Poptent is our new community site where brands and independent video creators connect.
And the Top 5 videos from the Zorbeez assignment on XLNTads as chosen by the good folks at Zorbeez HQ (in no particular order) are… *drumroll, please*
Zorbeez Old School - FreshSqueezedMedia
Super Absorbent Cloth - jhbmw007
Cleans Just About Everything - majordiamond
Bloody Good Zorbeez - Plato33
Zorbeez Eco Friendly - jenneleudtke
Great job, everyone. Congratulations! Fantastic creative work.
Tags: zorbeez, commercial, winners, video, advertising, xlntads
Great news! Daneboe’s video “Ant Dudes” was picked up by Anheuser-Busch to be featured on their budlightdude.com website. Good job, Dane! Fantastic work. Enjoy that $5000.
Remember, the Bud Light assignment deadline is midnight tonight, so make sure you get those videos in by then. We received a whole slew of them over the weekend, many of which have great potential. I’m constantly surprised by the talent of our community. Keep ‘em rollin’, everyone. You’re all doing a fantastic job.
Anheuser-Busch has already selected another video that is in the running, and will certainly be choosing a couple more in the coming week. Stay tuned, as always.
Tags: xlntads, bud light, advertising, bud light dude, video
New assignment alert! It’s ProQuo.com - a new company who’s changing the way you control the junk mail that comes to your house. And guess who made the goofy video for the landing page? You guessed it (don’t laugh too hard):
Can’t wait to see your funny skits, y’all. Let’s see ‘em! Ten people will earn $1500 each, with a bonus package for views. Learn more here.
We’ve got ‘em! It’s with great happiness and satisfaction that I bring you the top videos of the Slim-Fast assignment. Thank you all for your patience, we’re excited with the videos that won, they’re exceptional ads. We did receive so many amazing pieces of creative, I was blown away by how fabulous the work.
The Grand Prize is going to:
desert city - Liberate Yourself
The Second Prize is going to:
jhcprod - A Woman’s Body
The Third Prize is going to:
BlindLyleFilms - Find Your Slim
Congratulations, again, everyone.
Tags: video, advertising, slim-fast, winners, xlntads
Well, it’s time for another update, friends! Sorry for the steady stream of messages on our Bud Light program, but we wanted to convey a couple important things about the assignment.
First of all, Bud Light has already committed to buying the first video and are gearing up to purchase a second for $5,000 each! I will post those spots here as soon as the releases clear for you all to enjoy.
Secondly, speaking of releases… since it’s beer (yay!), Bud Light has to adhere to a lot stricter set of rules than most of our participating brands. Because of that, they need to be extra careful about what goes up online. They want to make sure they have all the necessary release forms on file for all the videos before we post.
If you have made or are making a video for the assignment, be sure to email Liza or me PDF copies of your forms as soon as you can. You can also fax them to (610) 832-1166
That’s it for now. Remember, subscribing to this blog will keep you up to date on all the happenings as soon as they happen!
Boy, this is beautiful, isn’t it?
Tags: creativity, creative inspiration, schweppes
We hope you’ve already signed up for our Bud Light “Dude!” assignment. I wanted to mention a couple things to the folks who are participating:
* Bud Light wants to review each video carefully before putting it live on the site. That’s why there aren’t any videos posted there yet. The good thing is that top marketing execs at Anheuser-Busch are watching all your videos! The bad thing is they aren’t live on the site yet. Sorry!
* Bud has mentioned to us that they need people to add a © 2008 Anheuser-Busch, Inc., Bud Light® Beer, St. Louis, MO and “Please drink responsibly” text into their videos. There has been a little confusion about this, I will clarify more as I get more info. They definitely need it in there, though, so plan on adding it.
* The videos we’ve gotten so far are great! One thing to keep in mind, it’s always cool when you take the concept and give it a twist instead of re-hashing the exact same concept. Think creatively! Think outside the obvious.
* One of our community members has already sold a video to Bud Light for $5000! I can’t wait to show you! Details to follow. Get yours in, they’re already picking out ones they like.
* Lastly, if you haven’t done so already, make sure you have your mailing address filled in on your XLNTads profile so we can be sure your checks are going to the right place!
Hopefully you’re all hard at work on these videos. Bud Light is eager to see more great work. Thanks to all of you who’ve submitted so far!
Tags: bud light, xlntads, video, assignment, advertising
[photo: impale]
On of my favorite photography blogs, Photojojo just printed this amazing list of legal rights you have when using a camera. If it goes for stills, it also goes for video! Know yr rights, friends. Use these rules to your advantage.
THE TEN LEGAL COMMANDMENTS OF PHOTOGRAPHY
I. Anyone in a public place can take pictures of anything they want. Public places include parks, sidewalks, malls, etc. Malls? Yeah. Even though it’s technically private property, being open to the public makes it public space.
II. If you are on public property, you can take pictures of private property. If a building, for example, is visible from the sidewalk, it’s fair game.
III. If you are on private property and are asked not to take pictures, you are obligated to honor that request. This includes posted signs.
IV. Sensitive government buildings (military bases, nuclear facilities) can prohibit photography if it is deemed a threat to national security.
V. People can be photographed if they are in public (without their consent) unless they have secluded themselves and can expect a reasonable degree of privacy. Kids swimming in a fountain? Okay. Somebody entering their PIN at the ATM? Not okay.
VI. The following can almost always be photographed from public places, despite popular opinion:
- accident & fire scenes, criminal activities
- bridges & other infrastructure, transportation facilities (i.e. airports)
- industrial facilities, Superfund sites
- public utilities, residential & commercial buildings
- children, celebrities, law enforcement officers
- UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, Chuck Norris
VII. Although “security” is often given as the reason somebody doesn’t want you to take photos, it’s rarely valid. Taking a photo of a publicly visible subject does not constitute terrorism, nor does it infringe on a company’s trade secrets.
VIII. If you are challenged, you do not have to explain why you are taking pictures, nor to you have to disclose your identity (except in some cases when questioned by a law enforcement officer.)
IX. Private parties have very limited rights to detain you against your will, and can be subject to legal action if they harass you.
X. If someone tries to confiscate your camera and/or film, you don’t have to give it to them. If they take it by force or threaten you, they can be liable for things like theft and coercion. Even law enforcement officers need a court order.
So go forth! Use this knowledge to make awesome videos, armed with your rights as an artist.
UPDATE: Zack Scott makes a great point to consider in the comments. You can shoot public places, but you can’t always use those people’s images without their permission. Thanks, Zack!
Tags: creativity, creative inspiration, xlntads, video, how to, photojojo
Oh yeah, baby! New assignment time! Harold and Kumar are going on another adventure! This time, they get thrown into Guantanemo prison, only to escape and try to make it back home. Check out the trailer:
We’re going to try something a little different with this assignment. There are lots of different ways you can make the vids - 5 different styles to choose from - and a new, experimental payment structure.
New Line Cinema will select 10 videos and pay their creators $1,500 per video. New Line Cinema will also give each selected creator a set of 3 DVD Movie releases.
Since we would like loads of people to see the selected videos, we will also:
So get to it! There are a lot of cool assets to download, and a bunch of different ways you could make a video. Be sure to read the Creative Brief carefully! The deadline is only a few weeks away! You have until April 13th before the chosen videos are off to the viral races!
Tags: harold and kumar, film, new line, xlntads, advertising, video, viral
[UPDATE: Wowza! You guys really wanna work! That's awesome. We've got all the jobs filled already, guys, but thank you for your response. I will respond to each of you individually who emailed me, but hang tight, I got a lot to get through!
In the future, we will try and feed jobs directly to our best creators as often as we can. Stay tuned for more!]
Hi gang, I just wanted to reward all you faithful blog readers with a little offer only you will see. We’ve got a few internal video jobs that need doing and we thought we’d reach out to you to do them. If you’ve got some time on your hands this week (we need ‘em quick!) and would like to earn some extra cash, email me (mark at xlntads dot com) and I’ll give the scoop. Put ‘VIDEO JOB‘ in the Subject: line of your email.
Basically, we’re looking for three short videos made for us to help close some deals with potential clients. They’ll be ’samples’ of what our assignment might produce. We’re looking for three people who can capably produce on one of the following topics.
Want in? Just email me!
Just a friendly reminder to get out there and shoot some video of one of the heros you know and get it to our site soon! The Net10 No Evil assignment is ending this weekend. Get your hero’s story in by March 15th for the chance to sell your video for $5000 or get awarded 6 months of free cell phone service!
We’ve got a bunch of good ones in already, but will yours be better?
Tags: news, xlntads, net10, advertising, video
[note: this is a message from Neil Perry, our acting CEO]
Amazing! And that’s not me, that word came straight from the client.
That’s been the consistent comment from our marketing brethren at Nestle’s 100 Grand Bar, from Unilever’s Slim-Fast team, and from the ZorbEEZ group at Vertical Branding.
Amazing.
We’ve been working closely with our marketing partners at these three companies to select the ads they’d like to move forward with, and to award any prizes that were featured. But please be patient.
Clearly, we caught these unsuspecting marketers by surprise with the high quality, incredible production values, wonderful scripting and acting, and generally, by producing some damn fine creative.
Because of this great creative achievement, all three marketers are actively engaged in re-looking at their original plan and are considering bigger and better ways of utilizing your fine work. But that takes time, and corporate work can move painfully slowly at times.
It’s important for you know that those of us at XLNTads are engaged on a daily basis with these companies, reviewing the creative, making recommendations, and considering a broad spectrum of approaches to get as much of your creative product purchased and used as feasible.
I will keep you posted as the process continues. My compliments on some outstanding videos.
Without further ado, I’d like to announce one of our most amazing assignments yet. Bud Light! You’ve seen these spots before, right?
I bet you can think of funny ‘dude!’ scenarios of your own. Well get out there and film ‘em! We’re going to have a short run at this one because Bud wants to get these vids up in time for March Madness (heck yeah!). The deadline is only 4 weeks away! We’re offering $5000 a pop to the best 3 (at the very least).
Tags: advertising, bud light, beer, funny, dude, xlntads, video, ugc, cga
