The submission deadline for the Heinz Top This TV Challenge has now passed. With over 8,000 videos uploaded the contest, in which consumers submit their own Heinz commercial for a chance to win national broadcast and $57k, appears to be a success. The top 15 videos will be uploaded to the Top This TV site on August 27th, and then "America will vote!"
But (there's always a but!), not everyone is psyched about the way that the contest has gone down. Apparently, just 4,000 of the 8,000 submitted videos are eligible for consideration in the next phase of the contest. Heinz states that of the 8,000 total clips, 2,000 were not properly submitted, and that an additional 2,000 were not acceptable based on content, copyrights and length. Long story short, Heinz's consumer generated success story just generated 2 - 4,000 pissed off people (roughly half of their participants!). Many blog posts, a "Top Ourselves" YouTube group and an online petition later, Heinz has decided to host a Top This TV Challenge II this fall, which will ostensibly give those left out in the cold - for whatever reason - a chance to re-engage. Yikes.
Let's leave aside the ~2,000 videos with questionable content or those that violated other requirements set forth (you don't read directions you get no pity), and look at the 2,000 people who allegedly mis-submitted their videos. 25% seems like an awfully high percentage of incorrect submissions, no? Yeeeeah, I thought so too. According to the online petition started in protest, it seems that the original rules for submission were two-stepped, and those that followed them received an email congratulating them on their successful entry. However, later, the submission rules evolved - evidentially leaving many of these people, who believed themselves to be entered, out. Now, I'm sure there are those who just effed up the process later on - but DQing 25% of your entries should have sent up a red flag somewhere. Yikes X2.
In my opinion, sponsoring a second Top This TV Challenge contest isn't the answer. In fact, it seems kind of self serving - Heinz not only "makes right" by sponsoring another high profile brand-promoting contest but benefits from tying it into buzz around the current one. And all the pissed off people have to sit and stew until the second contest goes live. If this contest had been mine, I would have simply extended the deadline 48 hours and given individuals a chance to re-submit. While I'm sure there is a tight timeline around pre-screening and selecting videos I seriously doubt that getting late submissions would have pushed the whole thing dramatically off course. Not the mention that with this strategy you really focus on hitting this contest out of the park - not diluting it with another, potentially less popular contest down the road. Well, I guess that's what I'll do once I start a market-dominant brand of ketchup and have a consumer generated contest to run...
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