Another example of tapping all of the young talent out there, on a parallel with TopCoder, Chipotle Mexican Grill launched a national competition to create an ad for its chain. The competition entitled "30 Seconds of Fame" was launched in September and offered a $20,000 first prize (shared equally between the students and the University). A team from Southern Methodist University in Dallas worked one weekend and came up with 12 short 30 second ideas, which they whittled down to 3 spots. When all the judging was over, the SMU team won first place and their piece entitled The Wall has been running on the 30 x 40 foot Astrovision screen at New York's Times Square since December 11th. Several of the spots were posted on YouTube.com where they generated millions of viewings in a 3-week period.

You can see the SMU spot and the spot from the University of Nebraska Lincoln that received the most views on YouTube and several other entries. Personally I think the University of Nebraska ad is plain mean even though I have a pretty mean sense of humor. But the SMU ad is plain clever.

We love the idea of finding and utilizing the talents of young students. Keep it up corporate America.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive