Mark your calendars for the Viral Video Competition; UB’s new forum for creative students to produce original work and get noticed by employers like New Era Cap, Casting Buffalo, and more.
It’s no secret that the fields of marketing and advertising have changed drastically since the rise of social media. It seems that overnight, any individual with access to a phone could become their own writer, producer, and content specialist; and with the rise of content creators and the eyeballs they drew, it was only a matter of time before businesses followed; and brought their money. As creators continue to build their audiences, more and more people are dropping the remote and opting for their phone screen instead. In fact, content creation has shaken all creative and creative-adjacent industries more than we’ve seen since the invention of the television.
Here at UB, we’re used to staying ahead of the curve – establishing new trends rather than following them. That’s why the Career Design Center is launching a brand-new pilot program this spring: the Viral Video Competition, featuring employer partners from New Era Cap, Riveter Design, Hadley Exhibits, DPost Studios, Casting Buffalo, and more.
The Viral Video Competition exists at the center of career development, experiential learning, and employer relations. Designed to give participants a forum to display their creative work to local employers, the competition encourages you to make use of UB’s resources and community to create the best videos possible. Form teams with experts in other departments, put together a script or routine, and get to filming. Once your video is filmed, you’ll upload it to the site of your choice; YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok.
Categories are intentionally expansive. Will you try to win Best Commercial, or Most Entertaining? Will you form a team of two for a highly specific video, or a whole dance troop for a performance? Will you focus on the unique city of Buffalo, or something that speaks to a national audience? Will you try to create the most-viewed video, or will you decide to create sometime more niche that speaks strongly to a specific community? Will you try to impress New Era Cap by filming a commercial for one of their products?
The possibilities are endless, and the choice is up to you and your team.
First, participate in the Kickoff Event (Tuesday, February 10, 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM), a virtual event where you’ll learn the rules of the competition, get advice and mentorship from industry experts – such as Emmy award-winning producer Sean Donovan – and begin to form your teams.
After that, the clock will start, and you’ll have just under one month to create, post, and enter your video into the competition. First, your video will be reviewed by an internal panel of judges. After that, top-performing videos in each category will be shown to a live audience of faculty, staff, employers, and community members from Buffalo’s professional creative arts community.
Content creation on social media serves as the front line of a booming industry, an industry we intend to help UB students break into.
The best way to break into a creative industry?
Make things.
You’re in the perfect place to do it.
To learn more, register for the Kickoff Event here. Or, you can sign up for the competition at the main event page here.
