Is this a stupid idea?

[Anonymous]

I own a small video production. Most of my business (around 80%) is movie transfers. I came up with an idea of holding some sort of video contest to increase awareness of my company, hits to my website and in turn hopefully increase sales.

I have a local Parenting magazine interested in the idea, but now that I put it out there I have no idea what to do ;0. My primary idea is to have kids (I am thinking) post their video on You Tube, send me the link and I will post it on my website.

I am thinking, best pet video or best summer activity etc.

My questions are:

Is this a bad idea

What type of contest could you recommend

Should I try to get other companies involved..such as the humane society if it’s pets or a Clinic if it’s an outdoor activity (you know all this talk of getting kids active etc).

Should I expect to get free advertising from the magazine for this since I will be the one hosting all the videos and helping people if they need it?

Any other concerns I should have?

[CraftersOfLight]

Things you might want to take a look at or think about.

Kids do enough “stupid stuff” on the Internet on their own. I would think that you would want some sort of parental permission form/release before you post links on your web page just to reduce your liability. You do not want something to come back to you as “you told them to do that”.

I do think it is a neat idea. Maybe you can work with the magazine to set up afew videotopics.

They could offer gift subscription(s) to the winner(s) if it is to be a contest. Talk to them and see if their are things they can donate as prizes too. Items from their advertisers maybe.

One form of advertising for you could be to write an article about your experience with this project for the magazine to publish when its all done.

[CraftersOfLight]

Other thoughts…

As part of the contest rules, for them to be added to your list of contestants each video may be judged for appropriateness. They could submit for review, you reply back with acceptance or concerns that they may want to edit for re submittal.

You could set it up so that posting must occur between fixed dates and “likes” will be part of the concideration forfinal judging.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the input. I think they are all great ideas. I really like making it a family video since I am marketing to adults rather than children. Yes, the releases and appropriateness is great advice also. Keep the good ideas coming. Yes, I deal with home movie transfers.

[vid-e-o-man]

Just throwing out some random ideas. Definitely have releases, permission forms, etc maybe get the magazine involved in putting these together. They will want to be protected also. Maybe some mutual exchange of advertising agreement with the magazine, link on your website for them, advertising in their magazine for you. Contest prizes could include magazine subscriptions, some sort of award or discount for your services. Judging the contest- are you or someone from the magazine doing the judging or maybe have people click on your website to vote for their favorite. This should increase the traffic on your website and give exposure to the magazine if they have traded ads with you. The catagories for the contest could be designed around thesuggestions that are previously mentioned (Humane Society, clinics, etc.) and possibly some of the advertisers in the magazine. The advertising department of the magazine could probably help in this regard. Hope this helps. Good Luck.

[Anonymous]

I came up with the idea of kids interviewing Grandparents or parents on there favorite childhood memory. or What is was like..back then. I thought this would help tie in my business logo of “Keep Memories Alive” and also get my target market involved also. Maybe something with “Connecting Generations”? Not sure what kind of business I could get to help co-sponsor this for me.

I want to keep the videos short though. I was thinking no more than 3 minutes.

[composite1]

OC,

As others have mentioned, you must have those releases and permissions from parent/guardians in order to safely go forward. Julie’s suggestion of making it a family project is a good one. If you decide to proceed with this do your potential contestants a favor, please make it worth their efforts to compete. Now you’re not required to have ‘fabulous prizes’ or cash, but something worth the time and resources put forth. Too many times contest promoters roll through here and their entire effort is to get someone to do something for them for nothing. Meantime, they gather the contestant’s info to sell as part of data mining schemes. Not to mention the prize(s) they offer tend to either be too good to be true or not worth the effort. As you well know being a production company owner, making videos is not free. Again, you don’t need to have a prize which will fully compensate the winning contestant (few if any contests ever do) but giving a prize to the winner and recognition to the runners up by showing their work on your site is a good place to start. Also, make sure you post clear and concise guidelines on any entry fees if any, what type of work and the level of quality you expect to see. That way if you get inundated with entries, you’ll be able to quickly go through them and fairly judge them. Lastly, set your contest up so entrants can believe they have a genuine shot at winning. That will build excitement and the desire to participate.

[Author]

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