How to crowdsource videos for your company

Wouldn’t it be cool if people created videos for you? Perhaps like HP, you could hold a contest to get students to put forward their best efforts.

The contest was simple. "Present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive." This video filmed, edited and directed by Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth for the contest is just terrific.

Please take a just 80 seconds to watch this amazing video.

Direct link to HP Invent video by Matt and Tom here.

While in Amsterdam this past week, I met Jan-Paul de Beer of BrandFighters, a company that helps companies create video contests. In this video interview, I ask Jan-Paul about the video contests his company runs.

I especially like what he did for Heineken. The contest was to produce a new “walking refrigerator” (What Men Rally Want) video. The winning entry is really fun. I hope you watch the interview, which is just 5 minutes, but you can jump to the end to see the winning Heineken video if you prefer.

Direct link to interview with Jan-Paul de Beer.

See the other entries in the Heineken video contest organized by BrandFighters.

Jan-Paul says the filmmakers not only gets prize money if they win, but can also become famous. How else can a young filmmaker have an opportunity to make a film for a big brand?

For the brand, Jan-Paul says a big benefit is that you can interact with your target audience (buyer personas).

Comments

[Adi]

It's also something that's reasonably easy to do with YouTube Direct http://www.youtube.com/direct

[Peter Burgess]

Dear Colleagues
One day the great technology we now have will be used to do things that are make society a much better place ... not only amusement and entertainment, and ways to create profit ... but also ways for society as a whole to get onto a trajectory for progress. With about 4 billion people way more impoverished than they should be ... progress must come from better decisions, not more welfare ... and for this better data. This is what Community Analytics (CA) does going beyond profit accounting to value accounting and reporting about community rather than the organization. Technology makes such a paradigm shift possible.
Peter Burgess
Community Analytics

[David Meerman Scott]

Peter - I am now in India where I am speaking at the India Leadership Forum. What you say is absolutely true. Interestingly, the Indian government sees infrastructure to get Web access into remote villages as prime importance.

David

[MiChmski]

Cool article David (or Dave?)
When I first saw the first question I thought "I'd like to get paid to make videos for people :D"
I think it's great for brand interaction, though, and is taking relationship marketing to a new level.
And Amen, Peter.

Best, Michelle

[twitter.com/maryhenige]

Ha! What a clever video for HP. Kudos to them, Matt & Tom. Thanks for the informative post on videos, David. Safe travels.

Mary Henige
General Motors
@maryhenige

[Mark Copeman]

Fantastic find David. Inspiring HP video... being in that trade, I cannot even begin to think about how long that might have taken them.

HP are smart. I hope those boys win from their efforts. HP really should commission a series.

[Colin Warwick]

Great idea for leverage. I participated in the first and second annual crowdsourced video contest for DesignCon (just search YouTube for "DesignCon 2009" or "DesignCon 2010" for the complete set of entrants). Modest success so far, but maybe it will grow into something?

[Greg London]

I think it would be awesome if people would do videos for me.

Thanks for the info on this.

[fergus]

There are a number of places online where you can now crowdsource video

wooshii.com (mainly viral but moving into general video)

xlntads.com (adverts)

zooppa.com (adverts)

geniusrocket.com (adverts)

[fergus]

oh and wooshii.com of course

[Dan Martin]

I recently used Squadhelp.com to crowdsource creation of viral videos for my employment site. Very decent response from many contestants. Well worth the $200.

[corporate video production]

Organizational success is driven by successful marketing campaigns. From developing products and services that consumers want to pricing, product availability and promoting what your company offers, effective marketing is paramount. Regardless of the breadth and depth of your current marketing efforts, you might not realize how crowdsourcing takes your campaign to a new level of brand recognition. It also builds, strengthens and expands relationships with your customer base.