YouTube has hatched a contest for aspiring filmmakers around the world. Named Project Direct, the initiative is sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, and invites short submissions from users in Brazil,
Canada, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The contest ties in neatly with an ongoing HP campaign encouraging people to submit videos about their
experiences with its printing products--part of a larger $300 million marketing push launched this summer around all things printing.
"It's a natural extension of our 'What do you have to say?'
campaign," said Daina Middleton, director of global advertising and interactive marketing for HP's imaging and printing group.
HP is far from the only brand relying on YouTube to engage audiences
online. H.J. Heinz found success with its "Top This!" TV Challenge, which invited consumers to produce homemade Heinz commercials and then upload them for voting on YouTube for a chance to win $57,000
and national exposure.
Thousands of consumers submitted home-produced Heinz commercials--8,000 or so, according to agency partner Smith Brothers Advertising, while only 4,000 made the cut for
the competition.
With obvious incentive, sites like YouTube--with an international audience--are intent on overcoming barriers to executing ad campaigns on a global scale.
"We created this
competition for an international audience as video is a universal way for people to communicate," said Jamie Byrne, head of product marketing, YouTube.
Still, the medium clearly has its
limitations. As such, submissions must be in English, or have English subtitles.
Some 20 finalists will be chosen by a panel led by "Thank You For Smoking" director Jason Reitman, who has set up
some unique guidelines for submissions. A character in the film must face a situation above his or her maturity level. Also, a character has to say the lines: "I demand an explanation for these
shenanigans. What do you have to say?"
HP's larger multimillion-dollar marketing campaign includes the creation of two online communities around printing and developed by Goodby, Silverstein &
Partners.
The Project Direct contest is expected to run from Oct. 7 through Nov. 9. One winner, in addition to a $5,000 prize and a featured spot on YouTube's home page, will earn a trip to an
as-yet-unnamed international film festival as a guest of HP and will attend "surprise industry events" and a meeting with production executives from Fox Searchlight Productions, which released
Reitman's "Thank You For Smoking" and his upcoming film "Juno".