A letter written by a fifth-grader (whose dad works for an electric car blog, it should be noted right here), has been turned into what Elon Musk and Tesla hope will become a viral marketing campaign. But nobody’s getting a free Tesla out of it.
On March 1, Steve Loveday (who’s a contributor to InsideEVs) shared a letter on Twitter written by his daughter, Bria, to Musk, CEO of the electric car company. It simply suggests that Tesla hold a competition to see which of its customers or fans can make the “best homemade Tesla commercial.”
Musk thought it was a great idea. A little after midnight on Sunday, Tesla opened the contest with a tweet that got a signal boost from Musk on Sunday night when he shared it with his 7.58 million Twitter followers.
There’s now a “Project Loveday” page on the Tesla website that’s just that, a competition for the best homemade Tesla commercial, with this blurb:
10 year old Bria Loveday sent us a letter and suggested we hold a video contest. We thought that was a great idea (thanks Bria). Over the next couple of months we will collect videos from around the world as part of the “Project Loveday” video contest. If you’re interested in submitting a video, simply create it, keep it to 90 seconds or less, send us a YouTube link along with your entry form, and wait to see if you’re one of our top winners.
Winners will be judged by Tesla personnel over the course of three weeks after the submission period ends. Submissions will be based on four criteria: originality, creativity, relevance to Tesla and its mission, and finally — crucially? — entertainment value. It seems like a lot of Tesla personnel will cast a vote, because the three entrants with the “10 highest scores” will be judged, and the winner with the highest score named the Grand Prize Winner.
The prizes aren’t bad, but a free Tesla isn’t one of them: The Grand Prize Winner gets an invitation and public introduction at “a future Tesla product launch,” with the car company footing the bill for “reasonable expenses” for two people for two nights. Not bad for 90 seconds.
By searching “Tesla + Loveday” on YouTube, one can already see a few early entries:
Here’s another:
The fine print for the contest notes that it ends “at the end of the day” on May 8, with the winners being emailed on May 29.
Here are the full submission guidelines:
- Submissions must be submitted via the online Entry Form
- Videos must be no longer than 90 seconds
- Videos must relate to Tesla, SolarCity, our products, or our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy
- Videos hosted on third-party social media platforms must comply with that platform’s Terms of Service
- Videos must be approved for all ages; i.e., it cannot contain violence, nudity, or inappropriate language or behavior
- Any text or voice-overs in the videos must be in English
- Submissions must not contain material that violates or infringes another’s rights, including, but not limited to, privacy, publicity or intellectual property rights
- Submissions must not in any way mention, refer or otherwise allude to the name, logo or trademark of any entity, individual, product or brand other than those of Tesla and its brands
- Submissions must not contain material that is not the original work of the Entrant
Good luck and congats to Bria Loveday, who has a future in marketing.
