2012 December | Video Contest News - Featuring News about Video Contests!

5 predictions for the 2013 Crash the Super Bowl finals

Posted by Dan L. on December 28th, 2012

This year’s installment of the Crash the Super Bowl contest was kind of a strange one. For some reason there was a massive drop in the number of submissions received. Last year Doritos got more than 6,000 entries for the Crash. But this year they only got about 2,800 entries. I have a pretty good idea why participation for the contest dropped and I’ll be covering that issue in a post in early January. For now I just want to focus on my list of predictions for the 2013. Because there were a lot fewer entries I had a really hard time finding “contenders” that might have a shot of making Doritos official Top 5. But I have to say, some of the contenders I did find are incredibly strong. Usually I pick entries that I think the CTSB judges might like but this year I was able to find several ads that anybody would love. If Doritos’ list of finalists includes a few of these ads they will have made some really excellent choices. Ok, so here now are my 5 predictions for the 2013 Crash the Super Bowl finals. Click on the images below to watch these videos on Facebook. Let’s start with a submission that is actually one of my favorite Crash the Super Bowl ads EVER:

Goat 4 Sale

Goat 4 Sale: If you don’t love this commercial you should go see a cardiologist because you have no heart! I totally love this entry but it also bums be out. I happened to find this submission when I went to the contest page and searched for videos about goats. Why would I do that? Because this year I tried to make a CTSB entry about goats! I tried to think of an animal that was cuter and funnier than a dog and I came up with goats. Our goats wouldn’t cooperate though so we had to abandon the shoot. But my crew and I were planning on trying again next summer. So if this ad makes the finals, Doritos probably wouldn’t pick two goat commercials two years in a row. But oh well. This entry deserves to make the top 5 more than almost any CTSB entry I have ever seen. It’s just a PERFECT little short film. I will be amazed if Doritos doesn’t pick this one. Not only is “Goat 4 Sale” a funny video, it’s actually a great commercial since Doritos get a ton of screen time. So this entry is funny and entertaining and it actually makes me want to buy the featured product….and a goat.

It’s a Trap!

IT’S A TRAP: And here’s another one that I love! This is a great example of what a really good CTSB submission should look like. It’s got a bearded goofball, a simple premise, very little dialogue, a huge, shocking surprise and some cute animals. And like “Goat 4 Sale” it actually does a good job of selling Doritos. “Every living creature loves Doritos!” What more needs to be said?

Road Trip

Road Trip: Usually I get kind of annoyed when the same filmmakers make the finals over and over. But like I said, this year the pickings are kind of slim so I’m gonna cut the Crash judges some slack. Road Trip was made by Tyler Dixon who is a TWO-TIME crash the super bowl finalist. He made the top 5 in 2011 with his enry and he made it again in 2012 with . I’m not really in love with “Road Trip” but it’s really good and I think the judges might pick this one because it would probably score really well on the USA Today Ad Meter. Doritos actually does test screenings of their potential finalists before they make their final picks and I think focus groups are gonna flip for that cute little kid and that hilarious little dog. So high focus group scores might just get this one in the Top 5.

Blow Granny, Blow

Blow Granny, Blow: Here’s another ad made by a former finalist that I think deserves to make the top 5. “Blow Granny, Blow” was created by Brad Bosley who made which was the only 2011 Pepsi Max finalist that I actually liked. Blow Granny, Blow is really professional-looking and it just feels like something you’d see on TV. And again, it’s another spot that would probably do really well with focus groups. It’s got a fantastic grumpy old lady, weird, surprising action and funny shots of people’s faces flopping in the wind. I sort of hope this one makes it just t because it’d be nice if one of the finalist slots went to an ad that didn’t star an animal.

Great Lengths

Great Lengths: This one is kind of my dark horse, wild card pick. It’s entertaining and cute and funny but it’s nothing fancy and it doesn’t have a big twist or shocking gags. But to me it really just feels like a Crash the Super Bowl finalist. And I think kids would freaking go crazy for this commercial. This is the kind of video that a 6 year old kid would make their mom play 10 times in a row.

So that’s my list. As a little bonus, here are a few honorable mentions that I think also have an ok shot of making the finals: , , and . Remember, the real winners will be revealed on January 2nd. Be sure to check back here to see how accurate my predictions were!

UPDATE: The CTSB rules say that Doritos would announce the finalists at (or anytime after) noon on January 2nd. But it turns out the reveal isn’t happening until at 8PM on January 3rd.

Apartments.com finally reveals the winner of the 2012 “Roommate of the Year” video contest

Posted by Dan L. on December 27th, 2012

Being a finalist in Apartments.com’s annual “Roommate of the Year” video contest has really got to suuuuck. This year the submission deadline was May 21st and a group of finalists were announced about a week later. Those finalists then had to spend 5 weeks begging for votes so that they could advance to the second round. After all the votes were counted a panel of judges picked the winners in early July but then for some absurd reason the results weren’t released until the last week of December! I’m sure the sponsors probably think it’s fun to announce the 2012 “Roommate of the year” at the end of the year but then why don’t they just run the contest in the fall rather than the spring? Why the heck would they make all the finalists wait 6 months to found out if they won anything? Oh and here’s the worst part; the rules say that the results would be announced “On or after July 7, 2012 but no later than December 31, 2012.“ So if you made the finals in this contest you just spent 6 months wondering if today was the day you’d get a call telling you that you had won $20,000. That sounds like mental torture if you ask me! Do the sponsors not realize that the non-winners are probably going to be crushed when the finally get the results? Letting contestants keep their hopes up for half a year is just thoughtless, pointless and mean.

Well anyway, we’re a few days away from December 31st so Apartments.com decided it was finally time to reveal the results. The winner was a video contest filmmaker named Dan Nguyen and his prize is $10,000 plus free rent for a year (another ten grand.) Dan created this particular video with his friend Dan Bakst but Dan N. and his brother Andy have both won a good number of big video contests and they always create really great, over the top entries. Dan’s Apartments.com video is just fantastic and deserved to win, hands down. If you love crappy robots as much as I do, you’ll really enjoy it. I can’t embed the video so click the image below to watch it on the contest’s website.

Grand Prize Winner. Prize: $10,000 plus $10,000 to cover 1 year of rent:

Like I said, click this image to view the winning video

Now that I think about it, $20,000 is a pretty damn good prize. So even though I just talked a bunch of trash about this contest I’ll probably enter if they run it again in 2013. I just won’t get my hopes up until October or November if I make the finals.

Youtube “confiscates” 2 billion bogus views

Posted by Dan L. on December 24th, 2012

On December 20th, hundreds of youtube users woke to find that google had left a big lump of coal in their digital stockings. Over 2 Billion “fake” youtube views had suddenly been removed from view counts and scores of videos were pulled for violating the site’s Terms of Use. According to The Daily Dot, some of the channels that were hit the hardest belong to some big name musicians, youtube stars, studios and record labels. Sony/BMG was the biggest victim of the purge. Their channel’s cumulative view count dropped by 850 million and now stands at just 2.3 million. How was Sony able to fake 850 million views? It was easy; they just bought them. Right now anyone can go to a site like Fiverr and order hundreds of likes or thousands of views for just 5 bucks. Here’s an example of what a bogus view “gig” looks like.

10,000 views for $5 sounds like a great deal…until your video gets pulled

I’ve never been exactly sure how all these Fiverr sellers are able to generate fake views but I guess it’s done with bots. Views are determined by which IP addresses access a video. So these bots need to somehow switch IPs between each play. If you have such a program it’s an easy way to make a lot of cash. Just look at that gig I posted. 29 people are currently waiting for their order to filled. So that seller will make 145 bucks and all he has to do is run his bot 29 times.

For years google stood on the sidelines and watched users inflate their view counts using a variety of nefarious means but now it sounds like they’ve decided to try and fix this problem. And this is GREAT news for video contest filmmakers. Fake views and likes have totally wrecked every video contest that is run on youtube. If views and likes affect a video’s score, cheaters will be able to win that contest easily. Why should anyone bother to get legitimate views and likes if they can just pay $5 and win in a landslide? In late 2011 I was in a contest sponsored by the microjob website DoUpTo.com; $15,000 was at stake and the finalists were determined by Youtube views. Things got ugly really fast and a few videos were able to achieve massive view counts in just a few days. These videos weren’t getting any likes or comments so it was obvious the views were phony. I contacted the guy running the contest and explained flat out how people were cheating. But it seemed like the guy knew exactly what was going on. He basically said we understand and unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do to stop this. We encourage you to do whatever it takes if you want to make the finals. Why would DoUpTo actually encourage contestants to cheat? Maybe because their site is a lot like Fiverr and plenty of their users are in the view-selling business.

Again, it sounds like a great deal until your channel gets suspended

So buying views is really cheap and really easy. But now finally it looks these transactions are no longer 100% risk free. Apparently it’s easy for youtube to detect these bots and now if you buy some views you might get caught and your video will be pulled. And if you rack up multiple violations your entire channel can be shut down. So if your video gets pulled in the middle of a video contest you are totally screwed. What are you going to do, tell the sponsor that you need to re-upload your entry because you got busted by youtube? So when it comes to buying fake youtube views and likes, remember kids, just say NO. It’s not worth the risk. And hey just between you and me, if you need to get a lot of youtube views really fast, just do what I always do…I pay youtube to promote my video! It costs more than 5 bucks but you can get thousands of real views from real humans and there is zero chance you’re going to be disqualified for cheating or have your video zapped into oblivion.

If you’d like more details about youtube’s Promoted Videos Program you can check out this article I wrote last year: How to Get Unlimited, Real Youtube Views

DeVry and Current want to run your ads on TV

Posted by Dan L. on December 21st, 2012

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Current TV has gone through a lot of changes in the last few years but I’m happy to see that their old Viewer Created Ad Message program (or VCAM) is still alive and kicking. Every so often Current will turn to their viewers when they need a commercial for one of their sponsors and the network just launched a new VCAM for Devry. The great thing about VCAM assignments is that the goal of the whole thing is to find commercials that Current can run on TV. They also pay you if your ad airs but just getting your work on television is a fantastic prize that can really help advance a filmmaker’s career. Current and Devry have promised that they will purchase and use up to four :30 second, viewer-made ads for $5,000 a piece. The deadline is January 7th. Here’s a little info about what they’re looking for:

DeVry University is looking for stories of those who have studied and prepared and are now thriving in today’s and tomorrow’s emerging career fields, everything from cloud computing to cyber security to robotics. In this VCAM assignment, your challenge is to find and highlight one of these success stories. Showcase real people and tell how they have let nothing stand in their way of being ready for their future. It would be great to tell the story of someone who has forged a path into a career that wasn’t even around a few years ago, but is now doing work that is on the cutting edge in a field that is growing.

Since opening its doors in 1931, DeVry University has helped prepare students for the jobs most in-demand and it holds a high standard for the education it provides, believing that ‘the future belongs to the ready.’ So DeVry graduates could be ideal subjects for this assignment, but are not required.

Videos should be smart, credible, optimistic, and aimed at graduating high school students, their parents, or working adults who are seeking a career change or advancement. The hope is that your ability to find and tell a great success story will inspire others to get the know how they need for a new tomorrow.

Got that? Devry graduates would be nice but you don’t have to feature one in your ad. And you shouldn’t have any fake DeVry grads. So don’t put an actor in front of a camera and have them say that they went to Devry if they didn’t. Oh here’s one final important note: Guild members (SAG, AFTRA, IATSE, etc.) are not eligible to participate in this assignment so be careful when you cast your spot.

For all the details, head here: http://current.com/participate/knowhow

How and when will the 2013 Crash the Super Bowl finalists be notified?

Posted by Dan L. on December 19th, 2012

Right now thousands of filmmakers across the United States are all wondering the same thing; “When is Doritos going to start contacting the winners of the Crash the Super Bowl contest?” While no one at Frito-Lay has gone on record and explicitly said when the finalists will be notified, history does give us some clues. Over the years I’ve talked to lots and lots of Crash the Super Bowl finalists and time after time they always tell me the same thing; the finalists get a phone call from Doritos just before Christmas. In many cases it seems like a lot of finalists were contacted around December 21st. But last year Doritos called the winners early. According to one 2011-2012 finalist-team member I talked to “All of the finalists were notified by the Frito-Lay people on Dec. 16.”

I post this information every year and every year I get angry comments and e-mails from hopeful finalists that tell me I’m full of crap. Apparently some people are under the impression that the CTSB winners will find out that they won when the results are revealed on January 4th. But trust me folks, I’ve been running this site for a long time. It has never and will never work that way. When Frito-Lay calls the winners they tell them that they are a “potential” finalist. Before they can be considered an official finalist they first have to submit a bunch of release forms and other paperwork that proves they are actually eligible to enter and win the competition. For example, only US citizens are allowed to enter The Crash. If Doritos violated their own rules and picked a non-citizen as a finalist they could face a class-action lawsuit from all the other contestants who did meet the eligibility requirements. So there’s no chance Frito-Lay will risk something like that. They will have all the winners vetted and locked down weeks before the January 4th announcement.

So I’m sorry to say this but if you don’t hear from Fritolay by 5PM on friday you probably didn’t make the top 5. But don’t let that get you down! You had fun and made a cool video right? Why not build on that experience and go enter another video contest…you know, maybe one that’s 100 times easier to win! Think of the Crash the Superbowl contest like the lottery. It’s fun to enter but the chances of winning are sort of ridiculous. If you actually want to win some money and/or glory in a contest, try one that’s being run by Mofilm, Poptent, Tongal, Womadz, Zooppa or Eyeka or Genero. (Holy crap there are a lot of video contest sites out there.) Some of the contests on these sites offer big prizes but only get a 20 or 30 entries. I’ll take a 1 in 20 chance of winning $7,500 in a Poptent assignment over a 1 in 500 chance of winning $25,000 in the Crash the Super Bowl contest any day.

As I said, the Doritos finalists will official be revealed on January 4th. Be sure to check back here for reviews of all the videos that make the top 5. Plus on January 1st I’ll be post my own list of predictions for the CTSB contest so stay tuned to VCN for lots more Doritos news.

Womadz.com launches their first video contest

Posted by Dan L. on December 17th, 2012

It took me like 30 seconds to get that “Womadz” was an acronym for “word of mouth advertising”

Today we’re welcoming a new sponsor to VCN and a new player to the video contest scene! Womadz.com is a brand new crowdsourced video site and on Friday they launched their first competition. Obviously there are already about a half dozen video contests sites on the web but I think the marketplace actually needs MORE resources like this to meet the needs of advertisers. 2012 has been an unbelievable year for crowdsourcers and the number of video contests and spec assignments that are running right now is just kind of mind-boggling. Facebook and youtube have turned into giant bottomless pits that companies need to constantly try and fill with fresh content. And it seems like a lot of these companies have realized that it’s sorta dumb to pay a production company $50,000 to make a video that will be used up and over-exposed in a few weeks. But when companies get their content from “the crowd” they gain access to a nearly endless supply of low-cost, high-quality videos. So sponsors are now turning to independent producers in droves when they need online ads. It just makes good business sense which means the demand is just going to climb higher and higher over the next few years.

I’ve seen a few startup video contest sites come and go since I started this blog and I can always tell which ones are going to succeed and which ones are going to and . To be frank, the sites that have money behind them always flourish and the ones that are put together on a shoestring always fail. The folks who build the cheap sites are hoping they’ll get lucky and find an investor….but they never do. So if you see a new video contest company that is running “just for fun” contests with a $500 first prize you should probably stay away since that company won’t be in business for very long.

And that’s why I’m excited about Womadz. It’s nice to see a new player in this industry that actually has its act together. Womadz’ first contest is being run as an experiment but they’re actually putting up some big ass prizes. It total, $15,000 is up for grabs in their inaugural “Be The First” competition. Submissions should be 30 second ads for a fictitious generic consumer product. No brand names are allowed; this is just an experiment for filmmakers to show off their creativity. Womadz is a little diffrent than other video contests sites so be sure to check out all the FAQs before you pick up a camera: http://www.womadz.com/how-it-works

Tongal winners receive a Christmas-time surprise from Duplo

Posted by Dan L. on December 15th, 2012

Hey! Free toys!

This afternoon Fed-Ex showed up at my door with a big, mysterious package that was addressed to my Tongal.com screen name. I was confused for about 2 seconds until I saw the shipping label; the box was from “LEGO Systems in Enfield, CT.” About two weeks ago I won $100 in the idea phase of a huge Duplo contest that Tongal is running right now. I opened up the package and sure enough it was stuffed with Duplo toys. I had already received my $100 prize and no one ever mentioned that the winners would be getting any kind of bonus. For a minute I thought maybe I was supposed to use the toys to shoot an entry for the contest but the video phase is closed to the general public. (Only winners of the pitch phase can submit videos.) So this was just a total, out of the blue, super nice surprise. A whopping 50 ideas each won $100 (this has got to be one of the biggest video contests ever and there are multiple stages with tons of winners) and I’d say they sent me about $75 worth of toys.* So if they actually sent boxes like this to every Idea Phase winner the company must have given away $3,750 worth of product just for the fun of it. I don’t have any kids but I do have a bunch of little cousins that are just the right age for Duplo. I go to the Chicago SantaCon every year so I own a nice Santa suit and sometimes my family twists my arm and “Santa” shows up for a very quick cameo at our annual family Christmas party. I usually give little things to the kids but this year Santa will be packing some seriously high-quality gifts. So a big thanks goes out to the folks at Tongal and Duplo for the great little surprise!

*Update: Actually it looks like the kits are worth about $100. So Duplo probably sent out about $5,000 worth of toys this weekend. That’s bonkers. Thanks to reader Annie for the tip!

Fluffy’s Revenge: An unofficial sequel to the 2012 Crash the Super Bowl winner, “Man’s Best Friend”

Posted by Dan L. on December 12th, 2012

If you’re a big Crash the Super Bowl nerd you’ll get a kick out of this entry. A California filmmaker named Fran Guijarro set out to create his own sequel to Jonathan Friedman’s 2011 submission, . You might remember that commercial as the one where the giant dog kills and buries a cat and then buys his owner’s silence with some Doritos. That ad made the finals back in January and then won Friedman a million bucks after it was ranked the best commercial of the game. I really liked Man’s Best Friend and I really dig Guijarro’s unofficial response.

Click image to watch on facebook

I think Fluffy’s Revenge is good enough to make the finals but I’d be really surprised if this one makes the top 5. People have short attention spans when it comes to commercials so I’m not sure a ton of people would get this spot. Plus it might be a little to meta for the folks at Fritolay. Still, I think it’s pretty damn clever and really well made.