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Leveling the Creative Playing Field

By: Briskman Stanfield

Everybody knows that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day for advertisers to showboat, but it has also become one for the average Joe/Joan to bring it.

On this special day when ad rates are sky-high ($3.5 million for 30 seconds), not only can the biggest and best become part of the brilliant ad extravaganza, but now amazing creative opportunities are popping up in contests to give all minds a chance to express their creative genius as well.

The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) Alliance for Family Entertainment, a trade organization for marketers composed of major big "ad spender" members (AT&T, Campbell’s Soup, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, Mars, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Verizon and Walmart Stores), sponsored a contest this year that asked consumers to create a 30-minute television sitcom about modern family life. The not-too-shabby prize was $5,000 plus a chance for the winning script to be picked up by a network as a series.

Over 235 scripts were submitted. The winner was young freelance writer Megan Angelo from Jersey City, with entry “O’Connell for Congress,” a story about a dysfunctional family turned upside down when the father runs for office.

In another creative challenge, Chevrolet held the Chevy Route 66 Super Bowl ad contest, where filmmakers were asked “to depict life’s journey and how Chevrolet is there along the way.” While similarly creative, this competition came with bigger stakes: from General Motors, a prize of $25,000 and thrill of seeing the commercial aired on game day.

Filmmakers from 32 countries submitted 400 scripts and 198 films for consideration. Four winners were chosen, but one favorite was 26-year-old Zach Borst from Long Island, who has been making films since childhood and even has his own production company. It only took Borst short four hours to film (in Floral Park, NY) his humorous “Chevy Happy Grad” story about a new high-school grad who mistakenly thinks his parents have given him a yellow Camaro until he sees his neighbor drive away in it.

These are examples of opportunities that are more in line with current reality shows than the old Super Bowl fun and games from yesteryear. But more importantly, they create a chance in the lifetime window for people to convey their voices in hopes of reaching their passionate field of dreams.

But for others who just want the loot without much thought, that’s still available, especially from Chevy with the Chevy Game Time app launched from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Viewers can play and interact with chances to win 20 Chevrolets and thousands of other prizes from Chevy partners Bridgestone, Motorola, the NFL and NFLShop.com, Papa John’s Pizza, and Sirius XM.

This season, "engagement" and "interaction" are key words currently used by marketers behind the new games people play; but the real word should be "competition," because it is fierce during the battle of cleverness. The winner is determined only after the clock runs out.