Announcing the Winners of the #getonyoursoapbox Contest!

Last month, we put out a call to find and champion the business video stars of tomorrow by way of the #getonyoursoapbox contest. The rules were pretty straightforward: use Wistia’s new video creation Chrome extension, Soapbox, to record something simple, creative, and compelling. Then, share it with the world on social media using the hashtag #getonyoursoapbox.

Prizes would be awarded based on various criteria, including who racked up the most shares, as well as who could showcase their dog in the most creative way. All of these Soapbox videos would be judged by Wistia’s Social Media Coordinator, Jenny Mudarri; our Creative Director, Dan Mills; and our Lead Video Producer, Chris Lavigne (with our office dog Lenny acting as arbiter in the case of disputes).

A huge round of applause goes out to everyone who took part in the contest and for the many entries we received from around the world. Also, our commiserations to anyone who sadly didn’t walk away with a prize. Some of the categories were hotly contested, and Lenny is a really harsh judge.

So without further ado (drumroll, please), here are the winners!

Best Sales Video: Alexander Witt and Chrispy Simon

Congratulations to Alexander Witt and Chrispy Simon for their entry, Visuelles Alphabet, which has won them a pair of Apple AirPods.

While this isn’t technically a sales video per se, and is perhaps more of a tutorial (selling an idea, rather than a product), we’re bending the rules a bit to give this entry the award because we thought it was so well put together. We loved the use of the dual talking heads with the previously recorded footage, which inspired us to think about using illustrations more frequently to communicate ideas in a concrete and memorable manner.

Best Support Video: Nextiny Marketing

This award goes to our friends at Nextiny for a fantastic entry giving support and advice about advanced ways to use HubSpot. The prize for this particular category? Well, we promised that we’d film Lenny eating your company name spelled out in peanuts, but he’s been a bit busy with all the judging. So be on the lookout for the video sometime next week, Nextiny!

Best Use of a Dog: (Tie) Vanessa Luis and Marc Rein

This was a fiercely competitive category, and Lenny refused to pick one dog over another (he just likes everyone too much!). As a consequence, we decided to award 2 prizes for this category. Yoshi’s story broke our hearts, and everyone at Wistia HQ wants to pet him for hours on end. Brodie also won us over by being adorably fluffy, and Lenny has agreed to a play date on the condition that Brodie brings miniature carrots.

Thanks to both Vanessa and Marc — you each win a GoPro Camera, a dog harness, and a Wistia dog bandana.

Video Created Furthest from Wistia HQ: Rizwan Ahmed

Rizwan Ahmed from Inbound Mantra takes this prize with his series of bizarre party tricks all the way from Gurugram, India. Well done, Rizwan! We’re all impressed and/or slightly concerned by your talents, and hope you make it around the world to visit us in Cambridge soon.

We’ll be sending you a gift bag full of Boston swag, so start practicing your best Tom Brady impression.

Most Shares: Melissa Leithwood

Congrats to Melissa Leithwood, who attained the most shares with her cause-based video in support of Naturopaths Without Borders. Melissa will be taking home the ultimate Soapbox accessory, a Canon 5D! We’re excited to see the future Soapbox creations you come up with.

Thanks again to all of our entrants, and for those of you who have yet to create a Soapbox video: what are you waiting for? It just takes 1 click to get started, and all you need is a laptop with a webcam.