Deadline: October 6, 2017
The U.S. Embassy in Abuja invites interested Nigerians to compete in its “Strength in Diversity” video contest. The purpose of this contest is to promote democracy, unity, and diversity in Nigeria. The contest offers Nigerians the chance to creatively express pride in the country’s immense diversity and express their desire for national unity.
Ambassador W. Stuart Symington, who opened the competition on September 6, 2017, said that despite the focus on the issues that seem to divide, there needs to be greater attention placed on Nigerians’ desire for peace and unity as well as the pride that Nigerians have in their cultural diversity.
The contest will be conducted on YouTube, a video sharing platform and Facebook a networking platform that supports video sharing and interaction. Entrants are asked to create an original video of no longer than three minutes in duration, upload it to YouTube, and complete the contest form.
Prizes
- 1st Prize: Canon EOS 80D with lens and Video Creator Kit
- 2nd Prize: Canon Rebel t6i with lens
- 3rd Prize: Canon Rebel t5 with lens
Eligibility
- Contestants must be at least 18 years old on the date of entry into the contest. Contestants must be residents of Nigeria and may not be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
- The individual submitting the entry will be considered the contestant and will be the only individual eligible to compete for the prize. Organizations are not eligible to compete for the prize, either as an entity or through representation by an individual. In order to be eligible for the prize, the contestant must provide complete and accurate information.
- The following individuals are not eligible to participate in the contest: Employees, interns, directors, and officers of the Contest Sponsors, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or the U.S. Government, or any employees, interns, directors, or officers of any agencies, companies or entities involved in the administration, advertising, judging, creation, development, execution, and/or fulfillment of this contest, and the immediate family members (defined as spouse, recognized partner, parent, child, sibling, and spouse or “step” of each) and those living in the same household of each such individual.
- Once a submission has been accepted for entry into the contest, the contestant’s name (or User ID, if the contestant wishes to remain anonymous) and country may be publicly identified at the sole discretion of the contestant.
Judging Criteria
- Public Affairs judges will review and select the top 20 videos from the list of submitted videos
- The top 20 videos will be uploaded to The Embassy’s social media properties – Facebook and YouTube with a call for public voting for favorite videos via likes, comments and shares. A participant’s total votes will be the sum of user engagement on Facebook and YouTube. Note: Engagement is combination of comments, like and shares while engagement rate is ratio of Engagement to Total Users.
- The top 10 videos by popular demand as determined by user engagement will move to the final stage.
- PAS/Judges will select the top 3 videos as the winners of the contest (1st, 2nd and 3rd). What are they looking for?
- Creativity and originality
- A clear message – Strength in Diversity
- A focus on Nigeria
- Winners: Each winner and/or finalist will be required to sign and return to Contest Sponsors a statement of eligibility and liability/publicity release, and provide a short bio (where applicable) and a brief statement about the submission; otherwise the winner or finalist will be ineligible for any prize. The inability of Contest Sponsors to contact a potential winner may result in disqualification and/or selection of an alternate winner from among all remaining eligible submissions.
- How winners and finalists will be notified. Winners and finalists will be announced on the Embassy website and via a Facebook Live event. Winners will also be contacted directly via email, SMS and/or telephone call. The Winner and finalists may choose to use an alias instead of their real name and may request other identifying information be kept private.
Application
- Record an original short video that creatively conveys a positive message celebrating diversity and national unity and upload to YouTube under your own username, captioning the video with the hashtag #OutofManyOne. The video submission can be uploaded in any format accepted by YouTube, but should not be longer than three (3) minutes.
- After uploading the hashtagged video, complete the online sign up form providing:
- Contestant details
- Video link
- Confirm the original nature of the video
- Sign a release – allowing PAS to post and share the video
- After uploading the video and completing the form, the video and information provided may not be modified, edited or replaced. Individual contestants may submit no more than one video. Participation in this contest is automatically deemed as acceptance of these Official Contest Rules. A submission must be an original video, produced by the contestant.
Important Dates
- The contest commences on September 6, 2017, West African Time
- Entries may be submitted between September 6, 2017, and October 6, 2017
- Judging begins on October 9, 2017 and ends on October 23, 2017
For more information, visit Strength in Diversity Online Video Contest.
