A video campaign highlighting small businesses and the people who have created them.

Every small business has a story. This contest will reward the best telling of those stories.

Small businesses are forged by grit, determination, and passion made with tears, laughter and sometimes sacrifice. The Small Business Stories contest brings those stories to life, highlighting small businesses and the people who have created them.

The submissions for this contest are documentary-style shorts of actual small businesses from your town. What drove them? What are their biggest successes? Greatest challenges? Why did they start? Why did they continue when the odds were stacked against them? What keeps them moving forward? What makes them smile?

Don’t worry about lighting. Don’t focus on “polish.” These are the stories of the people who are grinding it out every day. It’s about their trials and tribulations and their successes. Maybe their story is told through a voiceover. Maybe it’s told through a Q&A interview.

Maybe it’s not told in spoken words at all.

This contest isn’t about technical polish. This contest isn’t about getting the perfect shot. Your job isn’t to make the story look “pretty,” because sometimes it’s not.

Your job is to tell the story well. GoDaddy has provided points for consideration when speaking to your small businesses. These can be found under the Materials Tab. 

While GoDaddy may be mentioned by the subjects of your film, please do not include GoDaddy logos, URLs or screenshots in your submission.

How the winners are determined:

From the first round, the top 10 audience voted and the top 10 preliminary jury selected entries will move on to the finals round to be judged by a GoDaddy panel of jurors. Final Jury winners will be announced on February 23, 2017.

About AudPop AudPop is the video network for brands. We provide brands a way to easily obtain the video they need and increase digital marketing ROI. We offer an engaging video marketing platform powering turn-key video. Brands use AudPop to crowd-source addictive, gorgeous video content at scale from our award-winning diverse global filmmaker collective. Submissions are juried by the brand, entertainment industry, and voted on by the world. We democratize entertainment by connecting our filmmakers to fans and brands and providing opportunities such as cash, prizes, distribution, and festival screenings. AudPop has worked with many brands including Southwest Air, GoDaddy, Hilton Worldwide, Better Business Bureau, SONY, KODAK, and DELL. AudPop has a community of 75K global filmmakers, 14K short films on the platform, and has operated over 500 online film festivals, video contests, and film challenges.

AudPop is a social impact video platform connecting Creators, businesses, and audiences globally. We believe that real stories can change the world. That’s why we connect Creators with brands and audiences through the creation, curation, and promotion of authentic storytelling content worldwide. Founded in 2013 and Powered by 75,000+ global filmmakers and Creators, AudPop is committed to facilitating collaboration and creating meaningful change.

Become a PRO member of AudPop and submit to every opportunity for free. Up to 20GB a week of upload space + 4K/1080p uploads. PRO members receive opportunities to license and monetize their films. PROs are connected to brands looking to hire local filmmakers. Other opportunities for PRO filmmakers include production funding for feature documentaries, narratives, and animations and marketing your career to our followers. $14/month or $140 paid annual (2 months free). Go PRO here: https://audpop.com/upgrade

SUBMISSIONS DUE BY

Submissions Closed

VOTING OPENS

Feb 14, 2017 at 12:00pm MST (America/Denver)

VOTING CLOSES

Feb 21, 2017 at 12:00pm MST (America/Denver)

WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Feb 23, 2017 at 12:00pm MST (America/Denver)

FINAL ROUND PRIZE DESCRIPTION

A GoDaddy panel of jurors will select 10 winners from the 20 that moved on from the first round.

FINAL TEAM AWARDS

1st Place Jury Award: $10,000

2nd Place Jury Award: $3,000

3rd Place Jury Award: $1,500

7 Honorable Mention Jury Award: $1,000