• by Tanya Gazdik , May 5, 2009

A diverse set of marketers have signed on as participants in the Mofilm User-Generated Content "You to the Power of 12 - U12" competition.

The brands are more than just sponsors. Contestants will be creating short films based on guidelines from each of the companies, which include Renaissance Hotels and Resorts, Visa, AT&T N.A., Best Buy, PepsiCo (Doritos), Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Renaissance Hotels and Resorts, Nokia, Philips, Telstra Australia, Unilever (Omo) and Vodafone.

Each brand has posted a brief on the Mofilm's Web site with guidelines. Briefs are not limited to ideas linking directly to the brands themselves, but may also ask entrants to submit videos on additional topics that might include video demonstrations of a unique Web site experience.

The initiative was conceived during a gathering of chief marketing officers who comprise the Marketing 50 -- aka M50 -- a private community created by senior-most chief marketing officer peers from globally leading organizations for the purpose of sharing insights, solutions and collaborative discovery in a trusted forum free from competition or solicitation. "Never before has a group of brands this strong come together with such an exciting opportunity to assist in empowering the consumer," said Ann Mukherjee, group vice president, marketing, Frito-Lay North America, in a statement.

Mofilm will team up with film industry professionals to offer creative advice to entrants via Mofilm's Twitter page at designated dates and times throughout the duration of the competition, to help assist in the creation of video submissions. Some of the individual brands have set up their own Twitter pages for the contest, such as Renaissance Hotels and Visa.

Films will be seen by an estimated 10 million video, Internet and mobile viewers worldwide. Winning films will be showcased at the Cannes Lions film festival hosted by Spike Lee June 21-27. Each brand's winning filmmaker will compete to win a festival grand prize of $12,000 and an apprenticeship with Spike Lee on his next film or ad project.

Contestants have until June 8 to submit their videos. Brand winners will be announced on June 15. The top three finalists will be announced on June 25, and the grand prize winner will take the main stage at Cannes on June 26.

Each of the 12 brands is offering individual prizes for the entrants creating films with their brand in mind. For example, Renaissance will award prizes to the top three winners with the first-place winner receiving a trip to a major film festival of their choice over the next year in Paris, New York, London, Hollywood, Toronto, Miami or Sydney.