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New Kids in Town
They're not intimidated by the likes of you--and they've got the work to prove it.
By Gregory Solman and Richard Williamson
User-generated content has become one of the most popular buzz-creating tools for brands. And the love goes two ways, as consumers-slash-auteurs boost brands for their own purposes, from the rush of seeing their work out in the work, to hopes that their spots will garner them attention (read: jobs) in the worlds of advertising and feature films. Regardless, most participants who enter contests such as Mozilla's Firefox Flicks (which named its winner last spring) and Dorito's Crash the Super Bowl (Frito-Lay has been soliciting executions through Yahoo; its deadline is Dec. 1), and who post spots on a variety of Web sites, would like to garner more than 15 minutes of fame. Here, we profile five whose work has done just that.
LAURA TILLINGHAST L'OREAL
Tillinghast turned on the charm to produce the 40-second L'Oreal Hip cosmetics spot for Current TV (http://current.com/items/76317402/mas_color_emerges.htm). The 27-year-old asked her brother Eric Tillinghast as his (mostly unknown) band Suns of Leisure to provide the minimalist soundtrack and convinced her models to work for free--two professionals and three who are fellow students at the Miami Ad School. Also working for just the exposure was stylist Monica Ortega, who Tillinghast found through an Internet posting.
The ad features a series of static beauty shots with butterflies on the faces of the models to accentuate the color of the makeup. Each corresponds to the color of the letters that spell out the first word in the final copy "Color Emerges." The most difficult part of the production, Tillinghast says, was securing the butterflies. Research led her to a supplier who could provide the exotic butterflies. "I eventually found someone who imports and frames them, so I drove to his house where he does his work and picked some out from Indonesia and Peru," she says.
To produce the final spot, Tillinghast taught herself how to use Apple's iMovie software. She made the entry over the course of two months.
Current TV's user-generated postings work in a variety of ways. For this, L'Oreal posted a brief and eventually chose Tillinghast's as the best spot. She earned $1,000 for having it run on Current TV (online, cable and Satellite TV), and another $5,000 from L'Oreal when they decided to post in on its own Web site.
Tillinghast hopes to be a fashion photographer. "Before I've used flowers and some different things to accent the photographs," she says. "I had had this idea and it hadn't gelled yet. … I thought it was time to pull the idea out. And it really worked well. "
By Gregory Solman and Richard Williamson
User-generated content has become one of the most popular buzz-creating tools for brands. And the love goes two ways, as consumers-slash-auteurs boost brands for their own purposes, from the rush of seeing their work out in the work, to hopes that their spots will garner them attention (read: jobs) in the worlds of advertising and feature films. Regardless, most participants who enter contests such as Mozilla's Firefox Flicks (which named its winner last spring) and Dorito's Crash the Super Bowl (Frito-Lay has been soliciting executions through Yahoo; its deadline is Dec. 1), and who post spots on a variety of Web sites, would like to garner more than 15 minutes of fame. Here, we profile five whose work has done just that.
LAURA TILLINGHAST L'OREAL
Tillinghast turned on the charm to produce the 40-second L'Oreal Hip cosmetics spot for Current TV (http://current.com/items/76317402/mas_color_emerges.htm). The 27-year-old asked her brother Eric Tillinghast as his (mostly unknown) band Suns of Leisure to provide the minimalist soundtrack and convinced her models to work for free--two professionals and three who are fellow students at the Miami Ad School. Also working for just the exposure was stylist Monica Ortega, who Tillinghast found through an Internet posting.
The ad features a series of static beauty shots with butterflies on the faces of the models to accentuate the color of the makeup. Each corresponds to the color of the letters that spell out the first word in the final copy "Color Emerges." The most difficult part of the production, Tillinghast says, was securing the butterflies. Research led her to a supplier who could provide the exotic butterflies. "I eventually found someone who imports and frames them, so I drove to his house where he does his work and picked some out from Indonesia and Peru," she says.
To produce the final spot, Tillinghast taught herself how to use Apple's iMovie software. She made the entry over the course of two months.
Current TV's user-generated postings work in a variety of ways. For this, L'Oreal posted a brief and eventually chose Tillinghast's as the best spot. She earned $1,000 for having it run on Current TV (online, cable and Satellite TV), and another $5,000 from L'Oreal when they decided to post in on its own Web site.
Tillinghast hopes to be a fashion photographer. "Before I've used flowers and some different things to accent the photographs," she says. "I had had this idea and it hadn't gelled yet. … I thought it was time to pull the idea out. And it really worked well. "
