Man oh man…I think I really overdid things this weekend. So much candy…so much beer…so much wig hair clinging to my face. (i was a viking.) I got so sidetracked by halloween that I’ve totally been slacking on covering one of the biggest pieces of Video Contest News of the year; the announcement of the winners of Godaddy.com’s massive summer video contest. Readers have been asking me if I was going to comment on the results and I will…but just not until after I re-cooperate a bit. (I had a shoot yesterday and today so I’m really backlogged on my re-cooperating.) Anyways, a friend of the site suggested that I do a new post so that readers could share their thoughts about the winning godaddy videos. I think that’s an awesome idea so that’s what I’m doing right now.
So click the link below and watch all the winning ads. Then come back here to share your thoughts, complaints, jealous rantings etc. in the comment section of this post. Like I’ve said, I’ll have more to say about the contest soon so look for a more detailed post to come in a couple days.
http://videos.godaddy.com/godaddy-commercial-contest.aspx
UPDATE: As I mentioned last week (when we totally got it right when we announced the leaked name of the winning godaddy entry) I really like the first place winning commercial Russell’s Notebook. It was easily the best video submitted. Our pals over at my favorite website onlinevideocontests.com did an interview with the Russell’s Notebook team. Check it out to learn how they were able to pull off such an ambitious and cool entry:
UPDATE #2: Oh wow. I just checked our traffic logs and VCN got a record number of visitors during the month of October! Thanks to the interest in the godaddy contest, October’s traffic just barely beat out January’s when we got a ton of Crash the Superbowl-related traffic. If you’re new to the site, thanks for visiting! If you like what you see, why not bookmark us or subscribe to our RSS feed?
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I would like to see the full 60-90 second ads to really see what the judges saw.
I agree with the First and Second Prize, but “Go Daddy Go” should not be up there at all because it is cheesy, not catchy, and not funny. At least last year’s token rap video was good for a laugh.
Of the HM’s I liked the Bigfoot one because it was executed well and very “commercial” even if it didn’t break new conceptual ground. Oh My GoDaddy was good too but felt incomplete. I grumble about the other HM’s that seem to fall into the “amateur video” category – Fairytale Finder, isn’t that a different version of Find Your Voice?? Viral Video was a good idea that deserved better execution and Fake Mustache got really lucky with it’s quirky punch line and zero budget.
I would like to know how the judging was really based, because there were a lot of videos that could have made the HM. For example, I thought The Surgery Room and TheThreeAmigos put in worthy videos.
I’m sorry, but these are pretty weak. The first place video is impressive but the rest are just “meh.” go daddy go and the bigfoot one are the weakest of them all. I think the viral video one made it because the second half must be pretty funny.
Yeah, i don’t think we can really judge these videos without seeing the extended cuts. Does anyone know how or where we can see those?
Interesting that Wayside Creations indicated GoDaddy had asked them to do some reshoots or corrections before the contest was over. Maybe that’s what the hold up is with the release of the longer videos – Go Daddy is waiting for the winners to improve their entries before releasing them???
Isawbigfoot.co was my favorite! I can’t wait to see the long version. I’m sure it will be awesome.
RE: the extended cuts. The fact that godaddy never posted the long versions of the entries is disappointing. People worked hard on them and I would have liked to see how different filmmakers tackled the extended cut challenge. I haven’t seen anything that indicates that the long cuts will be made available, even for the winners. If Russell’s notebook runs on tv they’ll have to post the extended cut though.
RE: The Wayside Creations changes. Matt, I don’t think they did re-shoots. I think godaddy just suggested they make some changes. I noticed that Russell’s Notebook and the rap video in third place both have the lyrics to their songs on screen in yellow. I bet that godaddy asked both teams to add the words to their entries for some reason.
Would like to see the extended cuts as well, my feeling is that there have been some reshoots going on with GoDaddy suggestions for the extended cut.
Am I the only person who realizes that the guy in the mustache video also won last time?? And he did basically the same shtick in both entries. Why the hell would godaddy ever pick the same guy twice doing the same jokes. Were there really no other entries funnier that that one?
Found the mustache guy’s last video.
He did basically the same thing for both contests and won money both times. Is this guy bob parson’s son or something?
B., the guy in Mustache Society is a contest-winning Juggernaut. And he always does the same character. He won a runner-up prize of $15K in the first godaddy contest but I THINK he submitted the same exact ad to the international godaddy contest sponsored by zooppa and won $3,000. And if you scroll to the bottom of this post…
https://videocontestnews.com/2010/07/07/disappointing-results-of-the-skinit-com-contest/
…you’ll see the ad that won him $5,000 in the skinit.com video contest. I don’t know who that dude is or where he’s from but I’d like to find him and like I don’t know…do a documentary on him or shoot a webseries with him or something. His videos are so simple but I gotta hand it to them, they’re funny.
And PS…he was not the only winner who also won last time. But I’ll save that for our next post about the contest.
fyi, isawbigfoot.com was made by last time’s second place winners. They did fingerfighting.com last time and won $75,000.
Jack, actually it’s Isawbigfoot.CO and I think Finger Fighting won $50K last time, not 75.
I agree with most of what has been said here. First and second place were good, and worthy a prize. In my humble opinion, “isawbigfoot.co” should have been third, being that it was the best HM, and far better than “Go Daddy Go.” Honestly, I was surprised that several others didn’t make it and place. Specifically, “Rule Your Domain,” “FlashMance,” and “Trench Coat.” I think all these of those were great, and out did a couple of the HM’s up there.
“Mustache Society” made me laugh, didn’t mind them winning. Think Bob Parson gets a kick out of this guy.
I will be surprised if any of these make it to broadcast except for first and second and “isawbigfoot.co”
This contest didn’t really gain that much exposure. I remember last time the new york times did a story on the competition, it was all over the web, and the spots aired live for the first time on TV during the Indy 500. GoDaddy said when doing this competition, they didn’t even know if they would air the spots. Their words were “Last time we aired during the Indy 500, so lets see what happens.”
All in all, I think this competition could have been so much more.
For what it is worth, our entry was “Senior Swagga,” here is our 30 second and 90 second on youtube, would love a comment.
30 second:
90 second:
If any of you guys entered the competition, would love to see your 90 seconds as well.
Beardy,
Hey, it’s Jae again from BallBoy Productions. Thanks for posting a new topic about the GoDaddy winners, it’s always interesting to read comments from the general public in regards to the spots GoDaddy selected.
Yes, you were correct in that we won 2nd place ($50,000) in the first contest with Fingerfighting.com and then an Honorable Mention ($25,000) for our entry ISAWBIGFOOT.CO this time around. There were actually 3 teams that placed in the first contest and then again in this one; us, the mustache guys and the Oh GoDaddy people I think did the Cupcake one in the first contest or at least the female lead character is the same in both.
Overall, we are very happy to have placed in the Top 8 again. I feel our Bigfoot commercial is actually better than our first one as we had a larger budget, more locations and I think our storyline of a “down economy where Bigfoot has to reinvent himself via GoDaddy” was pretty original and stood out from the rest. However, our 30 second spot is pretty fast and rushed, I hope GoDaddy releases the 60-90 second versions as I know ours tells the story a bit better. I think they are holding them until they have their TV ads in place or at least a campaign to promote them. I have seen a few extended versions on YouTube but none of the winners.
As far as who won, I think #1 and #2 deserved it BIg Time! When I saw “Find Your Voice” the first time around, I immediately thought it was a Top 3 and Russell’s Notebook is outstanding and just blew everyone away. The others I think will receive a pretty broad spectrum on people’s tastes. There were a few that I was surprised that didn’t make the Top 8 but it is a subjective contest and there were a lot of quality entries this time around.
MightyMattP and Allison, thanks for the comments on Bigfoot, glad you liked it! And thanks again Beardy for this great forum or blog!
Jae
Thanks for the Bigfoot “shout-out” Francis, I loved Senior Swagga and your 90 second version is hilarious, a Top 8 for sure in my mind!!!
Thanks Jae. And again, tip of the hat to you guys.
why didnt godaddy get like 3000 entries???
$250,000 is a lot of cash!!
250,000 IS a lot of cash but a 30 second video and a 60 second video is a lot of work. I’d bet a whole lot of people started planning entries but they had to abandon their plans because they would be too hard to pull off or cost too much money. A lot of people can get together enough people and resources to shoot a 30 second ad but 90 seconds is well….3 times the work.
Joe Herbert here… of the Herbert Brothers who won the Doritos Super Bowl contest in 2009. I’m not here to bash anyone who won a prize in the Go Daddy contest, because everyone works hard and they should be proud of their work, and proud of winning.
What I don’t like about the Go Daddy contest, however, and why I won’t enter… is that there is absolutely no basis for winning. Whereas with a super bowl spot trying to take a top spot on the ad meter there is a definite formula and audience, and strategy for making a concept, a level of quality it must have, and so on… but a contest like Go Daddy’s is so completely random and arbitrary that my time and limited budget for contests make it smart for us not to enter.
I have noticed they don’t pick finalists/winners that produce commercials that relate in any way to their current advertising and branding efforts (with go daddy girls), and it’s not like it needs to be super bowl quality… it doesn’t even have to be funny… it can literally be just about ANYTHING at all, and hope you get lucky with their judges.
I’m a fan of talent competitions versus lottery style contests, but I wanted to give the winners a big shout out anyhow, and say congrats on the accomplishment, you deserve it. Even though I don’t understand what or how goes behind their selections… you certainly found it, and no matter what anyone thinks weak or not, if you won then you won, and you deserve it. period.
Everyone is entitled to opinions and in the end it’s the opinions of the judges that matter the most. I have not watched the submissions to even comment on them specifically… just wanted to give some love to the winners regardless of personal opinions.
Joe Herbert
I agree with all of the commenters here with regard to the Internet-only Extended versions. We felt that our extended version of WIZ SCHOOL was stronger than our :30 version – especially because everyone had to add that looong :05 GoDaddy-provided tag to the :30. We hoped that the judges based their critique on both versions, but with the lack of links to the long versions, I now fear that wasn’t the case.
Congrats to the winners! We had Russell’s Notebook tagged as an early leader and Find Your Voice was just beautifully-shot. My personal favorite was Iris, for being totally bizarre (LOVED the actress in that one!).
Here is our :30:
And the (unfortunately never-before-seen) Extended Version:
Thanks, gang!