Up, Up, and Away!!! We are up to 3,939 as of this morning

This morning we are up another 256 videos from yesterday.  That is still a lot of movement.  We  are most likely not finished yet. I would guess will see more videos added.  Again, all I am doing is reading the HTML code for GetOnTheShelf.com.  I can see when they add videos.  Walmart tends to do a couple updates a day.  I'll check in on it through out today.  

My concern is having enough time to understand the rules for voting.  We are 7 days away from the first day of voting.  With nearly 4,000 video and about 145 hours of content the name of the game will be promotion.  How can each of us get people to vote for our products? How many votes is a lot?  Will large companies who are in this contest simple buy votes (like products by Huggies, OxiClean, Martha Stewart etc.)?  I hope we get the information on voting soon.  I like to make/have a plan!

Still at 3,683

This morning we are still standing at 3,683 videos in this contest. This number could still go up some but it seems to me the people in charge of the "Get On The Shelf Contest" are really on the ball trying to get all the video's ready for the next phase which is VOTING. I am eager to get the email about how voting will work, what rules will be in place to stop people from cheating and to just get the overall details.

The more I think about trying to get through 101 more hours of video submissions the more I think it is kind of a waste of time. I have made it through a thrid of the accepted videos here are some facts:

     Longest Video:                  19 minutes and 14 seconds (plant feed)
     Shortest Video:                8 seconds (tooth brush)
     Average video length:    2 minutes and 11 seconds


Here are some of the most common types of products entered:

- Dog waste

- Taco Stand

- Ipad Stand

- Fishing products

- Camping grills

- Thing to help stop baby/toddlers from droping things

- magnetic photo frames

- truck tie downs

- Ipad stroller holders

- a bottle stand (example stand a ketchup bottle upside down to get every drop)

Most common phrase in the videos:  "There has got to be a better way!"

Although I am kind of addicted to watching the Walmart submissions (I like everyday people inventing items) I am going to abandon my quest to watch them all. The name of the game now is the motion of promotion! We need to figure out how to get our friends and family to vote for us. Can they vote once, once a day or only once per device? Who knows? Walmart does and I am sure all those details will be in our next email from them. 

Have a question for me?  Post it.  Have a great day everyone!

The number of total acepted Video Climbs to 3,683!

Yes there have been another 234 videos added to the Walmart Get On The Shelf Contest. I thought there was a chance that the number stayed unchanged because of the weekend.  Looks like the people at Walmart are back working hard making sure everyone who entered this contest get a fair shot.


I have been back at trying to watch all the videos.  I thought I had caught up a bit and have now watch about 30% of the video accepted into the contest.  I have been keeping some notes and will blog about some of the things I have found in tomorrow's post.  I will let you know the longest and shortest videos I posted earlier are still holding their spots.  The average video length is still right around 2 minute 11 seconds.    Using this average and the new 3683 number for total videos in the contest, Walmart had more than 134 hours of content!  So far I have gotten through about 36 hours!  I still have 100 hours of videos to try to get through.  I honestly don't know if I will make it before the 7th when voting starts.  More to come tomorrow.

Hey they might need a day off or two!

Good morning! I just wanted to quick put an update out. The number of accepted videos has not change since my last post. We have been at 3,449 for the last 2 days. Now as the title of this post states, these guys have been working hard! They could have just taken the weekend off. I'll check for more additions in the next few days. I would guess if we don't see a change through Wednesday, that we can assume that is a final number.

The next big thing we are all looking for is the email about Round 1 voting. Voting starts in 8 days (March 7th, 2012)

The total number of video keep going up....

Today the total number of videos accepted into the contest still stands at 3,449.  We'll have to wait a couple days to see if it stay there or if they continue to add a few more. 

Walmart's "Get On The Shelf" Numbers Update

Quick update. The total umber of video accepted into the contest is 3,267.  That is up 244 from yesterday. This is no surprised here.  We'll see if that number drift up a little more over the coming days. I would guess it will go up a couple more times and then stay flatten out. Once we see this number stay the same for 3 or 4 days in row, we will have our total number of contestants!  Stay tuned for that.


The strange thing is I noticed is Walmart added one more submission on Feb 23.  I wonder how this submission got in on the 23rd? In any case it should be the last one.The total number of submissions 5575!

That's it People, no more submissions!

Ok, I woke up this morning early to check out the new totals.  We have a final number for number of submissions.  That is 5574 video submissions! There can not be any more, so this number is a final.  Congrats to everyone in the contest.  The other number I have been following is the number of videos accepted.  This morning that number stand at 3,023.  However,  on the GetOnTheShelf.com page this morning it states they are still adding a videos that were submitted before the deadline. So the 3,023 number should grow some. Overall this is an outstanding responds to this contest!
 

I'd like to point out that this is only the first year of this contest.  I was also following the Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl"  contest (where people create their own ads and the winner's ad will run during the big game) this year.  This is Doritos 5th year for having this contest.  In year one of the "Crash The Super Bowl" contest in 2007 they had 1065 entries! This year the contest had 6,100 entries.  For this being the first year of the Walmart Get On The Shelf  Contest, we can expect big things from this contest in the coming years.

 

Now follow up on some numbers I have been watching. First of all the longest (19+ minutes) and shortest (8 seconds) videos I found are still holding their spots.  I have also been averaging the length of videos as I watch them.  The average is still at 2 minutes 13 secs.  With 3023 videos in the contest, Walmart Get on the Shelf contest has over 111 hours of video content.  That means it should take 4 days and 15 hours to watch all the videos before voting.  How many people are going to be able to that? 

 

Now let's take a look at estimated odd for moving onto round 2.  As I am viewing the all the video submissions, I have noticed there are a few repeats and a few that are broken. Let's reduce the 3023 videos by 5%  making our entry number 2871. With only 10 videos moving on to Round 2 the estimated odds of moving on are 1 in 287.

 

That's a heck of a lot better than the lottery!  I hope ZooPoo Kids Shampoo is one of the lucky ones!

Quick update...Walmart is reviewing products that might not have made it in at first

In my post from Feb 3rd I said I submitted 3 products and 2 were accepted.  I JUST got the acceptance email for my 3rd product.  This means Walmart is going back over all the videos again making sure you meet their requirements, if so, you're in!  Just thought I would post this right now for people still waiting to hear.  Best of luck to you!

We are coming down to the final hours of Walmart’s Get on The Shelf contest product submissions!

The people at Walmart running this contest have been BUSY!  Really busy.  Here are the updated number as of about 5pm today Feb 21^st.  There have now been 4267 videos submitted to the contest! We have about 24 hours to go.  Will we see this number go to 4500 or even up to 5,000?  I’ll let you know on Feb 23!  The number of product video accepted into the contest is now at 2,516! WOW, and I didn’t think we’d go over 2,000.   We could still get to over 3,000 entries!  I had the weekend off from watching video submissions so I have fallen behind.  I am now through about 20% of the 2,516.  Again I have been keeping track of video length and the new average video length is 2:13 secs.  As you can see every time I watch more videos and average out them out, the play time gets longer.  Using 2 minutes and 13 secs as the average play time this contest now has almost 93 hours of submissions! That is almost 4 days of video submissions! I am starting to wonder if it will be possible for me to get through them all.   I am going to go out on a limb and say that this contest will have over 100 hours of video submissions.  Time will tell.    GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

All I can say is WOW!

As the time on this first submission phase of this contest runs down the folks over at Walmart's Get On The Shelf are gearing up!  Over the last 3 days they have approved about 600 more videos for the contest.  As of this morning my unofficial count is at 1898! There have been 3228 video entered to date.  Meaning over the last 3 days there are about 400 new submissions.  With 4 days left I think I have to change my estimated total entries from 2000 to 2200! 

I am still making my way through watching all the entries. The longest and shortest videos from my last post are still in the lead but I still many videos to watch.  The change I have noticed is the average video length time is increasing.  It was 90 sec for the first couple hundred I watched.  That number is now 120 seconds.  I am watching them in order of submission (each has a number in their Walmart page URL) and figured the early entries are people who already had videos posted on YouTube they could submit to the contest.  Most of those are typical 20, 60 90 sec TV type Ads. If videos are created especially for this contest they are considerably longer. Now if we redo the estimated total amount of YouTube video time using the new numbers ( 120 Sec x 1900 = 228,000 , then 228,000 / 60 = 3,800 Minutes, and 3,800 minutes = 63.3 hours of Walmart videos!  Almost DOUBLE my last projections!!!! 

 

4 days people!   Good Luck to ALL!

Walmart's 'Get On The Shelf' Contest ends Feb 22nd!

The contest is in full swing.  With just 7 days left to enter Walmart's Get On The Shelf contest now has over 1300 videos entered!!! Last time I posted we were 8 videos from 1000. Well, we have gone way over.

To date, by my calculations there have been more than 2800 videos submitted to the contest.   The acceptance rate has increased to about 46%.  This is up from 36% (based on my unofficial findings from the GetOnTheShelf.com website.)  I am going to project that on Feb 22^nd there will be roughly 2000 video/product contestants.  That is a lot of videos to watch and it will be interesting as to how people will vote. You’ll see in my next paragraph it’s going to be tough for voters to actually watch them all!

As I stated before I am doing my best to watch every single video.  As I am going through them I am taking some notes.   I have a couple updates for the longest and shortest submissions to date. So far the longest video I have seen submitted in a whopping 19:14 seconds long!   I have also found the new shortest video.  This video is 8 seconds long! The average length of the videos I have watch is about 90 seconds.  

I am about 25% of the way through watching all the videos (and more are added every day.)  If we do some projections based on the numbers above we can safely assume this contest has generated enough submissions to run for 32.5 hours without a repeat submission ( 90 sec x 1300 submissions /60 = 1950 minutes. Then 1950 minutes/ 60 = 32.5 Hours) It will someone more that one day and a half just to watch them all straight through (and we still have 7 days for more entries!)

On a side note I have also found a couple companies that have multiple submissions for the same video.  I am not sure how Walmart will handle these.  We’ll have to wait to see.  Let's see what these last 7 days bring.  If you haven't entered yet you need to get on it! Good Luck to all the contestants.

Quick update on Videos

Walmart's get on the shelf contest is VERY close to having over 1,000 videos/product in the contest! I have a couple bits of information to pass along since my last post. First is probably some good news to some people haven't heard if they have been accepted into the contest. Walmart is sequentially adding video to the contest.  This means the larger the number they have for the entry the later they submitted their videos to this contest. I do see the Walmart is adding large number (ie newer videos) but in the last few days I have notice they are going back and adding videos that might have been passed over at first. If you haven’t heard about your video yet….you still have a shot!!


I am still making my way through all the videos. I have noticed not all the videos actually work. There are about 10 that don’t. I also have to update a couple things from my last post. We have a new shortest video. It comes in at 15 seconds! WOW! There is also a video that has Billy Mays doing the pitch for it. This contest is really big boys going against the little guys.  It’ll be fun to see how it develops.

Quick Observations about Walmart's Get On The Shelf Contest Videos

Walmart’s Getontheshelf.com  contest is still growing. There are 15 days left for people to submit their videos and then the real work starts March 7^th.   Today I wanted to take a moment to point out some observations about the submissions. Ultimately, my goal is to watch all the video submissions.  There approximately 750 videos entered right now.  To date, I would guess I am about 25% through them.  Here are some rough estimates on the video I have watched:

-          About 75% of the videos are videos that the inventor had created and posted already. 

-          The shortest video I have seen is 26 seconds

-          The longest video I have seen is over 15 minutes!

-          95% ish of videos are submitted from individuals

-          Of the video by companies, the biggest name I have seen seems to be Huggies product

As I thought about what video to submit I figured there is reason why commercial breaks are usually 2 minutes long.  People don’t want to send more than 2 minutes watching Ads.  I think product submission longer than 2 minutes will have trouble.  I decided my video should be 60 seconds long.  I submitted a video I had made a couple months earlier to hopefully run on TV.  That’s it for today.  Good Luck to everyone in (or trying to getin) the contest!!!

Well there is about 19 days left for people to enter this contest. I have done some digging around and have some number for you. To date my estimate says Walmart has had 2028 video’s submitted for the contest! WOW! If I counted correctly there have been 738 accepted into the contest . This means the estimated acceptance rate is about 36%. I know I had some challenges when I submitted my video and I have been reading about others having similar problems.


First thing I noticed is there was no acceptance email confirming you video was received. For the first week a small “Thank You” appeared under the description box after you hit submit. I actually submitted twice because I didn’t see anything confirming that my entry was received. I sent a note in on the FAQ (and I would guess others did too) and now after you hit submit you get this message “Thanks! We'll be in touch about your entry within a week.” Now I have 3 inventions but ZooPoo Kids Shampoo and Bath Toys has the most mass appeal. I waited a full 7 days and heard nothing from my Jan 19th submission. I them submitted my other two products just to see if I would hear anything. Two of my 3 products were accepted. I only heard back from Walmart on the product accepted (with the same email from my earlier post.) I still haven’t heard anything back about my third product. I have to admit it’s a bit out there (a snow plow attachment you attach to your self-propel lawn mower so you can clear snow www.SnowMower.com but it’s not that crazy!)


I also believe my ZooPoo Kids Shampoo and Bath Toys product name was too long for the form. I think this slowed my acceptance. My product name got shortened to just ZooPoo Kids Shampoo. Although it was accepted the same day my second invention I submitted it a full 7 days earlier. So watch the length of your product names.


Next thing I see is users having problems with their YouTube URLs. When you are ready to submit your product you will get normally one of two things. A successful submission will result in this sentence appearing under the Description box “Thanks! We'll be in touch about your entry within a week.” If your YouTube URL is bad or it has problems you will get a message saying the URL has errors. This best URL to use it the “SHARE” url displayed by hitting the SHARE button under your video on its YouTube page. IMHO It’s best to use that URL.


That’s it for today! More to come. I still really excited. Good luck to all the other hopefuls! Thanks! We'll be in touch about your entry within a week.

I'm In Walmart's GetOnTheShelf.com CONTEST!!!

Well it's a good day!I found out about Walmart's GetOnTheShelf.com contest on Jan 19th. I can’t tell you as a small business how excited I was to see this. This contest is a game changer for an entrepreneur/small company, it’s a springboard maybe even a rocket ship to take your product, invention or idea forward at light speed with Walmart’s help. It will really be the “American Idol” for inventors/products!


On Jan 19th I entered my product. A children’s shampoo and bath toy called ZooPoo Kids Shampoo. Here is a link to the video I submitted:


http://youtu.be/ux5SERIsOWY


and just in case you’re interested here is a link to my website:


http://www.zoopoo.com/




On Jan 31st I received this email back from Walmart:


------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for your submission to Get On The Shelf. Your entry of "ZooPoo Kids Shampoo"
has been posted at http://www.getontheshelf.com/product/384/ZooPoo-Kids-Shampoo.


Voting begins March 7, 2012.


You are receiving this mail because your email
address was submitted at www.getontheshelf.com. If you do not wish to receive
further correspondence, reply to this mail and let us know. However, note that
we must be able to reach you by email for you to be eligible to win.


Walmart, 850 Cherry
Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066.
-------------------------------------------------


I have decided to blog about the experience and let people see what is involved in this opportunity. It’s going to be a business changing, no LIFE changing opportunity for the best inventors to strive for. I am really excited Walmart has put this contest together and thankful just to be one of the over 500 entrants. Entries are still coming in until Feb 22nd.


I will blog about the status of the contest and how things are going. If I can answer questions I will. More to come on me and the contest. This is going to be one heck of a ride!!!!!