Behind the Buzz - digital and interactive advertising and marketing

Doritos UK Make your own Ad

by Rachel on April 1st, 2008

I never published the video list yesterday as I could not find any in the list, just politics, sport, sex and TV, the usual stuff! But the paid-for video is this one for Doritos, taking it’s ‘make your own ad’ in the UK. They are showcasing some of their entries and I quite like this

The contest is available at doritos.co.uk:

• make a 29 second ad (and it has to be exactly 29 seconds) and load it up to their site by 18 May. This is one of the competitions in which you lose all rights in the video once it’s uploaded - but for the first time I see this has been made clear in the FAQs instead of only being buried in the small print.
• To get round the permission issue for people appearing in the ad, they give you consent forms to get everyone to sign. Instead of banning all music, they remind you that you need permission and provide some music you can use. The download library is actually pretty big, with logos and assets and background shots, a lot of help to make the ad. To share tips, they are also running a Facebook group, witht he idea that you can connect with fellow filmakers.
• The public rate the videos but the jury whittle it down to the last 5, based on originality and creativity, adherence to brief and appeal and popularity. It also need to abide by TV guidelines which can be tricky at times (they list them on the site). The final 5 are then voted on again by you. The site offers some great guidelines on how to promote your ad and raise the popularity
• The winner gets the ad shown on TV AND 20k GBP. They’ve also got more prizes to entice you to enter, with weekly prizes on offer - this allows them to showcase winners and get even more players. One interesting prize is they are going to beam the winning ad out to space, which is really going to worry any neighbours we have!

One thing that is clear from this competition is how GOOD Doritos has got in running them. They’ve learnt from all the previous ones and pulled together a pretty great site and contest. (I’ve got 2 minor niggles*). They’ve addressed making the film, legal issues, promotion and prizes in a clear and informed manner. One of the best examples out there.

Screenshot from Doritos

*first niggle is that this is not work for hire so rights for videos that don’t win should revert back to creator; second niggle is LACK of DEEP links on site. I can’t link to any of the interesting bits as they are all in the flash.

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POSTED IN: Advertisments, Buzz Marketing, Competition, Consumer Packaged Goods, User Generated Content, Video Content