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.
“Mufasa: The Lion King” and “Sonic 3” Rule Box Office For 1st Weekend Of 2025
The Walt Disney Co.'s "Mufasa: The Lion King" claimed the No. 1 spot on the North American box office charts over the first weekend of 2025.
The photorealistic "Lion King" prequel earned $23.8 million in its third weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Paramount's "Sonic the Hedgehog 3," which has dominated the past two weekends, wasn't far behind.
"Sonic 3" stayed close with a 3-day estimate of $21.2 million, bringing its total domestic earnings to $187.5 million and helping the overall franchise cross $1 billion worldwide. "Mufasa's" running total is slightly less, with $169.2 million.
In third place, Focus Features' "Nosferatu" remake defied the fate of so many of its genre predecessors and fell only 39% in its second weekend. Horror films typically fall sharply after the first weekend and anything less than a 50% decline is notable. "Nosferatu," which added 140 screens, claimed $13.2 million in ticket sales, bringing its running total to $69.4 million since its Christmas debut. The film, directed by Robert Eggers, already surpassed its reported production budget of $50 million, though that figure does not account for marketing and promotion expenses).
No new wide releases opened this weekend, leaving the box office top 10 once again to holdovers from previous weeks. Several have been in theaters since Thanksgiving. One of those, "Moana 2," claimed the No. 4 spot for Disney in its sixth weekend in theaters. The animated sequel earned another $12.4 million, bumping its global total to $960.5 million.
The Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown," dipped only slightly in its second weekend, bringing in $8.1 million. With $41.7 million total, it's Searchlight's highest grossing film since Disney acquired the company in... Read More