2009 December | Video Contest News - Featuring News about Video Contests!

Coors Light has great taste

Posted by Dan L. on December 30th, 2009

Have you seen those Coors Light where a bunch of “average” dudes ask football coaches goofy questions during post-game press conferences? Yes? Ok, well Coors wanted 6 more coach spots that they could air on Tivo so they turned to poptent. Coors provided the coach footage and interested filmmakers had to go out and shoot their own press conference scenes.

Today Poptent announced that Coors Light would be purchasing 6 user-created ads for $3,500 a piece. And guess what, one of those ads just happened to be made by your pal Beardy. Boosh! Here’s my spot “Blue Mountains” followed by two other selected submissions that I especially liked:

Ads purchased by Coors. Price: $3,500 each

The other three spots that Coors purchased can be seen here: http://www.poptent.net/blog/?p=1019

All the filmmakers whose ads were purchased really went all out. I can tell you from experience that getting a bunch of extras, some still cameras and several believable TV cameras together into a room that looks like it could be used for a post-game press conference isn’t easy. I shot my submission (and two other spots that didn’t get picked) in the TV studio of my old college. A few friends played extras but almost everyone on camera were actors hired via craigslist. Oh, but I recycled the Yeti from my non-winning careerbuilder entry! Glad he finally got his moment of glory.

NOTE: This post has inspired a pretty interesting discussion about payment amounts for video contests. So check out the comments to read the opinions of a variety of past contest winners.

I am T-Pain’s Big Ass winners

Posted by Dan L. on December 28th, 2009

Man, T-Pain is a damn genius. He not only helped make Auto-tuning popular but he’s been smart enough to attach himself to the trend. Basically he’s been able to brand auto-tuning as a T-Pain thing. And now you too can get auto-tuned with the “I Am T-Pain” iphone app. It’s got music and lyrics so you can sing along (auto-tuned style of course) to your favorite T-Pain tracks. Sweet.

Now, another example of T-Pain’s brilliance is his participation in Lonley Island’s “I’m on a Boat” music video. He scored major points in my book with that one. The song is awesome and hilarious and a dash a of T-Pain put it over the top. If you’ve never seen it, and thank me later. That song and video are so good that even though it was a “comedy” song it just got nominated for a grammy for best hip-hop song of the year.

Anyway, to promote the “I Am T-Pain” iphone app, the company behind it held an “I’m on a blank” music video contest. Whoever could make the best parody of “I’m on a Boat” would score themselves 5 grand and a “bigg ass chain.”. Here’s the winning video which is pretty great. I especially like it since it may be the first video contest entry I’ve ever seen that was filled with profanity. So be aware, it is NSFW.

Grand Prize: Prize: $5,000 and a Big Ass Chain

By the way, if you don’t know what Auto-tuning, iphones apps, T-pain, Lonely Island or “NSFW” are then you need to spend less time reading books and more time on the internetz, grandpa.

Help us, help you

Posted by Dan L. on December 24th, 2009

Santa Beardy says: "Merry Christmas to all the non-jerk asses out there!"

Thanks in large part to the Crash The Superbowl contest, traffic to our little blog has really been on the rise lately. And the good news is, it looks like many readers are sticking around. So if you’re new to the site, thanks for checking us out! And if you haven’t done so already, why not subscribe to our RSS feed?

It’s been really great hearing from our readers (well, our readers who don’t think I’m a “douche pumper”) and if you’re enjoying the site, please feel free to throw your voice into the mix and leave some comments. I especially like hearing from other regular video contest entrants so if you’re feeling friendly, drop me a line, introduce yourself and tell me about your contest track record. I love hearing about success stories so if you want to do some bragging, go for it. We may even want to cover some of your victories here on the blog.

But the thing we are most interested in hearing about are they ways you’ve been screwed by a contest! Have you sat and watched helplessly as some jerk-ass cheated their way into a victory? Know of a contest organizer that’s been ignoring their own rules? Are you starting to suspect that a company is never going to actually pay you the winnings the owe you? Well let us know!

Video contests have become so popular, so fast that the scene is pretty much a lawless, disorganized mess. If you see someone who is obviously voting for their own video over and over in a vote-based contest or if you suspect that a company is screwing filmmakers out of what they’ve eared, what could you do about it? Well now you can tell us. Companies hate negative press, even if it comes from a Podunk little blog like ours. It’s easy to cheat or to mess with filmmakers when you think no one will ever know what you’re doing. But if we call out these people in public, there will forever be a record of their crappy conduct on the web.

Just a few weeks ago a filmmaker e-mailed me and explained that a video contest site had been jerking him around for almost a year. He won a $500 prize from them that they would just never pay up. He e-mailed them over and over and he always got the same response “Sorry, we’ll send the check out ASAP!” He told us that other users of the site were having the same problems. We e-mailed some users of the site and before we could even start writing out story, the company in question contacted us and asked what was going on. Long story short, that dude has his check and an apology about 5 days later.

So please folks, use this site as a tool for keeping jerks in line. Maybe you want to complain about a contest but you’re worried about wrecking your chances of winning. Well if you find yourself in such a circumstance, let us know the details and we will consider lodging a complaint on your behalf. As always, you can contact us at .

Again, thanks to everyone out there for checking out the site. Merry Christmas and of course, good luck!

A total Sausagefest

Posted by Dan L. on December 22nd, 2009

News flash: Sausage is delicious. Ok, we all know that. But did you know it can sorta, kinda be healthy too? Al Fresco Chicken Sausage is trying to get that message out on the “social networking sites” so they held a video contest of course. The objective was to create a “potentially viral video” that would promote their sausage and emphasise specifics about how they were not as bad for you as pork sausgaes. They gave 2 runners up a thousand dollars each and the first place vid got $6,000. I can’t emebed the winning entry so click the image below to see all top 3 submissions.

The winning video was cute but does it really have “viral” potential? I see so many contests where the company’s goal is to get a “viral video” about their product but sometimes I have to wonder if the contest organizers actually understand how viral videos work. A viral video is one that spreads on it’s own…you know, like a VIRUS. Will people really be posting a sausage commercial to their facebook page or e-mail it to friends? Probably not. But Al Fresco also wants to use the winning video in on-line marketing and at trade shows so in that case it seems like they made a good choice. Plus they did say that they wanted a video that could “potentially” go viral so maybe I’m just being snippy.

Tyson Hunger Relief contest

Posted by Dan L. on December 20th, 2009

Over at Tongal, Tyson is running a video contest designed to promote hunger-relief efforts. Filmmakers were to go out and shoot short documentaries about individuals who were trying to make a difference by collecting food, organizing food drives or working in pantries or shelters. The thing I like best about Tongal is that they have a strict “No Voting” policy on all of their contests. Instead, they often hold “prediction contests” to go along with the main competition. For the hunger relief contest though they are giving several bonus prizes (biggest is $750) to those entries that receive the most views between now and January 6th. The submission period for the competition just closed and the entries can be seen here. Judges will award several prizes but the best of the bunch will get $2,500. But that’s not all! In addition to the prize money, the food bank featured in the winning video will receive a donation of 35,000 POUNDS of food from Tyson!

This was a tough contest to create an entry for so only 12 submissions were recived. And one of them just happened to come from Beardy’s “good friend” Dan. So if you want to show VCN a little support, why not throw him a view by clicking the play button below? Important note: To prevent fraud, Tongal only counts one “view” per IP address. That’s the only way to keep things legit so good for them.

If the video is choppy, try turning off the “HD” button. If the player won’t come up, click here to watch the video on Tongal’s site.

Crash the Superbowl: 3 Predictions!

Posted by Dan L. on December 18th, 2009

On Wednesday we announced the 6 videos that we HOPE Doritos will consider for the finals of the Crash the Superbowl competition. (Scroll down two posts to see them) They’re all great entries but to be honest, they are all kind of long shots. But those were our recommendations. Today we’re going to make our official CTSB predictions! Rather than try and guess all 6 finalists I thought I’d just go with three submissions that I think are basically locks for the finals and in one case, the superbowl and one of the top 3 spots on the ad meter. Here we go:

3. Doritos Please by “Senor Queso.” Video #1614

from on .

This video is just mind-blowing. I can’t even imagine how much time, money and effort went into create what might be the most amazing video contest entry EVER.

And I hope it doesn’t win.

I’d be amazed if this spot didn’t make it to the final six but I think it would be a bad idea for Doritos to pick it. Why? Oh come on….you know why.

If “Doritos Please” aired during the superbowl, at least 50% of the people who saw it would immediately think the same thing; “Hey, did Doritos just rip of the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the world commercials?” Obviously, those two spots are very, very different. But that is the reaction I had when I first saw it, it’s the reaction friends had when I sent it to them and it’s the reaction many commentors have been having over on the contest site.

It’s important to note that “Doritos Please” was created by the same team that created one of last year’s finalist videos, . They didn’t make it to the superbowl and I’m guessing they vowed that 2010 would be their year. It’s an amazing entry and a valiant effort but Dos Equis did the cool, world-traveling latin guy thing first. I predict it will make it to the finals but if I were a Doritos judge, I’d pass on this one in favor of something more original. But how can they?? Wouldn’t they feel bad considering how much work and money went into this entry!? And it’s from someone the CTSB team probably already knows well so it’d be tough to say “sorry guys, thanks for working so hard but once again, you’re not going to make it to the superbowl.” So I think that sentimentality will ensure this spot will make it to the top 6 but if I were Doritos, I’d leave it out. It just makes us “average joes” look like we can’t come up with our own original ideas.

2. Kick Hunger by “Silveroaks.” Video #1669

2010 update: AD HAS DISAPPEARED FROM THE WEB

This is one of my favorite entries but it too just happens to be a little too similar to a series of commercials that are already on the air……

But unlike “Doritos Please” I think that this Hunger commercial is different enough from the Weight Watchers commercials to earn a pass. People will make the connection but at least there’s a nut shot and that will probably win folks over. I can see this one making the top 6 and even the superbowl.

1. Animal Cruelty by “jwsvboda.” Video #5503

If it were up to me, this spot right here would get the first spot in the top 6. It’s funny, new, unique, subversive and it even manages to look and sound like a professional ad. But it’s just rough around the edges enough so that viewers will appreciate and understand that it’s not a multi-million dollar, Madison avenue created commercial. It’s slick but not too slick and it’s got a dog who gets revenge against a jerk who was trying to abuse an animal. Who wouldn’t rate a commercial like this really well?

So here’s Beardy’s big prediction; Animal Cruelty will make the top 6, it will make it to the Superbowl and it will place in the Top 3 of the USA Today Ad meter poll. It has just what it takes to rank well during polling. It’s funny early and gets funnier as it goes on. As soon as viewers see that shot of that dog lifting up his collar, every dial in the ad meter poll will go all the way to “This is great” and it will stay there for the rest of the spot.

So there you go folks. If you have seen or made a spot that you think I’ve overlooked, leave a link in the comments of this post. If I see one that really blows me away, I will add it to our list.

VCN’s Crash the Superbowl recommendations!

Posted by Dan L. on December 16th, 2009

Note: Scroll down if you want to just skip my blabbering and see which 6 entries we recommend Doritos consider for the finals.

Since the passing of the November 9th deadline I’ve tried to watch as many of the entries for this year’s Crash the Superbowl contest as I could. But alas, Beardy is only human and I probably managed to look at only 2,800 or so of the 4,069 submitted videos. That means chances are good that I completely missed some of the most awesome submissions. So, though I’ve said that I planned to announce this website’s predictions for which entries will make it to the final 6, I don’t think that’s really a fair thing to do.

Instead, I’m going to completely ignore some of the highest quality spots that I saw and post 6 entries that I really enjoyed but that I suspect Doritos may overlook. So let’s call this list VideoContestNews.com’s official recommended CTSB entries! Before I get into my humble video recommendations, I’d like to first make one general recommendation to the judges of the Crash the Superbowl contest: Think Small.

While watching all those entries, I saw a lot of very, very well made and expensive spots but with two or three exceptions, none of the high-budget/high concept submissions had much heart. On the other hand, I did see a number of really cool, really creative commercials that seem to have been shot by semi-pros and amateurs using consumer and “prosumer” grade video cameras. But a little googling will tell you that 4 of the 5 finalists last year shot their entries with RED One cameras. Don’t know what that is? It’s a very, very high-end camera that starts at about $17,000. So it’s clear that last year Doritos wanted the slickest commercials that filmmakers outside of the ad industry could make. (If you can get your hands on anything nicer that a RED camera you’re probably already a well paid pro.)

And all of last year’s finalists were stellar. They were slick enough to look like actual TV commercials but they were also funny, subversive and surprising. But after watching almost 3,000 of this year’s entries I just don’t see many that had top notch production values and were also FUNNY and ORIGINAL. Basically this year’s slickest entries just come off as hollow versions of “real” commercials.

So what happened? Two things I think; One, Doritos put up millions of dollars in prize money and then marketed the contest like crazy. So tons of people who never picked up a camera before jumped on the bandwagon. And two, all of last year’s finalists were so F***ing amazing that many pro and semi-pro filmmakers assumed the bar would be way to high and didn’t bother to enter. People like that know the look of the RED camera and they did the math in their head and realized that to be a serious competitor, you’d need to have access to a RED camera (or at least a high end HD camera). So right off the bat you’re already looking at a budget of $1,000 to rent a RED camera for a day. And not just any shmuck can run those. So unless you’ve used one before, throw in another $500 for a D.P. who knows what he’s doing. So that’s $1,500 minimum. And I’ll tell you, it takes a very, very special person to be willing to gamble that much money on a production when they see that 3,000 entries have already been uploaded.

So basically this means that there are two kinds of good videos among this year’s batch of entries. There are cool, funny, inventive videos that were made by non-pros or semi-pros who used consumer and prosumer level gear, and there are ok, but not super funny, big-budget entries that feature pretty graphics, lots of fancy but unnecessary dolly shots and in some cases, established characters actors, B-list celebrities and in one case, a semi-well known indie band.

My recommendation to the CTSB judges is to forget the slick, not-so-funny entries and give a few of the littler guys a shot. The first year that Doritos ran the Crash the Superbowl competition (2006), the winning commercial had a budget of only $12! That’s probably why so many pros jumped in in 2008. (Doritos did something else for the superbowl the year in between) They knew that if they could make a funny spot that also looked like a “real” commercial, they could crush the competition. Well this year I don’t think the pros delivered and so Doritos should do something bold; forget about only picking finalists that look like “real” commercials. Obviously they can’t air a spot with crappy lighting and muffled sound during the superbowl, but they can and should give serious consideration to the “prosumer” level filmmakers that submitted. If they don’t, I don’t think CTSB spots will go on to take all three top spots in the USA Today ad meter.

And making the “Top 3” of the Ad meter is the entire point of this contest. That right there is exactly why Doritos should go with videos that are attention-getting and big on laughs, rather than videos that are super-slick but only mildly amusing. And while the point of the contest is to make the top 3, the MESSAGE of the contest is that if given the chance, creative, regular Joes can beat the Madison Avenue crowd at their own game. Even many of the people in the Ad Meter poll will understand that’s what this contest is about and I suspect they will give extra points to the CTSB finalists IF those finalist videos actually look different that all the other spots that air during the game.

What I’m saying is that Doritos should pick at least a few finalists that are a little ROUGH AROUND THE EDGES. Yes, they might be seen by 100 Million people and yes they will stick out like a sore thumb. And that’s why it’d be great! If you’re watching the game and all of the sudden, some crazy thing that some dude shot in his back yard comes on the TV, you’re going to sit up and take notice. And if that “imperfect” ad makes you laugh, then it has been a success, even if only cost 12 bucks to make. If Doritos wanted to shoot a commercial featuring Flavor Flav they could seal that deal during a single lunch meeting. If they wanted to cast the secretary from Ferris Bueller in a commercial they could make that happen in less than 4 phone calls. And if they wanted their own version of the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials they could have a team crank that out in a week. So why should Doritos pick spots that an ad firm on Madison Avenue could slap together without breaking a sweat? If you’re going to create a new and completely different way to get your superbowl commercials, shouldn’t the commercials you get actually seem completely different than everything else that’s going to air during the game?

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents. Finally, here are the 6 entries that I really hope Doritos considers for their 2010 Crash the Superbowl finalists. These are in order with #1 being my favorite:

#6. Don’t Be that Guy by “Moedirty.” Video #2530
This spot really only has one thing going for it; the super-serious guy at the end. But you know what? That guy is PERFECT. If this aired during the Superbowl the next day people in offices all across the country would be saying the hot new catchphrase “You have to leave.”

#5. Want More? by “Shonky.” Video #2081
If this commercial was shot by a major ad company you wouldn’t think about it twice. But knowing that it was just a couple of crazy dudes who made this adds a sweet level of insanity to it.

#4. So Worth It by “tgo0116.” Video #307
This is a Superbowl-style comedy of errors commercial shot for (probably) nothing. But that low-budget, indie look gives it the heart that so many of the slicker entries are lacking. This guy wanted to win so bad he cut a hole in his mother f***ing roof. Hell yeah.

#3. Doritos Make Everything Better by “Keithhopkin.” Video #951
It looks like it was shot for a high school film class but this will keep viewers smiling all the way through. The shot of the dog wincing when the Doritos fall on him might hurt this video’s chances but the dog probably didn’t mind, right?

#2. Battlestations! by “Laserbunny.” Video #4097
This one has actually got some nice effects but it still has a nice indie vibe to it. Despite the CGI they use, the “fractal Dorito” was apparently real. I think this one can make the official Top 6.

#1. Wrong Commercial by “knewacheck.” Video #3742
This commercial is just flat out stupid…and I love it. It’s so weird and goofy and you can tell that it was made for fun. Maybe the “Got Milk” bit at the end will cause a copyright problem big enough to keep it out of the finals but I hope not. The spot’s absurd but it’s absurd in a very smart way. Right off the bat, the characters let the viewer know that what they are seeing is a commercial submitted for a contest. That gives the spot license to be imperfect and look like it was made by three random knuckleheads. But I’m over thinking it. It’s funny and it works, that’s all that should matter.

Now as I said, I also shot an entry for this year’s competition but of course it’d be pretty shady of me to include it in my top 6. So instead I’ll just place a link right here if you want to check it out:

/#/video/1983

Despite all my talk about low-budget spots, I shot my entry on HD and it cost about $1,600. We even through a crane shot in there! Do as Beardy says folks, not as Beardy does. We used a prosumer HD camera though so I consider it to be a “medium-sized” production. Plus it is sorta rough around the edges I think.

So what do you think folks? Are we right or are we crazy? Did we overlook any potential winners? Let us know in the comment box. And because I can’t help myself, check back on Friday to see which two, more slickly-produced videos we predict will make it to the finals and the Superbowl.

Hartz contestants get a surprise in the mail

Posted by Dan L. on December 14th, 2009

Though the Hartz “Crunch n’ Clean” video contest (objective: create a funny video of you brushing your dog’s teeth) had just one grand prize of $1,000, all 24 contestants got a nice surprise from Hartz after the winner was announced. Everyone would be getting a special prize pack just for entering. Grateful contestants recived their packages last week and posted some photos on the contest’s facebook page. Check this out:

That’s a lot of stuff. All too often contest organizers totally forget about all the people who took the time and made the effort to create an entry for their video contest. So it’s great to see a company that realizes that it’d be a good idea to say “thank you” to people who are obviously loyal to their brand. Maybe the prize packages only cost Hartz 50 bucks each to put together but the good will they will receive in return is really valuable. All 24 contestants will tell God only knows how many people about the super cool prize pack they got just for entering. So giving away sweet prizes to the “non-winners” is good for their reputation in the long run. Way to go Hartz!