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.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More