Money is a big part of fulfilling big ideas but nowadays it’s even harder than ever to come by. Luckily, Pepsi can help! While choosing to skip the $3 million Super Bowl ad for the first time in 23 years, they have set aside many more millions for the Pepsi Refresh Project. Every month, Pepsi is accepting 1,000 ideas in areas of Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods and Education. Regular folks like you and me, businesses of all sizes and non-profits are all welcome to submit. With grants from $5,000-$250,000 are awarded to up to 32 ideas, what’s there to lose?
Good on Pepsi for embracing digital, not to mention giving people a chance to make positive changes in their communities. Most of the Super Bowl ads this year lacked the pizzazz of years past anyhow. BTW, who still watches commercials? Even my mom skips them and she doesn’t even know what a DVR is. But I digress.
Have a light bulb moment today? You should head over to RefreshEverything.com to submit your idea or check out the leaders in each category and vote for your favorites. If you want to see how some of the past winners are doing, head over to the blog and read some of the grantee stories. There’s a really great one about a Twitter based app that allows young volunteers to measure and share their impact based on geo location. For more info on this $25,000 grant recipient, go to myImpact.org.
Don’t count Awards Season as being over just yet! The second annual Streamy Awards are just around the corner and nominations have been announced. Produced by Tubefilter, Inc. and co-hosted by Tubefilter and NewTeeVee, the Streamy’s honor the best in online entertainment from traditional categories like best comedy to new and exciting areas such as best vlogger, best branded entertainment and best mobile experience in a web series. The first awards show of its kind, the Streamy’s are not only a godsend for the great content creators on the Internets but they’re also helping to set the standard for great original and complimentary web content of the future.
Among the nominees this year are “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis,” a comedy mock-talk show in which Zach Galifianakis interviews stars such as Conan O’Brien and Natalie Portman, and “Interview Project,” a series of documentary interviews with ordinarily extraordinary Americans shot by two friends on a back roads road-trip across the United States. I had a chance to work with Austin Lynch and Jason S. at the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab last year. Their work is truly inspiring and heart felt. Check out their collaboration with AFI Digital Content Lab in the video below.
A full list of nominees can be found at Streamys.org. Check them out! You just might get hooked like I did and find yourself drowning in anticipation of who will win. Winners will be selected by the International Academy of Web Television and the awards will be handed out on April 11th and streamed (of course!) live on the Streamy’s web site. A few tickets may be released to the public so look out for that if you wish to see some of your favorite celebs in person. Some of last year’s attendees/nominees included Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, Lisa Kudrow, Felicia Day and Rosario Dawson. It’s a good time either way so start watching videos of the nominees now and show your support for this growing confluence of talent!! I promise the show won’t be 4 hours long!
