We’ve been working very hard on our new project, Poptent. We are very proud of it, and can’t wait to share it with you! For now, we’re just fixing up the bugs and polishing it up nicely. If you’re curious to see what’s going on inside, send me an email and I’ll hook you up with a Private Beta Testing invitation. Just put “Poptent Beta Tester Request” in the subject heading, and I’ll send you the code as soon as I can.

Just a heads up to all of you itching for more assignments… they’re coming! Stay tuned, friends. We’re about to launch something BIG!

Tags: poptent, xlntads, news

SXSW is a festival celebrating independent music and film, but in recent years it has become the epicenter for innovation with it’s Interactive festival that’s joined the party. Lots of amazing new products launch at this event and many of the most influencial people in tech come.

We’re getting our foot in the door there as well! But we need your help. We need folks to go vote for our panel discussion suggestions. Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to http://panelpicker.sxsw.com and sign up (you can sign up several times if you use more than one email address!)
2. When you get to the master list of session ideas, find Neil’s by entering “Neil Perry” or “XLNTads” into the search box.
3. You should see two sessions listed: “Top Lessons Learned in Consumer-Generated Advertising” and “How to Make a Brand Friendly Video”
4. Give them each 5 stars!

Let me know if you have any questions or trouble with the panel picker site. Thanks!

Tags: sxsw, interactive, xlntads, conference, cga, advertising

I wanted to drop a note to all of you to keep you in the loop of what was up over here, Chez XLNTads. We’ve had a wild couple weeks, though it’d be hard to tell from where you’re sitting.

First, a small bit of housekeeping. We had some annoying and persistent problems with our video encoder on the My Road Trip assignment. We want to make sure everyone who entered is being considered so we’ve had to take time to push all those videos through the gauntlet. Thanks for your patience. We’ll have those winners announced as soon as we can. Apologies for the slight delay.

Second, the Fourth of July was awesome, right? Yay, America! Me, I just got back from a long holiday weekend in Bar Harbor, Maine. I probably should have dropped in on Slater while I was up there, but alas. Anyone else from up in that neck of the woods? Boy, that’s beautiful country!

Third, we are working very hard on our semi-secret, totally awesome new project and we’re really excited about it. I want so badly to tell you all about it, but I guess I have to wait just a little longer. But believe me…. this is going to rock.

And finally, if any of you are going to be in the Philadelphia area this weekend, why not come on down to the YouTube gathering at Independence Park on Saturday? Nalts will be there. So will I. Come hang out and have some fun with us. Don’t forget to bring a smile… there will be a lot of cameras.

Tags: news, xlntads

Many apologies for the tardiness of this announcement, but the decision was delayed by unforseen circumstances that were beyond our control. That being said, it is with great pride, relief, joy and happiness that we bring you the best of the Net 10 No Evil assignment from earlier this spring.

Congratulations and the top prize of $5000 are going to our friend…

BlindLyleFilms for their video “Blind Lyle” (isn’t he cute!)

We have 5 Runners up who are taking home $200 each for their efforts:

onelightpro – Cleaning Our Streets
philmgeye – Nice Guys Finish Last
prazmedia – Children in need in Kenya
desertcity – Net 10 Donkey Rescue
jabinibarra – Does your cell phone company support youth role models

Congrats, everyone! You did a fantastic job for Net 10, we hope you enjoyed making them.

Tags: net 10, phone, commercials, video, advertising, xlntads, assignments

After a long deliberation (man, this was a tough one!), we came up with the three videos that are picking up the $5000 financing from us to develop their series. Those three are:

GreenSkyMedia’s Guy Trouble

Zeltrine’s Love Search

Levoyage’s Searching Santa

We’ll be working hard on selling all seven of the finalists, we hope everyone will do well in the end.

Thanks for all your hard work on this assignment. Be sure to check out the vids coming in on the Road Trip assignment as well.

Tags: searching for love, xlntads, news, video, series

There’s a great AP article by Jim Salter floating around the media today that talks about beer companies using viral videos to promote their brands. It’s a growing trend!

And they very nearly, almost mentioned us… Haha. Here’s the quote:

Today, Anheuser-Busch is using viral ads to expand on its TV “Dude” campaign (created by members of XLNTads.com!). Other beer makers also use Web ads as part of broader marketing efforts…

Thanks for the tip, Nalts!

And just a heads up - now’s as good a time as any - Bud Light just bought two more of your videos! I’ll have a full blog post to announce the two they bought and share that great news with you. Stay tuned!

Tags: viral, video, advertising, xlntads, bud light

We’ve been watching the Searching for Love submissions all week and going back and forth about which ones were our three favorites. We haven’t been able to agree quite yet.

After discussing your videos and showing them to some of our brand clients, we’ve got a good feel for what is salable to them and what they feel confortable sponsoring and buying. We recognize that there are some small things we’ll need to change in these webisodes to make them more appealing to our brand partners. So we’re communicating with our finalists what those changes should be and asking them to complete those changes over the next couple of days.

We decided to spend some extra time because we really want to come to our clients with the best possible work. We’re working hard for you guys to make sure we’re selling the best possible shows we know you can make.

That being said, these are the seven finalists that we’re going to boil down to three for the $5000 development deal:

Marcboese’s Sarah’s Search
GreenSkyMedia’s Guy Trouble
Zeltrine’s Love Search
DevinWilliamBone’s Dew You Love Me
Levoyage’s Searching Santa
FilmJeff’s Michael is Searching for Love
IlanaDonna’s Monogamy in the City

Good luck, y’all!

Tags: xlntads, webisode, video, series, searching for love, dating

Ah, road trip season. Been day dreaming about a great tour you’d like to do? We’d love to hear about it! We’re running a new assignment about the great adventures you can have driving around America. And who doesn’t love that? You know I do.

I went to this awesome film festival last week called MountainFilm in Telluride and I decided it would be the perfect time (on the road!) to make the intro video for this assignment. Check it out:

Tags: xlntads, road trip, series, video, video podcast, vlog

Our friends at ProQuo have set up a video page for folks to vote on their favorite ProQuo ads made by the awesome community members at XLNTads. Head on over and vote for your favorite!

Tags: proquo, xlntads, videos, news, cga

Amazing. ProQuo was absolutely floored by how awesome your videos are. In fact, I heard they had a company party, brought in pizza and beer, and watched through all the videos and chose their favorites democracy-style. Fun! Apparently, it was a pretty wild party. LOL! Well, okay, that last part I made up, but I can imagine. Viral videos always get people amped up.

Okay, lemme cut to the chase. Here are their Top Ten favorites! Congratulations to all these folks who are banking $1500 each! Stay tuned for the viral run-off to see which one gets seen the most out there in the videoland wilds. (note: they’re all embeded, so give them a second to load)

ZackScott’s Sick Mailbox

ej6inmiami’s Junk Mail Attacks

kevhdigital’s Medieval Junk Mail

JamesDierx’s Do Not Kill the Messenger

cydog’s Unsolicited

sakinnuso’s Devil Deal

MattyGahan’s Dirty Mail Lady

SlatersGarage’s ProQuo Poor Eddie

ThreeVolts’ Too Much Junk 3

kahit1227’s ProQuo ID Theft

Tags: xlntads, video, proquo, advertising, viral, commercial

Just in case you hadn’t noticed the wee lil’ list on the side bar over on the right, XLNTads is all over the place on the interwebs. Why not head on over and share a little love and friend us up? We’re on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and more.

Oh, and in case you were looking for a little more social media humor, check this out:

[thanks, adpulp!]

Tags: social networks, xlntads, friending, video, humor

We’re delving into the world of the webisode again! Come check out our newest assignment, Searching for Love. Oh, and check out my super nerdy intro video:

Congratulations to the following videos and their makers! In no particular order, here are the Top Ten videos as chosen by New Line Cinemas. Don’t forget to go see the film when it opens next weekend!

samadej – WWNPHD

onespartan – Obey The Master


jenneluedtke – Crazy Characters

desertcity – Patriot or Terrorist

Whitlash – A Subconscious Endorsement

saw138 – Ask Correctional Carl

GreenSkyMedia – Inspired

JeremiahRa - Save Us

bluecomedytv - Bush Won’t Stop Calling

bigboyco - 420 National Holiday Campaign

Tags: harold and kumar, commercials, advertising

We’re sponsoring this year’s 48 Hour Film Festival in Philadelphia, happening this weekend (click the link to get the full schedule). I get to be on the judges panel, which I’m pretty excited about. If you’re in the area and want to come say hi or be a part of the festivities, please do! Maybe we’ll take some video of the fun and festivities to share with y’all. As always, stay tuned.

Tags: xlntads, 48 hour film, news

I’m excited to announce that Anheuser-Busch bought a second video from our creative community, after first buying Ant Dudes. This time the honor goes to cybel7 for their hilarious Hockey Dude video! Congratulations, Viviana and Gato Productions! Fantastic work.

The folks at Anheuser-Bucsh are still reviewing videos and we should have more news very soon. Thanks for your patience, everyone.

Tags: advertising, commercial, bud light, dude, xlntads