The Doritos brand has revealed six finalists selected from more than 4,000 entries in the fourth annual Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” challenge, where the stakes this year are bigger and bolder than ever. Contestants are not only competing to have their self-made Doritos commercials aired during the Super Bowl XLIV broadcast, they are shooting to make history by beating the ad pros and garnering the top three spots in USA TODAY’s annual Ad Meter. If they can do it, Doritos will award the winners a shared $5 million cash prize. Online consumer voting will determine which three of the six finalists will air as Doritos’ Super Bowl commercials during the big game on February 7, 2010.

This is an interesting twist for the Super Bowl advertising derby.  In a way it’s a very clever turn.

• It builds a grassroots movement behind each concept (and the promotion as a whole)
• Builds interest online before the actual airing
• Limits Doritos exposure to critical reviews (the ads are the best of amateur submissions, probably held to a different standard than a high-priced ad agency)
• And the $5 million dollar prize is only awarded if they get all 3 top spots in the USA Today Ad Meter

Click to see all six videos and the Crash the Super Bowl home page.

Will teams be far behind asking their fans to submit ads or in-game video?  As the cost of producing quality HD video suitable for large video scoreboards dwindles more and more amateurs can produce a high quality product ready for teams to play.  Teams who don’t have in-house editors, producers, or writers can unleash the power of free-lancers everywhere.  As you can see in the Dorito challenge, the “budget” for these spots can be under $100….just the time and effort of this potential army of unpaid tech-savvy volunteers.

And if teams are not looking for advertising , how about player introduction graphics or scoreboard prompts? It seems that you would unleash a huge arsenal of creativity by letting your fans create their own and offer to use the “winners”.  Many teams do this already with desktop screen savers, so I can’t see why it would end there.

Stephen Colbert does his “Green Screen Challenge” offering fans green screen footage and asking them to do something creative with it.   There are a few renegade versions of this LeBron James green screen Staying Alive performance that fans have turned into videos using this simple editing technique.

So why not put the “ask” out to your fans for graphics or video?  Or meet them halfway with green screen content they can download and use as the basis for creating something for you (and them)?

Can your team capitalize on a fan’s skill and enthusiasm to improve your scoreboard show?  Love to hear if anyone is trying this….videos, video board prompts or even player introduction graphics.

–Cudo

Jon Cudo is the Founder and Editor of Gameops.com and a 23-year veteran in game presentation and the most tenured mascot in team sports. His blog covers everything from game night promotions, site news, mascotting, book reviews and more. It's not "must read"....but it's close.
[Contact Cudo] [@gameopsdotcom] [Facebook Page]

Tags: doritos, editing, green screen, Jumbotron, lebron james, stephen colbert, video