Zooppa Crowdsourcing Campaign Touted as “One of the Best Creative/Marketing Spends” by Zinio

Seattle, WA, July 30, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Zooppa has announced the winners of the Zinio “Read What You Like” advertising competition. The contest went out with a bang, generating over 400 submissions in video and print from Zooppa’s creative members. Zinio’s CEO, Richard Maggiotto, was overjoyed by the results stating, “This is one of the best creative/marketing spends we’ve ever made.”

Zooppa’s creative community of more than 66,000 people had eight weeks, April 5, 2010 to June 7, 2010, to create innovative video and print ads that express how Zinio, a global leader in digital publishing technology and services, transforms the reading experience. Zinio challenged Zooppa’s worldwide talent to produce work that was “thoughtful, provocative, and edgy” and illustrated “not just what Zinio is, but also how we enhance readers’ lives.” Submissions communicated three core messages as requested by Zinio: depth, accessibility, and global presence. Zinio selected the top three winners in both video and print categories while the Zooppa staff and community determined eight other winners.

The Grand Prize was awarded to Marcus Eckert, a 23 year-old psychology student from Germany. Eckert’s video entitled “Space and Air” won over Zinio through its “originality, beauty, and subtlety.” Eckert stated that he applied his love for typography and “implemented some magazine inspired layouts into real world footage to convey what's at the heart of Zinio - being able to take thousands of magazines and books wherever you go.” Zinio was impressed by the overall art quality and production value of Eckert’s work and commented that the typography was “exceedingly well-selected.”

“At My Side” produced by Lance Slaton, a Louisiana native artists and filmmaker, took home second place in video for its “whimsical quality” according to Zinio. The video juxtaposed people porting around a cumbersome tall stack of books and magazines with people that could simply access all of their books and magazines on the iphone or ipad via Zinio’s application. “This video was the most successful of all entries in expressing Zinio’s explicit value proposition to audiences by showing and not telling outright…wordlessly, and with some imagination and buoyancy,” said Zinio.

Third place in video went to “Trying Too Hard” by Carl Holmes. “This was a favorite at Zinio mostly for its humor and originality,” remarked Zinio CEO, Richard Maggiotto. “ It’s funny, but not in the slightest bit cynical or ironic, which is an achievement. Equally, the video plays right to a core demographic for digital media brands like Zinio—young, urban males.”

The winning submissions received a total of $15,000 in cash prizes. Zinio plans to use the winning user-generated ads for viral distribution, engaging visitors on its website, partner sites, and tradeshows. “The caliber of work from our community members continues to advance and flourish with each new competition that we launch,” stated Zooppa CEO, Wil Merritt. “Zooppa’s creative community has once again proven that collective ideation in a brand’s advertising campaign can produce extraordinary results.”

About Zooppa: Zooppa is the world's largest source of user-generated advertising. With a community of more than 66,000 people, Zooppa offers brands an innovative model for developing creative advertising, building word-of-mouth and gaining consumer insights.

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