New Jersey based Shycast will be launching later this month and will put a new spin on brand promotion and paid contests. Like Bix, which was aquired by Yahoo in November 2006, Shycast will sponsor video-based contests with fairly large cash prizes.
Shycast will launch with a sponsored contest by Ikea called “Break the Rules BedMaking.” Users will be asked to create a video showing how crazy and creative they can be in decorating their bedroom. The videos will be rated by other users, and Ikea will choose a group of finalists based on user feedback and other (transparent) criteria. The winner will be chosen from the group of finalists based entirely on user voting and will receive a $5,000 prize.
Founder Drew Peloso says that he hopes to create a community where brands can reach out to receptive users and engage with them directly. Brands give back to the community by sponsoring contests. Users are encouraged to tag themselves with brands they like, and to recommend new contests involving any brand. Other users will comment and vote on those suggested contests, and Shycast will then propose these potential contests to brands.
The business model is solid, if Shycast can get brands to participate. Brands pay not only the contest prize, but a fee to ShyCast that is “many time the prize amount” says Peloso.
Bix showed that contests around user generated content can be very popular. If ShyCast can tweak this model and focus entirely on brands, it could be a winner.
Peloso and co-founder Chris Bryant think so, too. They’ve funded ShyCast to date out of their own pockets, and think that they can hit profitability based just on currently signed partners who will be launching contests in the near future. Their goal is to never raise outside capital.
Sign up to be notified by email of the Shycast launch on their home page.
This sounds like a great idea, but I can’t imagine that the advertisers would see a return. For example, let’s say that Ikea paid Shycast $25K to host the contest, which includes the $5K prize. That’s A TON of money for a new video site with no established user base. Why wouldn’t an advertiser just host a $5K contest on a YouTube group and put the rest into some good radio ads?
Anita
Agreed. What’s the real hook their using to attract brands?
Pete at Mashable said in his 2007 predictions that online contest sites would be huge this year.
Ewww… New Jersey…
If anyone at shycast is reading this, it might be a good idea to turn debug off on the production server.
You probably don’t want to be displaying this!
And if the brand-based thing doesn’t work out, they can always switch the site over to running amateur porn contests sponsored by various adult video companies. Come to think of it, that might be even more profitable.
Boy, I never get tired of the word “brand.” Brand, brand brand. Brandy brandily branded her brands. Brandtastic.
Mmmm…Pushing me towards getting a digital video camera.
coke and mentos was the classic, I can see all sorts of “branded” contests like a Hubba Bubba bubble blowing contest, a yo-yo marathon, a ‘frizbee’ world series…a twinkie contest, Absolut vodka shot drinking contest…who can build the highest oreo house, m&m mosaic’s, biggest lifesaver necklace, mountain dew and vodka drinking contest, blind folded pepsi vs coke tasting contest…and even a free range egg and spoon race
It’s an interesting model, but as pointed out they will need to get the users to make it work. They’re betting that the contests alone will do the trick. It’s a decent bet but at some point the brands need to see a tangible return in some form. When you’re dealing with major brands, they need big numbers to get any value. If the Ikea contest, for instance, gets 100 entrants, the company needs to determine what value that brought. Probably not much. Of course, $25,000 is nothing for Ikea to spend so it’s a no-risk proposition for them.
If I were looking at Shycast as a potential investor or customer, I would have to ask what’s stopping YouTube from seeing this model and implementing it? This is the challenge for startups in today’s market: technology platforms are so cheap to develop and business models often so easy to duplicate that whichever company has an audience (or the best method for capturing a large one quickest) will win, even if you pioneered the technology and business model. Shycast seems like it has a shot but also faces a major competitive threat because there’s nothing defensible I see and there are companies that could easily implement this sort of thing and immediately bring audiences of tens of millions to the companies paying them to run these contests. If you’re Ikea, are you going to go with Shycast for $25,000 or YouTube for even $100,000?
Agreed ginchy, the only thing better is ‘brand dialog’. Like it’s some dude, “Hey, wussup Pepsi?” I think it’s the refuge of TOMA marketing people these days when so much of marketing can be tracked and checked for profitability, they need some kind of wispy untouchable notion of brand so their customer can’t really ask for number results.
Seems like an interesting value proposition. Keep up the good work guys!!!
I personally thought Bix was a premature buy for Yahoo, since it didn’t seem to reach any real even near-critical mass by the time it was acquired. However, I do think there is a ton of potential in sites like ShyCast that serve a specific niche within the umbrella category of “online video.” Sure, they’ll never touch YouTube in traffic, but I think it’s highly possible for them to achieve a higher visitor-to-video ratio. From the YouTube contests I’ve seen, participation is typically unimpressive and the YouTube system doesn’t do a great job of supporting contest-specific features like allowing users to “vote” on just one video that has been entered. This creates a need for a more niche site tailored to that specific need within the larger online video category. Like online content and online commerce before it, online video will soon prove itself a large enough category to support smaller, more targeted sites.
YouTube is a category-killer for generic video consumption, but hats off to ShyCast and its bretheren for carving out the earliest of what I think will be many many niche video sites on the net.
The success of this is going to be driven largely by the clients themselves as this company and those like it move towards critical mass. I see it all the time now, clients are looking for something new and different. The key to this is, its not going to work for clients that don’t get strategic promotion.
The concept is impressive, while I would be surprised if a vehicle like this has been perfected already, some of our clients would give it a shot, and I think getting into this type of opportunity early will be valuable. Before consumers get battered with copy cat video contest sites, the few that have real online hits will be the ones that stand to be remembered by the consumer for a long time.
Interesting idea, and looks well executed. Nice that they’re using Django!
UGC (user generated content) is certainly on track to be huge, just ask youtube.. there are lots of start ups springing up in this space - look at time mags person of the year 2006 - you; people who generate content, participate, etc.
i’m bullish on UGC.
Is it just me or their logo looks very similar to Riya’s (image search engine) logo ? Down to the yellow star…
I can’t wait for this to launch…sounds cool so far.
The potential here is unbelievable. I predict tons of entries — but probably only a few will go viral. But as mentos and diet coke has shown, it’s the value of those that go big that count.
I’m curious what other companies are likely to sponsor contests?
Also, what will happen if the winner is from a country the US can’t have relations with, like Iran or Cuba???
UGC is definitely the future of entertainment. We are all Andy Warhol seeking out our 15 minutes. If Shycast can provide inspiring contest ideas and rope in the corporate $$$, I can imagine all the YouTube Spielberg (or McG) wannabees jumping on the Shycast brandwagon. And if a brand gets just one lifelong
pitchman outta the deal, everybody wins. Cool idea!
This seems like a hit to me. All it takes is one video that is dugg or otherwise flies across the internets. Sure, my grandmother will only go to YouTube, but younger people can remember more than one url.
So there is lots of opinion and critique on Shycast. In my opinion these guys have set up something nobody has had the balls to do! User-generated content that is dictated solely by the creative impetus of those who post it. Better than a typical contest, this invokes the essence of what renders a consumer-generated content site valuable to the masses. Embrace this, as the world is about to see what the motivation for creativity can really unleash. It has taken my team at http://www.restaurant.com 8 years to generate what Shycast will likely accompilsh in several months! I can only hope they will see the opportunity to parthner with us and see the value of the consumer’s (dining) appetite! In any event, the Shycast model isset to soar….
Steve Savad, Founder, Restaurant.com
this idea sucks. and these comments are fake. thanks for spamming.
Shycast is another step in the evolution in brand/consumer interaction. And why not? It is a win/win/win: the brands get interesting ideas and consumer information from a UGC consumer brainstorm, the contest participants get exposure that could lead to other creative/video/acting opportunities, Shycast as the relationship broker has opened up another space for brand consumer conversations it could own. As advertising audiences become increasingly fragmented, there are opportunities to find new ways to reach them. Go for it Shycast.
Dick, I agree with you totally.
These people can’t be for real.
Or I have overestimated the mental capabilities of TC readers.
Yeah the apparent shilling on this one is a bit over the top. I think it’s a half-decent idea worth taking a punt on (especially since they haven’t raised any VC funding) even though I see major challenges, but there’s no reason for any self-respecting company to shill and I don’t know who else would have a vested interest in posting these comments?
These comments are a little suspect.
Contests usually end just as quickly as they begin. Where is the brand relevancy that justifies paying a premium for contests with little to nil users?
Anyway, good luck on holding out for VC.
I wish Shycast my best for success. I think they will get some traction, but not necessarily the big brands. I am guessing that the only reason they landed Ikea is that they have a friend inside the Ikea New Jersey store. I’m not knocking that at all, as it’s a great way to get a foot in the door and give [some] people something to talk about. I personally don’t know why a large corporation would run a contest on a 3rd-party website instead of on it’s on website, preferably a cool microsite designed especially for the contest, that would tie into to other online and offline marketing, promo and possibly event strategies. This is not rocket science. Any consumer products company and/or their agencies know how its done. If they don’t, please send them my way for some $500 per hour consulting plus performance-based bonuses. Cheers!
-Chris Comella, Founder
BuzzPal - The World Is Your Party
http://www.buzzpal.com
Great idea!
Well, to all the commenters above - YouTube might indeed start doing something similar, but their (& now Google’s) brand are fairly strong so marketers might see a potential conflict there. ShyCast gets around that.
And trust me, for a big company running small promotions and contests costs way over 25k - just think about the time wasted on all the internal meetings, getting the buy-in, then coordinating with outside agencies & paying them. Paying 25k and not having to deal with all this bs is a pretty good proposition.
Thanks everyone for commenting on this. I’m just catching up to the end of the thread here. It does look to me like some of this is very “friendly”…and I appreciate that though it doesn’t necessarily serve the conversation. On the other hand much is clearly thoughtful and not just the critical stuff…but in any event it’s “all good” and we’re grateful.
Rather than address some of obvious challenges we face, let me add a little color to the original post. What IKEA and other companies are looking for beyond mass promotions is “real”, meaning non-anonymous, interactions with customers who are already, or who might become, outspoken advocates for their products. That strategy has worked well in traditional media, in fact Apple really mainstreamed the concept of engaging customers to promote products. But with Shycast we’re talking far more niche, both in demographics and geography, and more tactical. And that effort is not better-served by mass-media promotions…which is essentially what you get with some of the companies mentioned above.
We think that developing closer ties can serve both the company and the customer well, but the environment in which it takes place must have certain characteristics to make it viable for both…and that’s what we’re building in the Shycast community. Of course different brands have different risk profiles, but we think we provide an excellent option at a very reasonable price with turnkey service for a good swath of the advertising landscape. And some very compelling opportunities for people who want to venture beyond what they’re doing now and get involved with (maybe even paid for) something new and different, made possible in part by the willingness and foresight of some brands they already truly use, care about, and are invested in.
In fact, I’ve promoted Skype to so many people, because Skype makes my day easier every day, that I think they should help me produce a contest where you have to prove in some way how many legit contacts you have, maybe by getting everyone in your contact list to skype you at once or…well, I’ll post the rest at Shycast, hope you check it out and add to it if you like.
Thanks again for commenting, in particular those of you who are only now getting to know us. I welcome and enjoy the discussion.
Ps – ginchy, I’m still chuckling about Brandy brandily branded her brands. Brandtastic. I totally hear ya.
Interesting idea that should work on several levels. Larger entities will go from promotion to promotion so it should come as no surprise that they will outsource this. It is faster, easier, and no big commitment. Getting people involved with your brand on a third party site - like reading articles in the newspaper planted by PR people work (unfortunately) and will likely work here too. All they need is some off the wall content and “they will come”.
Comments from someone in Broadcast Sales Management… this could have a real local appeal to smaller advertisers as well - especially if the site was categorized by towns similar to a craig’s list - this way the smaller local advertiser can reachout to their market area for contesting. With companies like Google looking to play a part locally, a company who figures out how to do it effectively and profitably might pull in more than you tube did.
I happen to know that Ikea has cut back their national broadcast media buy for Q1… Could it be that they are looking into testing these “viral” opportunities? Hmmm….I think the answer is yes… Just don’t host any water drinking contests.
There are a few mature branding techniques out there that are relevant to your site. Not sure if you have considered them.
poll.yeswici.com and http://www.yeswici.com.
I think this is brilliant - the logical next step in bridging the gap between advertising and entertainment. It will give the u-tubers a chance to profit from their hobby and get some great recognition.
User created content is getting formidable and intimidating to professionals by every passing day. Even mainstream is learning , Envying and emulating them.
http://blogs.ibibo.com/TechnicalJournal
In a world where user-created content generates measurable buzz, this looks like a smart play. Brands need interaction–that leads to name recognition. The differentiator here (from YouTube, for instance) is the combination of focus (contests) and end-user creativity.
Brands will realize value from this as soon as they can measure the level of interaction between site visitors and branded content.
I too believe that online contest sites will see a fantastic growth this year. Shycast seems like a very good play to me. The reason why large corporations are in fact interested in running a contest on a 3rd-party website is not because they can’t do it themselves, but because they don’t want the headache of having to manage it from beginning to end. This is the typical type of operations that focus marketing executives want to outsource with a rigorous list of specifications, but without having to allocate the resources required to reinventing a wheel that Shycast has developed far further than any Fortune 500 like Ikea would ever want to.
I think this is a great way to get users involved while providing a more powerful and tangible brand impact.
My question is about hosting expense. If Shycast is hosting videos and they get thousands of videos rolling across multiple contests, it’s going to be expensive to support the bandwidth - maybe too expensive. One question is: can the brand sponsors pay enough to support the bandwidth and make the business profitable? It may be tough.
I think what the folks at Shycast are not counting on is that:
1. People are stupid. The best “viral” stuff tends to involve things like farts, poop-jokes, making of established social conventions, religion, goverment, etc. All the things most corps won’t want associated with their brand. 9 times out of ten, the more irreverant the more viral a thing will be.
2. People love soapboxes. One of the major car makers tried a “make your own video” contest a year or so ago. Sure they got a few fluff pieces, but the most popular videos were the ones that documented how many trees the automaker was destorying, and how many jobs were outsourced etc…
3. Brand Managers are from outer space. Seriously, people who manage brands have these bizarre fantasties of how people think of their products. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people managing products like toliet paper say stuff like “we’re not about wiping shit out of your ass, we’re about building relationships…”
You’re thinking way too narrowly if you think this won’t work. As a PR person, you want the public see themselves in the promotion you do, so they see themselves (or someone they aspire to be) in your products and services. Shycast does this. For clients, you want to create, package, deploy and track in one place. Tracking efficacay on YouTube is painful. I’d want to offer my clients a one stop shop for this kind of thing. And if you think that getting user is difficult, you’re right, it might be, but contest sites are AMAZINGLY popular. Look at iWon. Free poker, casino, etc. sites attract tons of people with the lure of free money and a chance to win. I think Shycast has a great shot and it’s something that I’d certainly look into for client that wants to get brand, PR and entertainment value out of its marketing.
The idea is great for brands that want to engage there customers in an engaging manner. It seems like there were be the ability not only to generate eyeballs, but encourage people to interact with a brand.
Interesting. There are deffinately some brands that this seemed well suited for - musical intrament manufactures - you know, guitar shredding contests, drum solo contests…. and I think food brands - video contests of recipes etc… a little Iron Chef action…
I think it’s a cool idea.
Free, fun content for advertisers and people love that shit! Used with a sly PR campaign, you can see it hitting the right chord with the masses and gaining mass notariety. It’s worth $5K to me to make my bed in a hilarious way. I mean, really…what else do I have to do anyway?
This looks to be a good site for prize fanatics like me.
I had the exact same idea for a company (i imagined it a bit more refined than what i saw in their screenshot but it has the gist) about year and half ago but decided to abandon the idea because of some critical downfalls with the idea. I did notice that some of you spotted some of them too and i hope these boyz will work them out as they will most definitely pop up. From first impression i dont think they see all the consequences just yet which is good and bad.
If the creaters of the website are reading this, do not get outside capital. There is no need.
the idea sounds great, but not original! a similar model was designed by zooppa.com
hey guys! i am IKEAobsessed , and drive 4 hours each way when i do my yearly IKEA stock-up. anyway, super pumped about IKEA finally coming to Ohio next year, and could sure use these gift cards for the grand opening. check out my video submission, hope i get your vote!!
http://www.shycast.com/contest/contestant/51/view/
Since Shycast is an unknown, the only way this has a chance of working is if Ikea promotes the hell out of it.
Otherwise, the 1% Rule will relegate it to obscurity:
http://customerevangelists.typ.....iki_p.html