MOFILM announces prizes for the U12 Competition

The response to our latest competition with Spike Lee and twelve of the world’s biggest brands has been truly amazing. So far hundreds of people have downloaded the brand briefs on the website.

Today I received some really good feedback from young filmmakers with the whole world ahead of them. Naturally there was a buzz around the $100,000 worth of prizes including two tickets to Sundance (HP) or any film festival around the world (Renaissance) and the chance to meet Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone).

Then one lone voice from the back asked “how do filmmakers ‘Get Noticed’?”

This sparked a lot of discussion about the merits of Nokia‘s prize, which will see the winning ad pre-loaded on every new Nokia handset in the UK, or Kodak‘s prize, which includes the winning ad playing in Times square, New York. As one young filmmaker said “Can you imagine that? My film playing on my friends’ phones or showing in one of the most iconic landmarks in the world?”

“Now that would be cool!”.

And the price? All you have to do is download one of the briefs and have a go. If you’ve always wanted to try making an ad or a film, MOFILM gives you that opportunity. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, but you do have to be older than 18 years old.

To help we’ve started adding toolkits for each of the brands involved. These help you understand the spirit of each brand and what they are trying to achieve as well as including valuable logos and other items that you can use in your work.

The final word as always should come from the community, so back to the young filmmakers. As one said “So I need to get in the mind of one of these companies, think ‘outside the box’ and come up with something completely different?”

Exactly, how hard can it be?

Photo by Paul Carlon, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

Legendary filmmaker Spike Lee joins 12 global brands and MOFILM in giving everyday consumers a chance to be famous

Award-Winning Director Leads Aspiring Hopefuls with the “You to the Power of 12 – U12” Competition To Let Their Voices Be Heard at Cannes Lions 2009

NEW YORK, NY, April 16, 2009- MOFILM today announced that acclaimed director, producer, writer and actor Spike Lee has been confirmed as the host of the MOFILM User-Generated Content “You to the Power of 12- U12” Competition at the Cannes Lions 2009 Advertising Festival, held in the South of France the 21-27 of June. The MOFILM U12 competition gives creatives all over the world the chance to develop branded communication via video for some of the world’s leading brands in a competition designed to showcase global talent at the “Oscars of the Advertising World.” Not only does the competition allow everyday individuals a unique opportunity to let their voices be heard, but also the chance to obtain visibility in front of top brands and an estimated 10 million video, internet and mobile viewers worldwide. With more than $120,000 in prizes and a chance to be on set of Spike Lee’s next production, the competition is sure to generate a lot of excitement.

“Giving aspiring creative individuals this type of opportunity to tell their story truly resonates with me,” said Spike Lee. “It’s such a unique collaboration of your everyday consumer along with major worldwide brands and focuses purely around what the individual would like to celebrate about these brands.”

MOFILM has brought together a powerhouse set of 12 brands to give the creative stage to their passionate consumers and creative talent around the world. Participating brands include AT&T N.A., Best Buy, PepsiCo (Doritos), Hewlett Packard, Kodak, Renaissance Hotels and Resorts, Nokia, Philips, Telstra Australia, Unilever (Omo),Visa and Vodafone. Each brand will post a brief on the MOFILM website which will explain all guidelines to enter and allow entrants to compete for awards and prizes. Briefs are not limited to ideas linking directly to the brands themselves, but may also ask entrants to submit videos on additional topics that might include video demonstrations of a unique website experience. To further create a buzz, MOFILM will team up with film industry professionals to offer creative advice to entrants via MOFILM’s Twitter page at designated dates and times throughout the duration of the competition, to help assist in the creation of video submissions.

“Never before has a group of brands this strong come together with such an exciting opportunity to assist in empowering the consumer,” said Ann Mukherjee group vice president, marketing, Frito-Lay North America. “The Doritos brand is extremely excited to be part of this event.”

Andy Baker, CEO, MOFILM additionally expressed his excitement for the U12 competition and how it is bringing forth something new to consumers. “One of the last frontiers for open sourcing is the arena of brand marketing,” stated Baker. “We are proud to be facilitating such a showcase for the power, creativity and talent of the global creative community and to have Spike Lee on board with us to take part in this amazing competition.”

The U12 competition is a powerful demonstration of rarely seen collaboration from many of the world’s biggest brands. Collectively they are offering aspiring talent from around the world unprecedented access, visibility and opportunity into the sometimes closed world of mega-brand marketing. This initiative was conceived during a gathering of chief marketing officers who comprise the Marketing 50 and enabled through Accenture and the Marketing 50’s C-suite relationships. Accenture is supplying its innovative video service platform that includes sharing and upload technology to support film submissions through Origin Digital, one of the industry’s leading video applications service providers. Also instrumental in enabling the program is Hill & Knowlton, who are providing PR and the associated web 2.0 toolkit.

“Not only are we helping these great creators achieve their dreams by giving them access and visibility to hundreds of the most senior marketers and advertisers in the world, they will additionally walk away with many amazing prizes from our participating brands,” said Baker. Additionally, MOFILM will be giving away 40 Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Cameras to encourage early entry submission to the competition. Starting on April 15 and ending on June 8th, cameras will be awarded weekly to the best early entries received before May 20th for each brand. Early camera winners will still be eligible to qualify for all final prizes.

This event follows on from the highly successful MOFILM short film festival recently hosted by Kevin Spacey at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in February, which saw film makers from more than 100 countries compete to showcase their work and win prizes including a new Chevrolet Cruze. The competition will begin on April 15, and the last entries will be accepted on June 8, 2009 at 8:00 am GMT. Brand winners will be announced on June 15. The top three finalists will be announced on June 25 and the grand prize winner will take the main stage at Cannes on June 26, after they will have provided the ultimate in “consumer feedback.” The U12 competition is open to everyone. For complete competition rules and to submit video entries, please visit the website…

About MOFILM
MOFILM is a pioneer in creating tailor made content for online and mobile operators around the world. Hill & Knowlton has joined the initiative as communication and social media partners. For the latest information about MOFILM competitions please visit www.mofilm.com.

About Marketing 50
Marketing 50, aka M50, is a private community created by senior-most chief marketing officer peers from globally leading organizations for the purpose of sharing insights, solutions and collaborative discovery in a trusted forum free from competition or solicitation.

About Hill & Knowlton
Hill & Knowlton is a leading international communications consultancy, providing services to local, multinational and global clients. The firm’s legacy of harnessing the most powerful and efficient means of communication for its clients has made H&K a leading force in encouraging major corporations to embrace digital platforms and social media. H&K’s Digital group tracks emerging Web trends and developments in real-time to ensure client communication strategies remain at the industry forefront. The firm is headquartered in New York with 73 offices in 41 countries, as well as an extensive associate network. The agency is part of WPP, one of the world’s largest communications services groups.

MOFILM UGC Competition 2009 with the World’s most Famous Brands

Here at MOFILM HQ we love to think of radical new ways to showcase your talent. Fresh from the success of hosting the MOFILM Mobile 2009 Awards with Kevin Spacey, we’re back with another amazing competition and some new friends.

Its not very often that major brands from across different sectors come together on one project. Its even rarer that they ask you, the global creative community, to take their brand, be creative and show the world your talent.

The idea is simple. Choose as many brands as you like from the MOFILM List. For each you’ll find a brief, a brand toolkit and some guidelines. Take these, several cups of coffee and let your imagination roll. When you’re done, upload your videos to the site, show your friends and see what our experts think. There are prizes for each brand ranging from trips to the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, film equipment, PCs and the grand prize itself; your chance to meet the great Spike Lee with MOFILM at the Cannes Lions 2009 Festival in June.

“So what’s the catch?” I hear you say. Well, you don’t have long so get moving! The closing date for entries is the 8th of June. We know, we know. You want more time to edit, polish and perfect your entry. Well we’ll be adding expert tips along the way from leading creative talent around the world. at the end of the day, its the idea and concept that we’re really interested in.

Each brand has its own set of prizes with the grand prize being awarded in Cannes. Judging is by a panel of talent ranging from the brand manager, MOFILM subversives and of course, Mr Spike Lee himself. Not bad eh?

For the Facebook generation, you can follow us here or if you’re too cool for that, follow us on Twitter. Join the revolution and, as we always say when we’ve had too much MOFILM coffee, “@YOU Get Creative!”