posts a month.  But if things work out, I might start running a guest blog every wednesday.  So if you have an idea for a guest post, e-mail me your suggestion:  VideoContestNews@gmail.com.  Thanks!

I'm going to giant Las Vegas and putting all this on Red.

You know what’s really funny about that check?  It has a check number on it; number 508.  I have to wonder, does Royal Purple have a giant, novelty check book?  And did 507 other giant checks get issued before I recived this one?

By the way, if you’re interested, here’s the video that won the contest for me.

Are you back?  Good.  If you allowed the app you can now watch the entries.  To view a video, click on the image.  I’ll post the videos that were shot by long-time VCN readers first because I love them the most.

Now, I also entered this contest but because I’m classy I’ll post my own video last.  It just got approved on Friday and thanks to the holiday weekend I’m way behind on views.  So if you can spare a click, let me have it!

If anyone else who entered the Gain contest would like their entry posted here, just send me an e-mail and VideoContestNews@gmail.com and I’ll add it to this post.

]]> http://videocontestnews.com/2011/07/05/check-out-these-sweet-gain-entries/feed/ 6 http://videocontestnews.com/2011/06/17/purplebot-for-the-win/ http://videocontestnews.com/2011/06/17/purplebot-for-the-win/#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2011 20:23:22 +0000 Beardy http://videocontestnews.com/?p=5678

Video “assignments” that are run on websites like Poptent, Tongal and Zooppa are great because the sponsors often use the purchased/winning submissions as actual pieces of advertising.  But personally I still love straight up, old school video contests.  (By “old school” I mean the kind of contests companies were running all of 2 years ago.)  I’m talking about the type of thing where a company runs a contest kind of just for fun and invites their fans and customers to submit videos.  When people aren’t worried about creating brand-appropriate commercials they’re free to go crazy and do some really goofy stuff.  Case in point, Royal Purple’s Reel Wars video contest. RP got some really off-the-wall submissions for this one. I especially liked this video that made the finals. I figured a beautiful russian girl + a cool car + a baby duck would = a win. But Here’s the video that came out on top:

Grand Prize Winner.  Prize: $5,000.

Boosh! Yep, that was my entry and man and I happy to be the winner. Royal Purple really ran a great contest. Even though they got more than 40 entries, RP promised to give every contestant a case of Royal Purple motor oil or a $100 worth of merchandise from their online store. That is a really classy move. It shows contestants that you actually appreciate the time and effort they put into making their entries. And Royal Purple even said they want to set up an interview with me and one of the judges where he’ll present me with a giant novelty check. No joke: Receiving a giant novelty check is one of my Life Goals! So I guess I can cross that particular item the bucket list.

Well, I’m going to do some celebrating this weekend, that’s for sure. Have a happy Friday everybody. But heads up…be sure to check back here early next week. We’re going to be announcing a MAJOR piece of video contest news in a few days. I can’t talk about it yet because I’m under a press embargo. (My second this week!) But I will tell you this, it’s a really SUPER piece of news. I’m not sure yet when the embargo will be lifted but it should be Wednesday at the latest.

To vote, all you gotta do is follow this link:  Success-yearbook/Profile/Dlamx76

Then click the vote button and fill in the Captcha that pops up.  That’s it!

Look! It's Beardy with and without a beard!! Click the image to vote!

For this contest, I had to create a video describing a college “success story.”  Basically you’re supposed to explain how going to college helped you succeed in life.  But I thought I’d swing for the fences and do a Top 10 list of ways college made my life better.  I would absolutely lose my mind (with happiness) if I won this contest.  The prize is up to $10,000 to pay off the winner’s student loans.  I’ll tell you, if I could obliterate my student loan by winning this contest it would be one of the sweetest victories of my life.  So please, help a guy out and cast your vote before time runs out.  THANKS!!