In the past video competitions were generally held to reward and encourage excellence in video production. I always thought that those of us working away in small television stations or corporate video departments were a bit jealous of our compatriots winning Oscars and Emmys and started organizing contests through our local ITVA chapter and entering or videos in the Tellys. Now I believe that video contests fall into roughly three different areas.

Promote and Reward Professional Accomplishments: This would include many of the long standing and well known competitions such as the Emmys and the Tellys. This would also include organizations promoting excellence in their profession that include a video or broadcast section such as the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition awarded by the Society of American Travel Writers.

Promote Student development in broadcast and video: Many local National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences regional Emmy competitions have student categories as do the Tellys. Professional organizations such as The Association of Higher Education Campus Television Administrators (AHECTA) started having Student Production Award competitions. These are mainly to encourage students to pursue a career in television production or broadcast. The content is less important than the artistic and technical accomplishments of the students.

User Generated Content: These contests are using the vast resources of amateur and professional producers to make content specific to a particular cause or product. A vast number of the new contests we see fall into this category. The competitions can be about anything from the Department of Education’s I Am What I Learn, Reel Insights What’s Unique About Being Black?, to Nabisco’s Diet Like A Diva contest.

The purpose of the contest can be anything from encouraging students to learn about science; educating the public about a social cause or promoting your client. It is a great way of engaging the creators in your community by getting them to produce a video with your message. They create content that you can share with your larger community. They help you create a message that you can use to help spread your message.

In the next few blogs I will cover some of the issues involved with launching a video contest such as the Spirit of Service Scholars video contest the College of Public Programs at Arizona State University conducted with Zooppa.com.