Mental_floss Blog has a good round-up of some recent winners of Branded YouTube Contests here. Overall, it’s interesting to see quality work that can rise to the top for these types of contests. We’ve posted in the past some of the keys to having a successful Brand Contest on YouTube – #1 of which is and always will be prizing (as related to the effort involved). With the recent onslaught of Crowdsourcing in the Advertising and Marketing worlds, it will be important to remember this little detail.
On another note, though this post is about the winning videos for Branded YouTube Contests, I did want to throw in that approximately 75-80% of the entries we’ve received in the past for video contests are pure crap. There’s a reason why Amateur Video is called Amateur. With that said though, it’s always refreshing to come across a few diamonds among the dung when reviewing all the videos. I posted 2 of the winning videos below from a Casio Exilim Branded YouTube Contest we did a few years back and these are typical of the ‘diamonds’ you’ll fine with these UGC contests…
Received an email from the Land’s End Shop at SEARS the other day. Can’t recall what compelled me to open what I normally classify as spam. In any case, it survived the big finger delete keystroke. After opening the BigWarmUp link in the email I was greeted with a mildly entertaining yet touching video. The video cleverly showcased the life of one red coat:
The coat’s Christmas reveal, to mom sewing her son’s name on the label, to its final resting place several years later. Lonely and forgotten it rests on the coat rack, second string to the latest fashion. Cut to a homeless center, exiting the building the red coat rests on the back of a man in need. Just behind, a homeless woman follows; she looks down at the label on her coat. My name was printed in black ink just like mom used to do.
Admittedly this is not the most technologically advanced or complex interactive video and it didn’t need to be. Advertisers and marketers, take note. It was the association and personalization that got me thinking about all those boxes in the rafters. What the heck am I hanging onto my old digs for anyway? It did what interactive video can do best for advertisers; it kept me engaged in the message and gave me the ability to take action when struck with the opportunity.
Interactive video screams entertainment, but for advertisers and marketers its power has scarcely been revealed. From personalization, to story driven reveals, to augmented reality, to a simple interactive link that lets you share or purchase the item advertised, interactive video provides a loaded brush to engage the consumer. It delivers the ability to capture and share of the moment interest, taking brands one step closer to the ROI Holy Grail.
Check out the Boston area campaign here http://www.bigwarmup.com/. If you are not from Boston you can still donate coat in your local area. Happy Holiday’s
Shopping for a camcorder: Learn what to look for before buying one
Button basics: Master the most important buttons on the camcorder and how each of them works
Light and filter it right: Creative tips on lights and filters that will improve the look of your videos
Microphone techniques: Get the best sound from your mic with the least amount of hassle
The art of composition: Simple composition rules to set your video apart from ordinary videos
Smooth moves: Handheld camera techniques
These are very basic video production techniques but it will be interesting to see how far YouTube goes with this. They are already the #1 destination for aspiring filmmakers looking for mass distribution and have cultivated and grown their “YouTube All-Stars” base who create original content that amasses large numbers of subscribers and traffic. By holding these Webinars, YouTube is positioning itself to capture original content creators before they develop an affinity for competing sites such as Vimeo and Metacafe.
Will YouTube ever replace Film School? No. But from a filmmaking perspective, YouTube is quickly becoming a version of Film and Video 2.0 where the future of online film and video techniques can be found:
Revenue through Adsense and, if you’re lucky, Motion Picture Film Deals. Yes, Fred someone got one..
These are amazing digital tools for any aspiring filmmaker to have and should help usher in a new wave of “Online Educated Interactive Filmmakers” from the Gen Y / Gen Z demographic set that grow up using them.
Integrates Facebook Connect To Put Casual Gamers And Their Friends In The Same Game.
August 12, 2009, Los Angeles – Today we’re launching another emerging media application, “Cannonballz”, an interactive webcam based flash game. Obviously it’s not news that an interactive marketing agency has built a flash game. The news is that “Cannonballz” is the first casual game built using Augmented Reality and our proprietary Motion Capture User Interface Engine (A.K.A. ZugMo Technology). ZugMo Technology enables anyone with a webcam (and a Flash plug-in) to physically engage with various elements that are integrated within their video stream. No mouse and no keyboard, it’s all done with gesture recognition. With this immersive technology you no longer just play games, you get to be in them. It’s a whole new experience.
If you just want to see a demo of the game, please check out the video below.
With “Cannonballz”, we’ve used ZugMo Technology to build a casual game to showcase the potential of this technology. We previously used the technology to build an online shopping application called the Webcam Social Shopper. While we hope that people find this game to be fun, it’s not “the star” here. The technology is, and the possibilities of how it can be utilized are really as endless as a company’s creativity. Think about it: educational games for children; an entire section of games on Yahoo; casual games that engage consumers with a brand; product demonstrations; an interactive element in a corporate training session; etc.
“We chose casual gaming as a way to showcase the ZugMo Technology because over 200 million people play casual games every single month” said Matt Szymczyk, CEO, Zugara. “It’s an experience we’re all familiar with, and we hope will allow people to see the greater potential for this technology. Gaming is also the perfect execution to show the power of social media integration. For ‘Cannonballz’ we integrated Facebook Connect to allow users to not only bring their friends into the actual gameplay, but to quickly and easily share their scores and the game with their friends via their news stream.”
So, what do you think? We’d love to get your thoughts in the comments below.
Zugara, a member of the Augmented Reality Industry guiding “AR Consortium”, is an interactive marketing agency with a passion for emerging media and technologies. Unlike most agencies, we don’t claim to do everything: Interactive Video, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Website & Application Development are our core competencies. Since our doors opened in 2001, we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the world’s best brands such as Reebok, Sony Computer Entertainment Of America, Toyota, Activision, Jelly Belly, Casio, The Air Force, and Lexus to create strategic interactive campaigns that focus on accomplishing their business objectives. Based in Los Angeles, we’re currently in the process of expanding, and opening our second office in New York.
For more information on this technology, including purchase of the Software Development Kit so you can create your own applications, please contact: cannonballz(at)zugara(dot)com.
For all press inquiries, please contact: press(at)zugara(dot)com.
Copyright 2009 ZugMo Technology
Copyright 2009 Zugara Inc.
Patent Pending
Song in video courtesy of David Rovics.
June 23, 2009, Los Angeles – Here at Zugara, we’re proud to announce the launch of our newest application, The Webcam Social Shopper. Coupling the functionality of both Augmented Reality and Motion Capture, this application will allow anyone with a webcam to shop online right from within their video feed. We like to think of it as “Augmented Reality meets Utility”. This app allows you to seemingly hold articles of clothing up in front of yourself to see “how they look”. And the Motion Capture allows the app to track your movements so you can interact with the site (e.g. cycle through a product’s various colors/styles or take a picture of yourself so you can get immediate feedback from friends on Facebook) while standing several feet away from your computer’s controls. No extra downloads, no new plug-in, no consumer headache.
To see the application in action, check out our video below.
Now that you’ve seen the application in its “Alpha State”, think about the potential an app like this has as we partner with brands to allow their consumers to do things like:
Livestream their webcam’s feed to friends and loved ones, and get comments and feedback right next to the application in real time.
Receive “clothing care packages” from loved ones who might be somewhere else in the country and set up times to “shop together”… online.
Enter their measurements into the app and get a “fitted image”.
Match entire outfits at the same time, both top and bottom.
Shop right within a branded Facebook application.
It’s not a secret that friends/family recommendations influence a consumer’s purchase decision and beat any other “consumer touchpoint”. Now, we can help brands empower their consumers to integrate their friends and family into their online shopping process like never before. The thinking is that this application will help bridge the gap between how people like to shop offline and how they are forced to shop online, subsequently providing an enhanced interactive shopping experience for the consumer and increased sales for the brand. So, what do you think? Please, feel free to share this post with anyone and everyone, or embed the video above in your own blog. And, as always, we’d love to know your thoughts below…
(UPDATE: We’ve partnered with RichRelevance to integrate their recommendation engine into WSS and create a completely unique application dubbed Fashionista. Fashionista is currently live on Tobi.com and you can read more about that launch on Fast Company.)
About Zugara
Zugara is an interactive marketing agency with a passion for emerging media and technologies. Unlike most agencies, we don’t claim to do everything: Interactive Video, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Website & Application Development are our core competencies. Since our doors opened in 2001, we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the world’s best brands such as Reebok, Sony Computer Entertainment Of America, Toyota, Activision, Jelly Belly, Casio, The Air Force, and Lexus to create strategic interactive campaigns that focus on accomplishing their business objectives. Based in Los Angeles, we’re currently in the process of expanding, and opening our second office in New York (www.zugara.com) (www.zugarastudios.com).
For more information on The Webcam Social Shopper or ZugMo Technology, please contact ar@zugara.com. For all other inquiries, please contact info@zugara.com.
Copyright 2009 ZugMo Technology
Copyright 2009 Webcam Social Shopper
Copyright 2009 Zugara Inc.
Patent Pending
On my way to E3. Should be in the door between 12 and 1 pm pacific. My partners and I will be broadcasting live via our iPhones and Qik. I’ll be buzzing around capturing everything from Project Natal to Dante’s Inferno to Halo 3: ODST as long as my battery life and network provides. You can watch my live feeds here or head on over to my Qik homepage at http://qik.com/bigboots to interact and make me be your subservient broadcaster. Follow me via twitter @Bigboots to catch my broadcast start time.
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
