Category Archives: Video Contests

Sesame Street vs. Coke

The Coke contest is down to 8 submissions now that judge ZeFrank booted the one I had submitted. But there are still about 20 days for you to try. In an e-mail titled “your entry needs a little work,” ZeFrank wrote, “Unfortunately, we cannot include it on the site because your submission contains third-party content not licensed for use in this Challenge.”

manamana.jpgMy video, which will never be seen again (they should have just rejected it because it was horrible), featured me and my wife meeting each other while drinking Cokes and humming the old Sesame Street tune, “manamana.” Don’t remember this one? Reload your brain and see it on YouTube. Now good luck getting it out of your head.

I did consider that there might be a copyright issue with that, but I wasn’t sure the deep-pocketed attorneys from Sesame Street would come knocking. Plus small clips of music are allowed and song parody is permissible. In defense of Coke, the contest is clearly “commercial gain,” so they probably did the right thing by copyright law.
You know the clip WAS up for a week. If you’re a Sesame Street vigalante attorney I’ll send you the video and a screen grab for a small price. Nothing would get this blog traffic like inspiring “The Copyright Case of Sesame Street vs. Coke.” Come to think of it… see the resemblance?

Separated at Birth: Baby Bear and the Coke Polar Bear:

babybear.jpgcoke-bear.gif

New Entries to “Crap in a Tiffany’s Bag” Contest

Here’s the latest two entries to the “Crap in a Tiffany’s Bag” contest. The bar is set wonderfully low for this contest. All you have to do is enter and you’re pretty much guaranteed to be a finalist as long as your video isn’t that good. Remember the rules- it has to garner lots of views but get very poorly rated.

1) MadM does a magic trick. I played it twice and I still can’t figure out how he does it. I think it must be hiding behind his palm and thumb. (I actually roared outloud and almost woke my family up watching this).
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2) Marquis shaves with a knife. Disturbing to watch a knife against someone’s neck, but the point of this contest is to get lots of views and low ratings. Wins extra points for the gratuitous use of the Wilhelm scream.

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3) Here’s the video that started this contest. ZackScott’s Bird and the Egg. Will Ferrell eat your heart out.
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“Crap in a Tiffany’s Bag” Video Contest

tiffanybag.jpgTime for the “Crap in a Tiffany’s Bag” contest. There’s not an actual physical prize for this, but you’ll win the respect of your peers.

The idea generated through some comment discussions on this blog. Can you make a video that attracts the most views but has the worst ratings? It’s tough because it has to be remarkable enough to get forwarded but create an instant repulsion by the viewer. Our first submission comes from Zack Scott (www.zackscottreports.com) with this horrificly wonderul “Bird and the Egg.” Marquis, I believe, has created one too. Please post. Mine will come this weekend.

So the rules are:

  1. There aren’t really any rules
  2. Just submit a video and post the URL in the comments below
  3. Make a great title and thumbnail to get the “Tiffany’s Bag” effect (looks good from the outside)
  4. But make sure the video is TERRIBLE. This will be determined by an independent group of judges, and influenced heavily by the low ratings and negative comments.
  5. Nothing obscene please.

Seven Deadly Sins of Advertising Via Viral Video

sins.jpgShow me a marketer without “viral” on her marketing plan and I’ll show you an online video site that’s profitable. Advertising offline is getting harder with time-shifted television and declining viewership, and online advertising is getting more complex with paid-search prices rising and banner click-thru’s dropping. Given the low variable cost of viral, it’s natural that advertisers would want to experiment with it. “I want a piece of Web 2.0,” they say.
Advertisers beware. Getting people to promote your product by forwarding a viral video is not as easy as it appears. Save you and your clients some money and consider the “7 Deadly Sins of Advertising Via Viral Video.”

1. Make a white and brown cow. Seth Godin has a term called “Purple Cow,” which refers to marketing that is “remarkable” and worth paying attention to and talking about. Your viral video better be Technicolor Purple if you actually expect it to break through an increasingly crowded space. What is remarkable? Take a look at the Volkswagen “Fast” series featuring Jim Meskimen. (Jim is a comedian and impersonator, and you’ve heard him as the voice of Messing With Sasquatch” series. Would you view this content more than once, and show it to a co-worker or forward it to a friend? I would, and have.
2. Pretend you’re not advertising. Nothing quite irrates a consumer like being secretly persuaded. “Al Gore’s Penguin Army” is a classic example of a “funny video” that was exposed as having a PR agenda. Transparency is a ticket in the viral video door, friends. No ticket, no ride.

3. Spend a fortune on production. It pains me to see companies throw around huge production budgets on online video. I’ve seen it payoff only once. Here’s Smirnoff’s Ice Tea Partay (which was featured yesterday as one of YouTube’s top 3 on Good Morning America). Clearly this cost north of $300K to produce. But even if you pay that much, you might be better off giving it a “rough around the edges” look. Improv acting, sloppy camera moves and poor production can actually give your video that “consumer generated video” feel. There’s going to be a huge market for individual directors that can shoot viral videos for around $20-$50K, and it makes it much easier to get an ROI on viral video when you’re not having to recoup a big fixed-cost investment in production. When Yahoo featured on its homepage my “Lay Me Off” video (which I’ve temporarily pulled down at the request of some of the actors), I got a number of e-mails from people asking how much I’d charge for a viral video for their clients. Since I have a day job and I do videos as a hobby, I declined. But they’ll find someone who is quite happy to take a low fee for a video that’s powerful. Of course an advertising agency will probably mark up the director’s fees by 500%.
4. Tell consumers instead of engage them. Don’t think of your viral video as an adaptation of a 60-second spot. Obviously it’s got to be irreverent, weird, funny and different. But more importantly, the web has the ability to make the viral event a dialogue. Contests are a good example. There have been plenty of online video contests, but Mentos Geyser Contest is already shaping to be one of the most successful. Check out all of the consumers creating buzz around a candy that was a 7-11 relic 6 months ago. Seventy to date! Production costs for Mentos on those videos? Zero. (By the way, vote this Mentos Jet Pack one 5 stars and I’ll send you some cheese). BarterBee’s contest created buzzz for a CD and DVD exchange. The CEO wore a bee suit to promote it. Brave.

5. Do a video contest because everyone else is. This online-video “contest fad” will continue, and it will become more difficult to activate consumers to promote your product. Do a search for “video contest” on Google and you’ll see four or five different ads for contests. The David Chappelle video contest is a good example of a nice idea with some executional flaws. First, it didn’t initially promote the contest on its own website because it wanted to focus people on buying the DVD. Second, it petered out. Contest winners weren’t announced and insufficient media budget promoted the contest. To give you an idea of how abused contests are getting, there was a summer promotion for a mayonnaise manufacturer looking for videos about may recipes.

6. Set unrealstic conversion metrics. After someone watches your video, what do you think they’ll do? Will 30% come to your site? Will 10% buy your brand in two months? Give me a break. Viral video is one of the most difficult-to-measure parts of your marketing mix. Sure you can count views. But none of the online video sites are yet able to track the viewers so you can conduct your DynamicLogic unaided recall and awareness study. And very f people will take an immediate and measurable action. Sorry to sober you.

7. Throw in the towel and decide to just advertise around viral videos. Please don’t give up and decide that it’s easier to simply advertise around videos. There are certainly products and services that can do well through this, but it’s the lazy way to approach online video. The online video sites are mostly new, and there is an unlimited possibility for creative partnerships. Even YouTube (which has been slow to embrace commercial interests) has a homepage advertising feature for advertisers. As I write, it’s a trailer for Beerfest. Yesterday it was Paris Hilton. Revver has run a few contests, and has married EepyBird to Mentos in probably the best case study for viral video marketing yet. For best results, don’t think you have to decide between getting your videos seen on sites for free OR advertising on them. Do both in partnership.

Video Contest for Nerds Seeking Fame

answeringmachine_left.jpgVia “Media Post”:

ACTOR WILLIAM SHATNER, WHO ROSE to fame 40 years ago as Captain Kirk on “Star Trek,” is tapping his still strong sci-fi fan base for a new online promotional effort. The actor, author, and former pitchman for Priceline.com is seeking a spokesman for the William Shatner DVD Club–a subscription-based online DVD rental service owned by FullTurn Media. Applicants can compete by submitting their own videos to a Web site; Shatner will be on the panel of celebrity judges. FullTurn spokesman Joshua Silberstein said the contest is aimed at finding a user who can help promote the site with their love of science fiction–and of course, Shatner.

The prize? Shatner will record your outgoing message. Too bad the winner probably gets no calls.

State Farm Goes for “Where’s the Beef” Campaign With “Legs”

wendys.jpgBrandWeek reports on a new campaign by State Farm that includes a viral video contest:

State Farm asks, then answers, the question, “Now what?” in a campaign that shows people having to deal with common, but difficult, situations. The campaign, via DDB, Chicago, targets young drivers and is anchored by three TV spots, in which no reference is made to State Farm, no words are spoken and the only text is the URL, www.Nowwhat.com.

The campaign, which broke this past weekend, already has State Farm believing it has “legs” to last a while. “We believe that ‘Now what?’ can become part of the vernacular, like ‘Where’s the beef?’ or ‘Whassup,’” said Teri Lucie, State Farm segment marketing director.

Poor Teri. Great idea and clever implementation. But imagine the snickering in the State Farm cafeteria. “Hey- here comes the ‘where’s the beef’ lady.” “Teri- long time no see. Whazzup.”

“I pitty the fool that don’t buy insurance.”

Starting 8/29 you’ll be able to enter a “So What” contest via iFilm (details on the site, read by a young un-voice-over announcer for that hip feel). Do you suppose you’ll have to watch a 90-minute pre-roll ad before registering? Actually that’s not fair. I think iFilm has calmed down a bit with the pre-rolls.

I Didn’t Even Know I Missed the HDTV. Until I Ego Surfed

I gotta stop “ego surfing” (the act of surfing your own name). I just found out that I was a first-week finalist to a Panasonic Video Contest. Grant- I lost to an EXCELLENT video that made me laugh outloud. It’s called Home Time, and it was a 2nd place winner (which scored ’em an HDTV).

But here’s the thing. I forgot I entered. And forgot to check who won. And I would have slept tonight a little better. But now I know I came close to winning and didn’t.

Folks, don’t ego surf.

9thX.com: What Do Napster and Edison Have in Common?

9thx_logo.gifThanks, Dino, for pointing out a new player in the “digital media marketplace. “9thXchange” is handling the “complex infrastructure needed to sell and manage digital files of all types including documents, games, music, movies and “yet to be created” digital media files.” As evidenced by the start-up’s online video contest, it seems especially interested in vintage footage. Winner gets $1,000 and four runners-up get $250. Here’s what its after:

We are searching for historic and/or memorable digital video such as WWII, classic sports (pre-1960) politcal rallies (pre-1980), news events (pre-1970), famous places, air shows, famous people giving commencement speeches, pro-athletes before they were famous…

edison1915.jpgI suppose the most interesting thing about this site is what helped spawn it’s creation. Says the “about us” of 9thX: “Inspired by Napster, Apple’s iTunes and even Spiderman 2, predictions of brisk growth in the online digital file market are not uncommon.”

They do have some interesting footage. Here’s someone selling $1.00 copies of a baseball game reportedly filmed by Thomas Edison in 1909 in Newark, NJ.

Edison died obscure, of course, but he may make a come-back as a viral video star.

Do Online Review of Video Game, and Win Prizes

Expo TV (http://www.expotv.com), a site hosting user-generated video product reviews, and IDG Entertainment (IDGE), publisher of GamePro, announced the launch of a user-generated video contest for reviews of currently available video games. Five winning videos will be selected as the “Best Gamer Videopinions” through online voting and by a panel of experts from GamePro.com.

Winners will receive a home entertainment system, including a 32-inch Flat Screen HDTV and a surround-sound speaker system, and have their videos aired on Expo TV’s nationally distributed video-on-demand television network, and showcased online at GamePro.com and expotv.com. For more see the ExpoTV site.