The Aflac 10 second video challenge is a great example of the type of video contest you should absolutely, positively stay away from.  Sure, the grand prize was $25,000 but unless you’re an internet celebrity you didn’t stand much chance of winning this one.  The problem with the Aflac contest is that no matter how awesome your video was the only way to have a shot at the grand prize was if you got enough votes to get you into the top 10.  And according to 180 entries were received and more than 69,000 votes were cast.  That’s 383 votes per video!  I’ve followed the voting of a lot of video contests and I’ve learned that with a few high-profile exceptions like the Crash the Superbowl contest, strangers won’t take the time to register and vote for some contest video they have no stake in.  One reason strangers do vote for entries in the Crash the Superbowl contest is because they give Superbowl tickets away every day to one random voter.  But I don’t think Aflac awarded any such voter prizes.

So….video quality was totally irrelevant in the first round of this contest.  That means there were only two ways for a filmmaker to have a chance of winning.  Either they had to already have a pretty serious online following that would unite to propel them into the top ten or they had to vote for themselves over and over and over. The fact that “69,000” votes were cast in this contest isn’t something to brag about.  That is a crazy high number and it’s a tell-tale sign of cheating.  The average vote count per video was 383.  How many people out there even KNOW 383 people, let alone 383 that will take the time to vote for your goofy Aflac commercial?

If you know how video contest work, the numbers here are very suspicious.  But to most folks, it sounds like Aflac must be doing a great job connecting with the much sought after, social network crowd.  Check out this quote from the I mentioned:

“The passion of the contestants who creatively used their own social networks, generating hundreds of thousands of page views and millions of impressions, combined with their knowledge of our products blew us away,” said Aflac Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Charney. “It is clear that people are starting to get to know Aflac and are beginning to learn that we are more than a household name; we are a household need.”

That right there is why you shouldn’t enter video contests like this.  Because this wasn’t a video contest.  This was a SOCIAL NETWORKING contest.  Your entry in the contest was just an excuse for you to send out links to Aflac’s website.  They cared about “page views” and gauging the public’s knowledge of their products, not quality entries.  So why in the world would you ever want to spend time and energy making a video for a contest like that?  Aflac had to realize that they were holding a contest that would encourage people to cheat to win it.  I’m guessing they actually wanted cheating to happen because the more votes were cast, the more “connected” with web-users they would seem.

180 entries is about what the Skinit.com video contest got and they also had a grand prize of $25,000.  So I guess 180 entries is a pretty good estimate of how many submissions a contest of this size should get.  So…before you go entering a “video contest” like this, ask yourself; do I have a large enough social network to get more votes than 171 other people?

The video that won the Aflac challenge is very well made.  It’s not insanly awesome though.  I have to wonder, what video would have won the $25K if Aflac gave the prize to the BEST entry?

First Place.  Prize: $25,000

Did anybody enter this contest?  Anybody know what you had to do to register to vote?  Or if you could vote more than once?  If you have any info, leave a comment.