electronics

HP Heralds Creative Expression In New Promo

HP/YouTube challenge

HP is looking to make people famous for their creative expression. The catch: they can't show their faces.

The company's "You on You" promotion is mean to imitate the company's "The PC is Personal Again" ad campaign, in which celebrities such as Shaun White, Serena Williams and Fergie discuss what they do with their HP computers -- showing only their hands.

"The project encourages, shares and celebrates personal expression via your PC," Tracey Trachta, director of HP's worldwide personal systems group marketing, tells Marketing Daily. "It truly brings our 'The Computer Is Personal Again' campaign to life."

The promotional contest -- through which the company will give away $300,000 in cash and prizes -- uses new video creation tools on You Tube (such as video remixing and webcam video) to create their videos. An introduction to the contest on the site http://www.youtube.com/hp, features musician Kenna showing how people can create videos. "We know you're pretty," he says about the rule of not showing one's face. "But this is about what you do, not what you look like."

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"We wanted to encourage creativity through technology," Trachta says. "This project enables people to create, share and celebrate digital content that reflects who they are, while also drawing attention to HP's unique details."

According to HP, the YouTube contest is the broadest for the site today, and has been localized for 21 countries. Each week during the six-week promotion, a panel of experts will select 20 videos as semifinalists, who will all receive an HP Artist Edition notebook. Twenty finalists (four from each week) will be eligible for a $40,000 grand prize.

"This project contains greater audience participation" than past promotions," Trachta says. "This isn't the first time we've reached out to the public to ask them to contribute their creative ideas -- in fact our notebook PC design contest led to the Artist Edition notebook celebrated in this 'You on You' project. But in this project, we've provided tools via YouTube that enable people with varying levels of content creation expertise, to participate and engage."

HP is promoting the contest through online banner advertising, as well as placements on various social media sites, Trachta says.

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