Well it only took 8 months but our little site here has finally crawled far enough up the google ranking ladder that people searching simply for “video contests” can actually find us.  Consequently, I’ve been getting a bunch more press releases from companies looking to promote their video contests.  There are a ton of great sites that list new contests so I usually leave the announcements to them.  But if I get asked to promote a contest by an especially nice PR person, or if a contest seems especially cool, I’ll post it.  So expect to see more contest announcements in the future.  In fact, let’s do one now…

I just got an e-mail asking me share the details of the new Sour Punch video contest.  The e-mailer actually started his message off with “Dear Beardy” which put a smile on my beardless face.  So here are the details straight from the press release:

American Licorice Company today announced the launch of the Sour Punch “Punch Up the Video Contest” where contestants are asked to create a parody of their favorite TV Show or Movie by recreating a scene and incorporating Sour Punch into the dialogue or action.

Limiting their video submissions to three minutes in length, contestants can incorporate Sour Punch into the scene however they choose, whether it’s into the dialogue or used on set as props. One winner will be selected each week based on a combination of creativity and public votes/views. At the end of the contest submission period on July 25th, one of the weekly winners will be selected as the Grand Prize winner.  Each weekly winner will take home a $100 Visa gift card. The Grand Prize Winner will take home a Flip HD Ultra Video Camcorder and a $1500 Visa gift card.  There is no limit to the number of videos an entrant can submit. For complete contest rules visit www.sourpunch.com.

At first I wasn’t going to promote this contest since it seemed like the winners were going to be chosen by mostly by a public vote…and those contests are ALWAYS won by people who figure out a way to cheat.  But reading through the rules, I found this breakdown of how the a videos’ score would be tabulated:

Sour Punch Judging Criteria

• Creativity (50%)
• Quality (40%)
• Public Appeal (10%)

“Public Appeal” means a video’s “Popularity.”  And it’s only worth 10% of your score!  Now we’re talking.  5% of that is a video’s view count and 5% is its star rating.  That’s the way every vote-based video contest should work.  Contestants get just enough incentive to send links out and encourage their friends to vote but they don’t have enough incentive to cheat.  Perfect.

Though the top prize in this contest is only $1,500, entering would probably be worth your time.  Every week, for the next 20 weeks, one video will be selected (according to the judging criteria) and will receive a $100 prize.

Since most people will shoot their entries right before the deadline in July, if you shoot one now you’d probably have a really decent chance of winning 100 bucks.  Sure, that ain’t exactly a ton of cash but hey, we’re in the middle of the fricking Great Recession here.  100 bucks is 100 bucks.  And if you win, you go on to the finals and have a 1 in 20 chance of winning $1,500.

The Sour Punch contest site links to some of the “entries” that have been received so far.  But since the contest doesn’t officially open until Monday, I’m guessing those are just sample videos created by the company.  Still, if you’d like to get an idea of the kind of thing the are looking for, check out these Sour Punch parodies of the two most parodied films of 1994; Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction.

http://www.sourpunch.com/videoContest/#/watch?v=30

http://www.sourpunch.com/videoContest/#/watch?v=31