A long overdue congratulations goes out to VCN reader Tim Oliphant and his wife for making it to the finals in the Ultimate Job in Ireland video contest.  Back in February, Tim won first place in the Louisiana Hot Sauce video contest with an especially good entry, so he seems to be on quite a roll.  Here’s the official description of the “Ultimate Job” contest:

“To celebrate the launch of Ireland’s most exciting destination wedding and honeymoon website, The Irish Times have teamed up with Runaway Bride and Groom to find the right candidate to do 6 months of research… researching the most romantic and ultimate wedding and honeymoon venues around the world – with their partner.

They are looking for the right person (and their partner) to research and test out the most romantic and ultimate wedding and honeymoon destinations all over the world and then report back with their verdict (on the place, not the partner!) to their boss, 4,000 miles away.”

For making it the finals, Tim and his wife got to travel to Ireland to compete against 9 other couple in a series of challenges to determine the winners of the big “job.”  Another couple wound up winning the grand prize but a free trip for 2 to Ireland is a pretty sweet consolation prize.  Here’s the video that got Tim and his wife to the finals:

Ultimate Job in Ireland Finalist.  Prize: Trip to Ireland.

And here are the folks who won the whole thing.  Remember, the tasks they had to perform in Ireland are what won them the grand prize.  This video is just what got them into the top ten.

Ultimate Job in Ireland Winners.  Prize: 6 months of travel and 20,000 Euros.

Wow, I just read that they shot that with a camera phone!  They just posted their first official video blog and it looks like the sponsors gave them an actual video camera to work with from here on out.

Ok, color me impressed. The deadline to submit to the Pillsbury “Crescent meals” commercial contest was May 10th. But all four winning entries were announced on the contest site, Zooppa.com just one week later. One…week…later.

Anyone who’s entered a video contest before understands why that’s amazing. Video contest results usually take for-freaking-ever to be announced! I’m still waiting to hear about one contest I entered that had a submission deadline in mid-March. That lightning fast Pillsbury announcement becomes even more impressive when you consider that Zooppa received 84 entries for this competition. Sure, each video was only 15 seconds long but that’s still a ton of videos to go through. And Pillsbury actually plans to air the first place video on TV so they couldn’t have made their decision lightly. I saw something on the Zooppa message board that seemed to indicate that most of their contest results are posted really, really soon after their deadlines pass.  One of the most frustrating things about video contests is that we filmmakers are expected to deliver our work by a pre-designated deadline but sponsors usually have no obligation to announce results by a specific date. If I’m going to lose a contest, I’d like to know as soon as possible. Finding out that you lost a contest after 2 months of waiting and wondering and hoping really, really sucks so it’s nice to see a contest site that makes fast results announcements a priority.

Here’s the ad that won the Pillsbury contest. The rules for this one were tight. Each video could only be 15 seconds long and the ad had to show “mom as a character” and include shots of “Pillsbury crescent dogs.” The winning ad is pretty good so I think the quality of this video might have made the decision easy for Pillsbury:

First Place. Prize: $10,000 and ad will air on TV

$5,000 in other prizes were given to 3 runners up. You can see all the winners here:

http://blog.zooppa.com/2010/05/17/pillsbury-winners-cherrish-tomorrow-2/

After winning the biggest video contest in the world, there’s no place to go but down.  So I got the impression from interviews (including the one I did myself with the brothers) that Joe and Dave Herbert were going to take themselves out of competition for good.  But even after  you’ve won a million bucks, 100 grand is hard to resist.  So the brothers are back with an entry in the Godaddy contest.  Here it is:

That’s pretty funny and super professional.  I was shocked at first because for the first 10 second or so I assumed the bearded guy in a white suit was Jesus partying down in a club in heaven.  (that’s actually how I prefer to picture Jesus)  If Godaddy thought their ads were controversial before, partying-Jesus would teach them what real controversy was like.  But the castaway twist was a nice surprise.  The bearded guy did an especially nice acting job too.  I hope he got to keep the suit because that look was really working for him.

If you’d like to vote for the Herbert bros’ ad, click here and give them stars: http://bit.ly/92snxn

In the Doritos Skybox. From left to right: Kyle Gerardi, Nick Dimondi, Joshua Svoboda, Barrett Phillips. Not Pictured (others involved in the commercials) Wes Phillips, Dale Backus (Producers) Brian Oliver and Rosie the dog (Actors in Underdog) and Wayne Phillips (the old man Kids These Days).

Though four consumer-made Doritos commercials aired during the Superbowl back in February, the big winner of this year’s Crash the Superbowl contest were a group of friends from North Carolina who operate under the banner, 5 Point Productions. Last December, that small team of independent filmmakers learned that both entries they shot for the 2009/2010 installment of the contest made it to the finals.  When you consider that Doritos received more than 4,000 submissions this year and only picked 6 finalist videos, getting 2 of the 6 top spots is really an incredible achievement.

And if you aren’t impressed enough yet, here’s another amazing fact;  The 5 Point Productions team also WON the Crash the Superbowl contest the first year it ran in 2006/2007.

When I first heard that one team had gotten two commercials into Doritos’ “Top 6” I was stunned.  And when I realized that these guys were the same filmmakers that won the first CTSB contest I was almost ready to start screaming “shenanigans!”  But before I could even develop a decent conspiracy theory, I got a message from one of the producers of the two 5 Point entries (entitled “Kids These Days” and “Underdog”) and he explained that Doritos had no idea that the two entries were made by the same team.  It‘s easy to believe it was all just a coincidence because both of the team’s entries are just that good!  “Underdog” was actually my favorite entry even before the finalists were announced and I thought it would have a very good chance of scoring big on the USA Today ad meter.  Turns out I was right. “Underdog” went on to be one of the four finalist videos to air during the superbowl and was ranked the #2 best commercial of the game on the USA Today Ad Meter.  That feat earned the team a bonus of $600,000 from Doritos.

When you ball all that good news together you know what you get?  The greatest set of accomplishments in video contest history, that’s what.  Sure, the Herbert Brothers landed the #1 spot on the USA Today ad meter and earned a million dollar bonus last year for their CTSB entry, “Free Doritos” but I think the combined achievements of the 5 Point Productions team top that easily.  For God’s sake, they won 2 out of the 3 years the contest has been run!  That’s amazing.  I was really interested in hearing some behind the scenes details about this whole thing and one of the producers of “Underdog” and “Kids these Days,” Kyle Girardi offered to answer a few questions.  Before we get into his answers, here are his team’s Crash the Superbowl spots:

The above is the 5 Point Team’s entry for the 2006/2007 Crash the Superbowl contest, “Live the Flavor.”  This commercial went on to be the CTSB winner and aired during the game in ‘07.  This was for the first installment of the contest and back then, the prize for making it to the finals was $10,000 and there were no bonuses to be won if your ad made it to air.

Here’s the team’s 2009/2010 entry “Kids These Days.”  This spot was selected by Doritos as one of this year’s 6 finalists.  The prize for being a finalist is $25,000.

Finally, here’s the team’s other 2009/2010 entry, “Underdog.”  This commercial ALSO made it to the finals and so they recived an additional $25,000 finalist prize.  On top of that of course, they also recived a $600,000 bonus for scoring so well on the ad meter.  “Underdog” was the only Doritos commercial to crack the Top 10 on the ad meter on Superbowl sunday.

Now that you’re caught up, let’s get on with the interview!

————————————-

VCN: So who and what is 5 Point Productions?

KYLE:  That’s kind of a tough one. 5 Point was started in 2007 when they made the first Doritos ad. Josh Svoboda and I weren’t part of the team at that time, but we were good friends with most of them from middle school. Its only been about a year that he and I have really been an active part of the 5 Point team. As for 5 Point’s future: “Underdog” and “Kids These Days” might be the last you see of 5 Point, we’re gonna try and take a few jobs if we need them, but right now the main focus is on a short film.

VCN:  What kind of gear did you use to shoot “Underdog” and “Kids These Days?” Do you own your gear?

KYLE:  We used the Canon 5D Mark II to shoot both commercials. It’s a pretty inexpensive camera that shoots incredible HD footage, so we had to get one.

VCN:  I was amazed when I found out that one team of filmmakers had gotten two entries in the finals this year and I was totally blown away when I found out that you guys were the winners of the 2007 contest. Did Doritos know “Underdog” and “Kids These Days” were by you guys? If not, how did they react when they found out?

KYLE:  No, they didn’t know at first. We put different names and addresses on the commercials just in case they liked them both. We couldn’t believe for the longest time that both were finalist, we thought some sorry son of a bitch was playing a joke on us.

VCN:  Did anyone ever worry that it might look kind of suspicious that the 2007 winners did so well again this year? Do you think Doritos would have picked both your videos if they knew who made them?

KYLE:  I think so. Josh’s name was on Underdog and he had no connection with the competition in 2007 whatsoever. However, “Kids These Days” had the name of one the people involved in the 2007 commercial, but I like to think they just picked it because they thought it was a great spot.

VCN:  A few days before the Superbowl, CBS aired a TV special about Superbowl commercials and they aired “Kids these Days” and said it was one of the ads that were going to play on Sunday. It of course didn’t air though. Did you guys get a ton of calls from people telling you your ad was going to air? Do you know how or why that happened?

KYLE:  I don’t know what that was about, but our phones were ringing off the hook. I tried not to pay much attention to it, but I figured if CBS was airing the Super Bowl they knew what commercials that were going to play… It kind of killed my buzz. I always had a lot more faith in Underdog, truth be told.

VCN:  “Underdog” was the first CTSB winner of the night to air. Was there a special reason for that?

KYLE:  Probably because I was being a little weirdo during the Super Bowl. I think they just called CBS and told them to play it first so I would calm the hell down. It’s torture not knowing if your commercial is gonna air or not, and I had no idea I’d handle pressure so terribly. My heart was about to pound out of my chest during every commercial break. If it weren’t for the 2 Xanax I took before the game I most likely would have had a heart attack.

VCN:  Do you guys know how your videos did in the online voting? Do you know if you made the top three or do you think that “Underdog” might have been Dortio’s choice as the bonus ad?

KYLE:  I’m not going to say how I know, but I know for a fact we had enough votes to make top 3.

VCN:  How did you guys find out you won 2nd place on the ad meter? How’d you celebrate?

KYLE:  It was actually Dave Herbert who told us at first, he had his cell phone on him and was surfing the web. It wasn’t really set in stone until Rudy Wilson (CEO Doritos) got up in front of everyone on the bus ride back to the hotel and said “I’m out $600 grand, because Underdog got 2nd place.”

I remember the feeling that came over me, the first thing that popped in my head was “I can finally make a movie.” I can’t think of a happier moment in my life. That night we didn’t really celebrate that much. We had a few beers and got to say goodbye to everyone… It was really sad leaving those guys, all the other finalists are amazing people. Believe it or not I was hoping to see Snack Attack or Smackout play in the 4th spot over “Kids These Days.”

VCN:  You obviously spent a lot of time with the Crash the Superbowl folks. Did you get the impression that they will bring the contest back this fall?

KYLE:  I think they will. It looked like they got just as big a rush out of it as we did.

VCN:  What do you guys plan to do now?

KYLE:  We got some attention from the commercials, so we’re gonna try and make some extra dough. Within the next month or so I’d also like to get rolling on a short film.

VCN:  If the CTSB contest comes back, would you guys be up for replacing the Herbert Brothers as the “Kings of the Crash” and being the contest’s spokesmen? (I think that’d be great and I hope that’s what happens)

KYLE:  Certainly not me personally. I’m way to ugly to be in front of the camera.

VCN:  You guys certainly seem to have figured out the recipe for success in this particular contest. Have any advise for aspiring Crash the Superbowl contestants?

KYLE:  I guess just don’t be too hard on yourself. Before I knew we were finalists I was convinced that “Underdog” and “Kids These Days” were the two biggest piles of shit on the planet. I couldn’t believe Doritos picked them. Sorry, I know “believe in yourself” sounds lame.

VCN:  Thanks a ton to Kyle for taking the time to answer our questions and congratulations to all of his teammates!

]]> http://videocontestnews.com/2010/03/15/vcn-interview-with-crash-the-superbowl-co-winner-kyle-gerardi/feed/ 2 http://videocontestnews.com/2010/02/07/crash-the-super-bowl-winners/ http://videocontestnews.com/2010/02/07/crash-the-super-bowl-winners/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:57:07 +0000 Beardy http://videocontestnews.com/?p=1492 Super Bowl XLIV just ended and that means that the 2010 installment of Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl contest is finally over too. All three winning commercials aired in the first quarter but SURPRISE!…Doritos snuck one more Crash the Superbowl finalist in during the 4th quarter. And holy crap, the USA Today Ad Meter results have just come in and SURPRISE again! One of the Crash the Superbowl ads cracked the top 3! I’ll post all the numbers below but first here are the official winners in the order they ran. From what I’ve read, the order that the commercials aired reflect which entries got the most, second most and third most votes last month.

1. Underdog. Created by Nick Dimondi/Joshua Svoboda

2. House Rules. Created by Joelle de Jesus

3. Casket. Created by Kevin T. Willson

SURPRISE BONUS AD. Snack Attack Samurai. Created by Ben Krueger

A few days ago I explained here and here that it looked like Doritos had already revealed the names of the Crash the Super Bowl entries that were going to air tonight. The finalist entries that were publicly identified as destined for air last week were Snack Attack Samurai, Kids These Days and Casket. Looks like those predictions were off by one. But hey, way back in December, before the finalists were even announced, we predicted in this post that “Underdog” would go all the way this year. So hurray for us!

UPDATE: Oh snap!!!! The Ad Meter results are in and UNDERDOG was rated the second best commercial of the entire game right after the Betty White/Snickers spot! That means the makers of Underdog, 5 Points Productions will be receiving a $600,000 bonus from Doritos. As for the other three Crash the Super Bowl entries that aired tonight….well, they didn’t fare so well. None of them even cracked the top 10. Here are the numbers.

1. Underdog. Ad Meter Score: 8.27. Ad Meter Rank: #2

2. House Rules. Ad Meter Score: 7.12. Ad Meter Rank: #11

3. Casket. Ad Meter Score: 7.00. Ad Meter Rank: #14

4. Snack Attack Samurai. Ad Meter Score: 6.79. Rank: #17

Now even though none of the other ads made the top 3, the scores are still quite impressive. After all, there were 60 commercials ranked by the ad meter. Plus since Snack Attack Samurai aired so late in the game I bet its score suffered because the focus groups in the Ad Meter polling were probably a little burnt out by then. You can see the full list of ad meter results here: USA Today Ad Meter.

So what did we learn tonight? Well, we learned that Beardy is a genius! We totally called this one. Over the last few weeks we’ve repeatedly claimed that “Underdog” was going to make it to the top three and not only that, we predicted that it was the only one of the six finalists that had a chance of doing so.

Seriously though, now that the dust is settling it’s clear that the big winner of the 2010 installment of the CTSB contest is 5 Points Productions. Though the Crash the Super Bowl contest has only been run three times, that plucky team of filmmakers from North Carolina have now won the competition TWICE! The 5 Points entry “Live the Flavor” won the first installment of the CTSB contest and aired during the 2007 Super Bowl. Now their entry “Underdog” has also came out on top. Plus they were the first filmmakers ever to get TWO entries in the finals in one year!!  (The other was Kids These Days)  That’s three unbelievable achievements so it looks like Doritos should get ready to crown them as the new, “Kings of the Crash.”  They’ve earned it.

Image from the Sacramento Bee website

Yesterday I explained that on Wednesday night, CBS seemed to reveal 2 of the 3 winners of the Crash the Superbowl contest in their special “The Superbowl’s Greatest commercials.”  Near the end of the show they featured a montage of new commercials explaining it was a “sneak peek” of ads that were going to air during the big game on Sunday.  Two of the commercials in the montage were Crash the Superbowl finalists: Snack Attack Samurai and Kids These Days.

One of the most interesting things about the Doritos contest is that no one, not even the finalists are supposed to know who won until the three winning ads appear on TV during the Superbowl.  However, the 6 videos that made it to the finals were also supposed to be kept secret but USA Today revealed one finalist (“Casket”) early in a story about Superbowl ad sales.  So it seems that Doritos may be trying to milk the CTSB contest for all its worth by seizing every media opportunity that is presented to them, even if they have to share a few secrets to ensure coverage.

Possible case in point, I saw this really weird article from of all places, the Sacramento Bee.  The piece is about a local actor and in the article they repeatedly assert that Casket WILL be airing on Superbowl Sunday.  They even go so far as to say when “Casket” will air.  Here’s some of the piece:

“Rocklin High School grad and actor Nick Armstrong has a lot riding on Sunday’s Super Bowl.

The Sacramento native will appear in a Doritos commercial that’s scheduled to air sometime before the halftime show. It’s one of three Doritos commercials competing in the chip company’s “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, and the most popular will win $1 million.

Four thousand commercials were submitted to Doritos, and three of them – including “Casket,” which features Armstrong – will be broadcast Sunday. USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter – a survey of television ads conducted as a live poll during the telecast – will determine the most popular.

Besides the $1 million for first place, Doritos will pay the second-place finisher $600,000 and the third-place finisher $400,000.”

Notice what was missing from that article?  The “ifs,” and “maybes.”  The paper wrote about “Casket” like it was a done deal.  So does the Sacramento Bee know something we don’t?  Ehhh, maybe not.  This article does have one red flag in it; the author seems to imply that the 3 Doritos commercials that air will receive a cash prize even if they don’t make the Top 3 on the USA Today ad meter.  It seems like they got their facts mixed up.  So maybe they got the rest of the facts mixed up too?  It’s a tough call, the author really makes it sounds like he’s privy to some inside information.

You can check out the rest of the Bee’s article here:  http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2511957.html

Winner, 2009 Taxlsayer commercial contest. Prize: $25,000

The other contestants were befuddled because well….that’s a really weird video! It’s funny but obviously it wasn’t something taxslayer could actually put on tv. And that’s why so many of the other contestants were confused. The year before, Taxslayer aired the winning entry as-is. (click here to watch it) So contestants assumed that Taxslayer would be doing that again and many of them sunk a lot of time, money and production values into their submissions.  I actually entered this contest and it was my first video contest loss. (winning was pretty easy back in 2007 and 2008.) In the days after Happyjoel’s video was picked I followed the reaction and let me tell you, people were PISSED. I’ve seen a lot of angry youtube comments in my day but damn, the other contestants flipped the fuck out.

Taxslayer explained that what they liked about Happyjoel’s video was the idea and they weren’t actually going to air the commercial. Instead, they were going to have professionals re-shoot it. I only spent about 80 bucks on my entry but I remember some really slick submissions. (here’s the one I was positive was going to win) If Taxslayer had let everyone know they were looking for “ideas” and not ready-for-tv ads, they would have saved a lot of filmmakers a lot of money.

Fast forward to tax season 2010. Happyjoel’s re-made video has finally hit the airwaves:

I’m glad that happyjoel actually got to play the part he created in his contest entry. But you know what? I think I prefer the original version. The (somewhat) fancy re-make is a bit stiff and the orginal was watchable because of how super weird it was.

Speaking of super weird, Taxslayer apparently decided to re-shoot a second entry from the 2009 contest. Here’s the re-make:

Yeah…that was pretty lame. But the weirdness deepens. Check out the entry that commercial was based on:

The orginal was funnier and more interesting than the remake! Whoever posted the re-shot version to youtube added this note: “Tax Slayer 60 second spot. This commercial was derived from contest creative. The spot was toned down to not look like an abduction, but rather a spoiled brat not wanting to conform.”

I cannot for the life of me figure out why Taxslayer chose that ad to remake or why they turned it into something that was thoroughly not funny.  Whoever wrote that remake forgot the oldest rule in comedy; abduction victims are way more hilarious than spoiled brats.

As I said yesterday, if Crash the Superbowl was your first video contest experience, it shouldn’t be your last.  Giant piles of money are just sitting out there on the web waiting to be claimed by any filmmaker willing to put in a little time and effort.  I was stunned by the level of quality I saw in some of this year’s Doritos entries.  If many of the filmmakers who participated in The Crash were to recycle their Doritos ideas for other video contests they’d walk away with plenty of big prizes.

Smaller money contests are definitely worth your time and energy because they are way, way easier to WIN than the big-money, high-profile competitions.  Recently, a company called AMC technology held a video contest to promote their “Solutions for the Call Center” services.  Because the company required that a lot of specific, technical info be included in the entries, only about 7 people entered.  But AMC gave out three prizes: $2,500, 1,500 and $1,000.  So anyone who entered at almost a 50% chance of winning some cash.

The theme of the contest was to show how AMC could help a business during the hectic holiday season.  Here’s the winner:

First Place.  Prize:  $2,500.

Heh, heh.  Guess what?  That was my entry!  Last year me and a friend went to a pub crawl called “SantaCon” where everyone dressed as Santas.  So I had access to several santa suits.  I bought one more, paid a few extras 30 bucks each to put the suits on and march around an office and kerblamo….2,500 bucks.  The writing was tough because of all the tech-talk but the shoot only took about 2 hours.  Editing probably took three.  Max I put 15 hours into this.  Tally all that up and I made $166 per hour (pre-tax.)  Not to shabby.  About a week and a half ago, I found out I won 3,500 in another contest so 2010 is only 8 days old and I’ve already got 6 Grand in checks coming to me thanks to video-contesting.  So if you’re one of the 4,000 people who didn’t make it to the Crash the superbowl finals, quick feeling sorry for yourselves and making anti-Doritos facebook pages.  Grab your camera and find a contest that is a little easier to win.

Here’s a bit of advice you would do well to heed; never enter a video contest that is being advertised on a billboard.  If you’re serious about winning contests, avoid the high-profile stuff and concentrate on winning the contests that only 9 people enter.

As much as I love Chipotle, I knew I should resist the temptation to enter their “My Chipotle” video contest since they’d probably recived thousands of entries.  (they did)  To enter the contest you were supposed to create a video explaining what your personal, favorite taco or burrito is. (Mine: Chicken burrito with black beans, medium hot salsa, rice, cheese and a smidge of sour cream.) The winners of the contest were announced like 2 months ago but since I actually considered entering this one, I was curious to see who eventually won. And here’s who did.  First place was $10,000:  http://mychipotle.com/#/view_submission/63673

I ‘d embed the video but it wants to just start playing on its own.  I hate when websites do that so I won’t do it to you.  Another musical entry took second prize which was $5,000 and a Chipotle party for 50 people. Wowza.  http://mychipotle.com/#/view_submission/63773

I sort of love the first place winning video a lot. But the second place video is yet another Andy Sandburg comedy-rap rip off. There seems to be one of those in every big-money video contest. This one is especially annoying thanks to the creepy kid doing the rapping.

Anyway, wow. I swear to God….I am going to try and get to a chipotle as soon as possible. I need a burrito, STAT.

I haven’t been spending much time working on this blog because Beardy has been hard at work making his own entry for the Doritos Crash the Superbowl contest. The thing is pretty much done I think so hopefully I’ll be able to upload it this weekend.

With just 2 days to go before the deadline, more than 1,000 entries have been submitted and some really high quality entries have been coming in. The production values have gone through the roof in the last week but that was expected. I’ve seen a good number of entries that, if they were shot for a different video contest, would win easily. But…I only seen one, really, REALLY great entry so far and I suspect that it won’t even make the finals. If I had to pick 6 videos that were going to make it to the finals, I bet I’d get 4 of them wrong.

As I said, the videos are getting better but I think most people are missing the true point of the contest: To get a top spot on the USA Today ad meter. That means a perfect video would appeal to as many people as possible. But I’ve been seeing tons of good videos that would turn off a large portion of the audience. Dudes might love watching chip crumbs fall down the cleavage of a beautiful woman, but are women going to score that high on the ad meter? And sure, some people might thing liking doritos dust off of a sleeping dog is ingenious but that will just completely gross out some people. The thing that amazes me the most though is the amount of violence against women I’ve been seeing in the videos. Ok, a shot of one girl tackling another if one thing but I have seen many good videos ruined by shots of women getting hit, tackled, and even punched in the face in realistic ways by MEN. Doritos might be looking for edgy spots but there are some lines that just shouldn’t be crossed.

This might be a little late to help anyone who plans to enter the contest this year but let’s take a look back at the kind of videos Dortitios DOES like. Here are ALL the finalists from the two previous years that Dortios held the Crash the Superbowl commercial contest.

2007 Finalists

Aired During the Superbowl:

Aired During the Superbowl:

2009 Finalists

Aired During the Superbowl and won a million bucks:

Aired during the Superbowl: