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Produce A Superbowl Doritos Ad and Win $1,000,000
Can you produce a very funny, action-packed or just awesome 30-second spot in the next couple weeks? If so, you could win a million bucks. But don’t delay. The deadline is one second before noon CT, Nov. 16, 2012. Your ad must be exactly 30 seconds and not use any copyrighted material or have been published elsewhere. Read the complete rules here. To enter, you must go to the official page on Facebook Click on the DORITOS Crash the Super Bowl Application. Agree to and allow the app. You’re allowed a total of ten submissions. There are prizes for $1,000,000, $600,000, $400,000 and five $25,000. The winner will also get to work with Michael Bay who directed Transformers.
Crowdsourcing Commercials With Poptent
An example of a Poptent video for Paypal that was purchased for $7500.
Poptent is a crowdsource exchange that connects producers with advertisers. The arrangement produces thousands of commercial videos each year for clients which include numerous Fortune 500 brands and agencies.
One of the Superbowl XLVI ads was produced by a poptent producer. Thirty-five of Poptent’s top producers were invited to submit their creative vision for Dannon OIKOS yogurt featuring John Stamos and positioning OIKOS as “Possibly the best yogurt in the world.” One production was chosen and the producer paid.
How It Works
Advertisers, agencies or brands post a “Creative Brief” explaining the video assignment and what they are willing to pay. The producer works on spec and takes most of the risk when they produce a video in a contest arrangement. The payment for these videos tends to be $7,500 to $10,000. The client guarantees they will purchase a video(s) from at least one of the producers. There are also cash awards for videos which are not purchased.
There are open assignments and invite assignments. Invite is for a smaller group of experienced producers.
The Open Assignments
Poptent works with the brand to help shape the creative brief in a way that will best speak to the community and attract on-point, quality submissions.
The brand provides electronic assets to assist in the creation of the videos (logos, pictures, music, styles guides, etc.).
Poptent creates a custom landing page for the assignment, where creators can read the creative brief, download the assets, and ask questions.
Then producers have 30 – 45 days to produce their videos and upload them. The brand selects which videos they wish to purchase for use.
Jared Cicon who hosts http://videocontestking.wordpress.com ,a site for video contests talks about his experiences with Poptent, “In 2011, I submitted 8 commercial projects to 8 assignments on the poptent.net website. Half of my submissions were purchased by the brand. This year, I have so far produced 4 commercials for different assignments whose conclusions elapsed. I won (sold) only one of the four submissions, and lost three. Six weeks of production work (four commercials) for a gross payment of $7,500.00. Amortized, I was paid (gross) only about $1,850.00 apiece for the each of the four submissions.”
The Wal-Martization of Video Production
There are a number of companies that purport to “produce” very low-cost business videos by using inexperienced producers who audition their talents on the Internet and only deal with the business client after a contract has been made. Some of those companies include:
http://www.studionow.com
http://www.turnhere.com/
http://www.geobeats.com/
http://www.lightswitch.com/
Not surprisingly, the videos are pretty lightweight. GeoBeats videos seem to be made entirely of still photos edited into videos with stock music and weak narration. Some are better than others, but it’s obvious that these types of videos are produced very quickly and by-the-numbers.
For a couple hundred dollars, it’s an easy sell to businesses. They may be thinking they are ahead of the game, but I like to look at the number of views a video has had. If only 50 people have seen it in six months, it’s pretty much worthless. And that kind of number is not uncommon in these cheapie videos.
At least they are not (yet) trying to outsource the production to China. These videos are shot at the business owner’s location so they require a local videographer. Young and inexperienced videographers get experience from this work and very small paychecks, but this makes it harder for real production companies to compete. That’s how business works many will say.
Wal-Mart does have positives: Great efficiency in buying and low prices, more choices for the consumer, employment for poor people who want to work. But don’t forget the negatives. Many Mom & Pop stores are forced out of business. Wal-Mart wages and benefits are very low. No one knows your name when you walk into the store. The charm and sense of community of small-town businesses is lost. Economists says that overall Wal-Mart helps the national economy, but I’m not sure it’s worth the cost. Wal-Mart is one of the largest private employers in the world.
What’s your opinion of this type of video production company?
10 Camera Reviews Needed
Review your favorite video camera and get a complimentary one year extended subscription to the VideoUniversity Forums, and full authors’ credit, AND a link to your website from VideoUniversity. Camera review articles will be placed in our free online library, so lots of people will see it. We get nearly 2000 visitors a day to our Page Rank 6 site. That means a link from us will make Google rank your site higher –and more visible in searches. How cool is that!?
You don’t have to be a great writer, but you do have to know your camera well, and be able to tell us what you like and don’t like about it as well as any workarounds you’ve found that might help others.
We need 400 words minimum and all articles must be finished in 10 days or less from when you get the green light. You can skip the specs and photos; we can get them from the manufacturer. Just write the article like a post to a VU friend who is about to buy the camera and wants your input –the good, the not-so-good.
Please inquire first via an email to us, subject: camera review, and tell us what camera you’re interested in reviewing, so we don’t get 18 reviews of the same camera! It probably wouldn’t hurt to tell us if you’ve written for other publications or websites so we can get an idea of your writing style. If your pitch sounds good and isn’t a duplicate, we’ll give you a quick go-ahead.
Help Wanted – Freelance Video Blogger
If you are passionate about videography, can put together entertaining, informative short videos in a collaborative effort, and can meet deadlines, you may be who we’re looking for. If you write well and can research topics, all the better.
To apply send an email to Hal Landen Include links to videos you’ve produced and tell me about your work and past projects where you’ve had to meet deadlines.
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