Two of the latest video advertising contests are being sponsored by the Piaggio Group USA, in an effort to promote Vespa scooters, and by CBS Home Entertainment, in a campaign to sell Twin Peaks DVDs.
On Nov. 9, Rex Hermogino was named the winner of the Go Green Vespa Video Challenge for his two-minute music video, “Vespa, Vespa.” CBS’ The Twin Peaks Coffee Blend Competition will accept entries until Dec. 1 with a winner to be chosen later in the month by David Lynch, the Twin Peaks director.
The Vespa challenge was produced by matrixx/Los Angeles, a production and branded entertainment company. “We took a user-generated video contest and put some unique twists on it,” said Van Vandegrift, executive producer at matrixx. “We used it to advance the message of Vespanomics and position the brand.” Hermogino’s video had lyrics that promoted Vespanomics, which assert that Vespa scooters are low carbon emission gas savers that decrease traffic congestion and are fashionable.
matrixx promoted the contest on social networking and video sharing sites, including MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Google Video and smaller niche sites, such as Girlbike.com. Over 100 entries were posted.
Hermogino, who won the Yahoo! Talent Show last year for a series of music videos, shot two versions of his winning video. “I shot a short one, but then I thought it’s such a catchy song, I should make it into a full song and shoot the music video,” he said. “So I went back to my recording studio and laid some more tracks, then came up with ‘Vespa, Vespa,’ which is the title of the song.”
Two friends, Dan Doyle and Sam Vo, shot Hermogino on his scooter as he drove around San Diego, encapsulating the “fun in the sun” lyric. He won a new Vespa for his video.
The winning video is being posted on a number of sites and DVD copies of it will be sent to dealerships for in-store play, Vandegrift said. In addition, Hermogino performed his song at the International Motorcycle Show in San Mateo, Calif. on Nov. 16, which is playing at YouTube.
In an effort to promote the CBS/Paramount release of the Twin Peaks Definitive Gold Box Edition, a DVD that includes both seasons of Twin Peaks and the original pilot for the show, Mammoth Advertising/Brooklyn, NY created the Coffee Blend competition, which provides contestants with coffee-related clips from the show that can be used to make mashups or music videos.
“Coffee was the most salient element of the show and we incorporated it into an engaging campaign to interact with the property,” said Tom Cunha, Mammoth’s vice president. “We selected a series of clips featuring coffee and users can go through the gallery and create their own montage.”
David Lynch’s Signature Cup coffee and the Definitive Gold Box Edition DVD box set will be given to the three winners, who will be selected by Lynch. Twenty-five video entries have been received so far, Cunha said.
The contest runs on the jumpcut.com site so that its video editing features can be used by contestants, he said.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More