Dude, Blog Your Business!

Tom and I made this viral video ad for Jones Soda as part of a zooppa.com competition this weekend – despite the rain!
Check it out, and if you like it sign up for free at zooppa.com and vote for us – there’s a $7k prize up for grabs!
We thought we stood a good chance of winning when we first came up with the idea but  we probably left it a bit late to enter  - the closing date is this coming Sunday, and it was a bit more of a rush to get it done than we would have liked.  Also, there are some very good entries & some very talented people out there competing. We had fun doing it though – check out the blooper video on Tom’s blog.

Every now and then you come across an idea that is so brilliant in its simplicity and execution that you juts have to slap palm to head and say “I wish I’d thought of that!”  Well, such an idea is zooppa.com – ‘people-powered brand energy’.  It is a site that brings together companies in need of fresh advertising/ branding ideas and the creativity of individuals.  The company puts up prize money of several thousand dollars and says ‘ here is my product, this is the concept – lets see what you come up with’. Anyone can produce either video, print, web, copywriting, concepting, or scriptwriting entries and the winners are determined by votes from the members.  You can also build up ‘zooppa points’ for participating which can then be converted into cash.

The whole essence of viral marketing – audience participation – has been captured in this superbly designed and simple web-based concept.  I think it is the simplicity of the concept that will also make it an easy sell to the companies themselves.  For an investment of a few thousand dollars they not only gain a lot of potentially viral web-based content, but also they may just get that gem that they would have had to pay out millions to get through an advertising agency.  Its a bargain for the companies – and I think I have just found myself a new hobby! Sweet!