What is Poptent?

[Marco Leavitt]

I recently responded to a query that was ostensibly looking for crew for a specific ad campaign. In response, I got a link to this site:

Poptent Home

I have to say, I'm not clear what this outfit does. Does anyone have experience with these people?

[Ervin Farkas]

I have no experience with them, but it's an interesting concept, looks like an opportunity to show the world what you are able to do. You get an assignment from a sponsor, you show them your work based on the theme - if they like it, you might get paid.

[Marco Leavitt]

Interesting concept. Guess it's a good way to build your reel, but I guess not something to put a lot of faith in getting paid work.

[Rick L. Allen]

Ah, another internet site that gets you the producer to create content for others for free or at price points that are ridiculously low. Notice how on the site they never actually say what they do or what the "deal" is. If you can't say it up front then there is something wrong.

And here's the best part;

"You grant XLNTads, its affiliated entities and sublicensees a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, royalty free, fully paid up and irrevocable license to use Your materials or information, including without limitation the rights to copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, make derivative or collective works, translate and reformat the materials or information, and to publish Your name in connection with Your materials or information. XLNTads will not pay You compensation with respect to any use of Your materials or information."

[Dave Blackhurst]

"give me your stuff, I'll sell it, make money off of it, and give you NOTHING for it..."

Now why didn't *I* think of that business model???

[Marco Leavitt]

I'm not as cynical about this. It's clearly geared toward amateurs just starting out, full of ideas and producing low-budget off-the-cuff stuff. No doubt they get experience and learn a lot in the process and maybe get paid. The biggest thing they'll learn is whether they want to try and make a career out of it (and move on), or realize it's not for them. Think of how many film school grads pay tons of money to come to the same conclusion. Obviously, I don't see professionals devoting any time to something like this. I guess it's essentially a contest.

The whole thing reminds me of a contest to produce a commercial that a local restaurant ran in my area a while back. The grand prize was $1,000, for which they apparently got hundreds of entries. The winner was very simply, and cheaply done, and was quite funny. I remember at the time thinking the strategy was brilliant. This guy got a pretty good, broadcast quality commercial made for $1,000! At the same time, a lot of people got exposed to filmmaking and had a good time.

I do have to say though, I'm kind of turned off by a company (Poptent) that would represent itself (to me) as looking to hire a crew for a specific ad campaign, and then direct me to a site devoted to "crowdsourcing."

[Chris Soucy]

Originally Posted by Marco Leavitt

I'm not as cynical about this.

This is rip off central.

Don't touch it with a barge pole, or something even longer if available.

Why are people so damn guilable?

Sorry Marco, that disclaimer says it all, you dive in, you're screwed.

Steer clear and have a good life.


CS

[Dave Blackhurst]

This is apparently a "new" business model - just saw one for graphics...

You (client) submit your "job", a bunch of out of work desperate people put up their best "work", you get to choose the one you want for cheap... and presumably the site takes a cut and the "artist" gets a happy meal...

The concept is certainly interesting from the client side - but the mentality it encourages is not a promising "business" model... and only a deperate fool would "work" for peanuts - so I guess this is great for all the Cheapo McScrooges out there and someone who wants some pocket money, but not a wise "investment" of time and effort for someone wanting to produce quality and get paid accordingly...

[Terry Wall]

It's interesting...I was speaking with a friend and former business colleague about video production and where it's going. Today, I pulled up a TechCrunch article about a company called Tongal--very similar to Poptent--that just got a $15 MILLION "B" round of funding. Like Poptent, Tongal develops video content through "crowdsourcing" and by virtue of the funding by one of the biggest VC players out there, cheap, collaborative content development is here to stay. I surfed around some of the sites (I am curious like that) that do this and scanned some of the profiles of the folks that produce the content in question and it appears that most of them are quite young. While this isn't a generational rant, it almost makes sense when I watch many of the commercials on TV these days and wonder if they're not produced by someone barely above voting age. Full disclosure: I'm guilty of being a card-carrying Boomer.

My point to all of this is that video content is certainly in demand--which will increase...the Web is driving it big time. That's the good news! The not-so-good news is that it's relevant to think about some jobs we may lose--and why. These crowdsourcing portals will probably have an impact on what we do--especially for quick-turn web only content that larger production companies aren't nimble enough to handle.

Other thoughts?

[Charles Papert]

Here's the numbers:

Poptent pays $7500 to the producers for a complete buyout, and takes a $40,000 fee.

Don't get me started.

[Jonathan Levin]

Another day, another scam.

[Terry Wall]

I think I hear Mrs. Gump yelling, RUN FORREST, RUN!!!