See What’s Out There

MoveOn has to be running what could be called the most successful video contest ever — if the measurement is participation.

Their Obama in 30 Seconds contest invited people to make a 30-second spot, positive only, to help elect Barack Obama. They got over 1,000 entries, which is great. But they are, as of this writing, rapidly approaching 4 million votes to the contest. Now, there are many YouTube videos with millions or views, but in this contest each person has to vote for each video in three categories, so this is a higher level of engagement.

The whole thing is set-up beautifully. They are using Amazon S3 to host the video in their own player. They made the embed code available as well as a permalink. They require votes (out of 5 stars) in three categories, Positive Message, Originality, Overall Impact. They serve up the videos in a random order to make sure every video will get lots of votes.

Now, if success is electing Obama we don’t know how effective it is yet. But it shows the video contest is here to stay and making high quality media is easier than ever.

The quality of the videos varies greatly. Here’s a nice one I saw, but then because of the random serving I couldn’t find it again on the MoveOn site, but found it on YouTube:

[Link to video]

New Orleans, March 21, 2008 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Humane Society of the USA has just won best overall video in the 2nd Annual DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards, sponsored by See3 Communications and NTEN - the Nonprofit Technology Network.

Their video, called Overlooked: The Lives of Animals Raised for Food won best video out of the 160 entries to this year’s contest. Other category winners included Greenpeace International, ASPCA and Center for Constitutional Rights which won for their video George Bush Hates Santa.

More than 5000 people voted in the contest.

All of the winning videos can be seen at DoGooderTV, home of nonprofit video.

The 160 entered videos were then judged by a panel of experts in video and nonprofits, including Jeff Pulver, founder of the Video on the Net conference, Danny Alpert, Executive Producer of See3 Communications and award-winning documentary filmmaker, and Suzanne Muchin, Principal, ROI Ventures, a Chicago-based organization helping social entrepreneurs create scalable enterprises.

Here is video of Michael Hoffman, CEO of See3 Communications, giving out the awards at the final lunch at the Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans.

Once again Beth Kanter and her friends at the Sharing Foundation won the latest philanthropy competition. (If you didn’t help Beth win, you can still give $10 or more to the Sharing Foundation online and help kids in Cambodia.)

The whole giving competition thing is complicated and I am not sure it’s healthy. There is a mad scramble to get donations in a certain time period. Organizations push on their network, “Give now!” “We need you!” “We want to win.” But unless you are an expert like Beth, you don’t usually have much of a chance.

Beth has written about her win and here is the response I left for her. You can read more about it on Beth’s blog.

Beth, you are really great at this. Mazal Tov yet again on a job well done.

This whole competition thing has been a good model for your strengths, and I have given to this worthy cause every time you asked.

But I wonder about all the orgs who went down this road because of the publicity but were so less equipped than you to be successful. I saw lots of questions about this on the PX list and elsewhere and thought to myself, these poor suckers, they are going to spend lots of time putting this together, will get little response, and people like Beth — with big and active networks — will eat their lunch. They don’t have a chance.

I also wonder if this whole competition thing is sustainable. How many of these could you do before you create fatigue in your network? And, is there a way to get the folks who gave with the urgency of this campaign to have a deeper engagement with the Sharing Foundation?

Would love your thoughts on all of this in another post.

Michael

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2nd Annual DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards

Chicago, IL & Seattle, WA January 11, 2008

See3 Communications and NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network announce the co-sponsorship of the 2nd Annual DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards. Nonprofit organizations are encouraged to submit their videos to the contest, hosted on DoGooderTV, the video sharing platform for nonprofits. The grand prize winner will be announced at NTEN’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in New Orleans on March 21. The winner will be awarded an all-expense paid trip to the 2009 NTC to be held in San Francisco.

The theme of this year’s contest is From the Ground Up: Using Technology to Engage Constituents and Make the World a Better Place. The goal of the contest is to highlight the work of nonprofit organizations and to spread the word about the creative ways they employ media to bring about social change. Last year’s winner, Avaaz “Stop the Clash of Civilizations” received a standing ovation when played at the conference. This video has been viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube.

Nonprofit organizations and their constituents are invited to submit videos used in support of a 2007 campaign. Videos can be from a wide variety of issue and interest areas including (but not limited to) activism, environment, education, disability, economic development, human services, international development, health, and the arts.

Entries will be accepted until February 15, 2008 at which time finalists will be determined. The finalists will be shown on www.DoGooder.tv beginning March 1, 2008; individuals will be able to vote on their favorite entry through March 20, 2008. For complete contest rules and to submit or view videos, please visit the video contest home.

See3 Communications creates compelling visual media and internet marketing initiatives that enable nonprofits to maximize exposure, deepen connections and produce results. Our background in video production, web development and nonprofit marketing and fundraising are combined to create campaigns with emotional appeal that compel target audiences to action. For additional information about See3 Communications, visit www.see3.net

NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network is the membership organization of nonprofit technology professionals. NTEN facilitates the exchange of knowledge and information within the nonprofit community. We connect our members to each other, provide professional development opportunities, educate our constituency on issues of technology use in nonprofits, and spearhead groundbreaking research, advocacy, and education on technology issues affecting our entire community. For additional information about NTEN, visit www.nten.org

Contact Information
Mary Dombrowski
Director of Operations
See3 Communications
(773) 784-7333
mary[at]see3[dot]net
www.see3.net
www.dogooder.tv

Holly Ross
Executive Director
NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network
(415) 397-9000
holly[at]nten[dot]org
www.nten.org

Combine a video contest, nonprofits, prize money, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and YouTube and what do you get? Hollywood movie promotion! “Lions for Lambs” a movie about the never-ending “war on terror” and public apathy is asking individuals to stand up for what they believe in on YouTube and win $25,000 for their favorite cause.

Got a nonprofit? Then you should be making a video. Because while you might not win this money, you will certainly get some folks to learn about your mission.

Check here to see more.

DoGooderTV has become the platform for nonprofits to host video contests. Hosting video contests on DoGooderTV gives you all of the functionality of uploading, managing users and videos, sign-ups, registration and voting. We even provide you with a contest rules template.

There are two live contests right now on the DoGooderTV platform. You will notice in the second one that it doesn’t look like it’s on DoGooderTV, another way we can provide the platform.

Click here to see the Fresh Focus Sex Ed Video Contest

Click here to see the Love Is Respect Video Contest

I recently wrote about matching fundraising campaigns where one donor agrees to match the contributions of a set of additional donors, up to a certain amount. A twist on this is a kind of contest with a big payoff for the organization at the end.

An example of that from a few months back was when Beth Kanter orchestrated winning Yahoo! and Network For Good’s charity badge fundraising competition on behalf of the Sharing Foundation. To the tune of $100,000.

The Ploughshares Fund has launched a similar contest with a twist. For the Yahoo!/Network for Good contest the winner was the one who raised the most money using a charity badge (a kind of simple widget) distributed on sites across the net.

The Ploughshares Fund has launched something called the Peace Primary. It is a kind of online popularity contest/election. But you can’t just vote. You have to pay $1 per vote (minimum 10) and those dollars go to the organization. So its a combination contest/fundraiser. Nice!

Here’s their FAQ. Go to the Peace Primary to vote.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How many groups can I vote for?

You can vote for as many organizations as you like. In fact, voting for multiple groups is strongly encouraged.

How many times can I vote?

Each vote costs $1. For each group you select, there is a 10-vote minimum and a 1,000 vote maximum.

Where does the money go?

Every dollar you contribute with each vote goes directly to the group you are voting for. All donations are completely tax-deductible.

I don’t know if I like the idea of money for votes.

Neither do we in actual elections, but in the Peace Primary nobody loses — every dollar raised goes directly to the the participating groups to support their efforts to raise the profile of peace issues in the coming months. There are also strict spending limits in the Peace Primary — no more than $1,000 per voter per group — to maximize every group’s chances of winning. And, unlike real-world elections, voters are allowed and even encouraged to vote for as many groups as they want.

When can I vote?

You can vote any time between September 1 and October 31, 2007.

How will the winner be chosen?

The group that receives the most votes will receive a one-time grant of $100,000 from the Ploughshares Fund, a public grantmaking foundation that supports the smartest people with the best ideas for preventing the spread and use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and identifying new ways to prevent armed conflict.

How were the participating groups chosen?

The Ploughshares Fund submitted a list of organizations to an all-star panel of leaders (see above) from across the peace and security community, and that panel voted for the 12 finalists. The panel was chaired by actor Martin Sheen and also included writer, commentator and religious scholar Reza Aslan, a member of Ploughshares Fund’s Board of Directors; the Reverend Dr. Joan Brown Campbell of the Chautauqua Institute; Bonnie Jenkins, program officer at the Ford Foundation; former Congressman Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey (R-CA); author Jonathan Schell; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor-in-chief of The Nation, and Ploughshares Fund Executive Director Naila Bolus.

What criteria were used to nominate the groups?

We looked for organizations that represent a wide range of approaches to peace and human security; that have a commitment to action and policy advocacy; that have a base of grassroots support and a national or broad regional constituency; that have the capacity for online communication and outreach to constituents; and that have a record of making an impact.

Mining is in the news a lot recently because of the terrible tragedy in Utah where six miners are presumed dead in a mine collapse and at least three more have been killed trying to rescue them. Another kind of mining made today’s news. It’s called mountaintop removal and it is the most common mining in West Virginia and Appalachia generally. It is just what the name implies. They remove the top of a mountain to expose the coal vein. In addition to destroying the trees and vegetation there is another big problem with this technique — where does the mountain top end up? The answer is in the valley, where the streams and rivers run. With an entire mountaintop in the river the river stops, or gets diverted. It is a big mess.

The news today is that the people in the Bush administration that regulate this industry — who happen to have been industry lobbyists before they joined the administration, surprise surprise — just announced new “rules” that basically interpret a law saying you can’t mine near the streams and rivers to mean that you can dump all your waste in streams and rivers. Obvious isn’t it. (And they say China is being Orwellian with language as they prepare for the Olympics.) You can read about it more in today’s New York Times.

But this is all very abstract and if you were an organization trying to mobilize people against this practice, the most powerful weapon is video. Show people what “mountaintop removal” really is and they will be shocked and surprised that we are allowing corporate profits to decimate whole areas of the country. The folks at I Love Mountains.Org have done just that. Their video was a runner up in the See3 - NTEN video contest this year. Their video is too long, and there are other production quality issues with it, but they don’t really matter. Just look and see what it means to SHOW people something versus just telling them about it. How are you showing your issue?

The Obama campaign is doing great things with video that every organization should be doing. They are documenting his travels and speeches. They are interviewing supporters and making short films about supporters and their issues — all in addition to more traditional advertising. Have a look at a couple videos they did around a contest for a donor to have dinner with Senator Obama:

I have been reporting here about the trend of getting your consumers, or activists/donors, to participate in user generated content contests. The idea is simple — “make an ad for us and you could win something.” The something might be $25,000, $2,000 or recognition from your peers. The goal is to get people engaged, and get some “free” content out of it. MoveOn did this in 2004 when they got people to make anti-Bush commercials. In addition to having the videos online, they put together a DVD called Bush in 30 Seconds.

But contests are harder than they look.

We saw that for Heinz, the product wasn’t so great. And in today’s Times was the headline:

Outcome of an Ad Contest Starts an Uproar on YouTube

Some YouTube users cried foul this week when they saw the winning video in a Malibu Caribbean Rum user-generated advertising contest.

The contest, which began in early May, solicited videos about Malibu Banana Rum set to the tune of “Banana Boat Song,” also known as “Day-O.” It offered a prize of $25,000 or, if the winner preferred, a banana grove in a tropical location.

The Malibu brand, owned by Pernod Ricard, stated that it would consider the votes of YouTube users when it selected the winner. Malibu also said the actor Efren Ramirez of “Napoleon Dynamite” would help judge. The winner would be announced, the company said, by June 30.

The winner, however, was posted Monday, and finalists were not publicly named. Some consumers who lost the contest were quick to start a rumbling on YouTube message boards that the contest had been rigged — a charge that Malibu denied.

One YouTube user even made a six-minute conspiracy theory video that compared images from a professional Malibu commercial promoting the contest with the winner’s video, saying in part: “Wow, the same nose!? The same guy? You be the judge!”

“It just looks like, wow, they rigged the contest,” said Debbie Lusignan, 35, of Adams, Mass. “I am furious. I spent 60 hours on this freaking contest.”

Ron Klineschmidt, the winner of the contest, who has been peppered with negative comments from his upset competitors, said they were being sore losers…

Contests can work well. But don’t go into it thinking it will be cheap or easy.