Lending Club awards $8,000 in YouTube video contest

Lending Club has just announced the winners in their YouTube video contest. After reviewing the videos, Lending Club decided that $5,000 wouldn't cut it and decided to divvy out $8,000 in prize money to four winners. Originally the $5,000 prize was slated to go to the video with the most YouTube views but after consulting with the top contestants, Lending Club decided to increase the overall prize pot. CEO Renaud Laplanche said, "When we decided to incorporate more criteria (other than just YouTube views), we found that at least four participants deserved a prize, but then $5,000 split into four was getting too small, so we increased the total prize money."

The four contestants that won prize money from Lending Club are:

• $3,000 for Best Video - Chris Barrett
• $3,000 for Most YouTube views - Steve Dinelli
• $1,500 for Best Storyboard - Jonathan Reed
• $500 for Jury Prize - Share Ross

Three of the four winners were featured in our video contest review one week before the end of the contest. Jonathan Reed was a late entrant and uploaded his video with just a week to go.

Best Video - Chris Barrett

Chris makes movies professionally and founded Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment with Efren Ramirez, who is most well known as Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite. The company's first project is a documentary on the teacher student sex scandals called "After School". Read our complete interview of Chris here.

Chris Barrett's video for the Lending Club contest shows a girl who is getting her Paris Hilton news through magazines instead of the internet since her laptop broke. "I can't believe their putting Paris Hilton in jail," she exclaims to her friend who can't believe she's so behind the news. The friend suggests Lending Club to borrow the money and replace her computer.



Most YouTube Viewers - Steve Dinelli

Steve's 49 second video was made with 1,500 still photographs using a stop motion technique. Despite the complexity of the video, Steve has perfected the technique and made the video in only two hours. It was the most viewed with 19,011 views on YouTube.

Steve just graduated high school and will start college at Robert Morris in Chicago this fall. He enters every video contest he can find and is currently featured as a finalist in Girl Talk's Think Twice Before You Drink contest (5th video in the row on the top). You can read our complete interview of Steve here.



Storyboard Award - Jonathan Reed

Jonathan Reed was a late entrant and uploaded his video with just a week to go. His video was instantly popular and collected over 6,000 views in that short period of time. If uploaded earlier it would have been a strong contender for most views. The video is an entertaining look at a few Facebook characters who help each other out with a loan through Lending Club.




Jury Prize - Share Ross

Share Ross was the former bassist for the platinum-selling EMI recording artists Vixen and is currently the guitarist and singer for Bubble. She is a big fan of peer to peer lending and in our interview called it "anarchy in its finest form."

She was surprised when Lending Club contacted her and offered her a prize even though she was a long way from the winners as far as total views go. She said, "I'm honored and quite surprised about the Jury Prize. I certainly wasn't expecting anything like this and I think in some way, it reflects the company's product... people helping people. This shows that the head of Lending Club is 'hands on' and I am looking forward to seeing how they grow as a company!"

Share is going to use a portion of her prize money to reinvest in Lending Club. She told us, "You'll be seeing me on Lending Club as a lender sometime in September or October."



Lending Club considers the contest a huge success and they plan to make it an annual event. CEO Renaud Laplanche shared a few parting thoughts with us about the contest:

Will you hold other video contests in the future?

Absolutely. At the very least, we will make this an annual event over the summer.

What was your favorite video?

I really liked the 4 winners. I also liked Sean’s skateboard crash video and the remake of Battle at Krugger. Racoon in Da Club was funny; the “magic of lending club” wasn’t bad either. There was also this video made by a couple who actually borrowed on Lending Club and took a trip to Europe.

There were some concerns about falsely inflated view counts. What did you do to ensure this was a fair contest?

We’ve monitored view counts and inbound links to videos pretty closely and issued warnings to contestants whose counts were “suspicious”. We’ve also looked at the number of videos watched by contestants and the correlations between the number of videos watched and their own video counts. None of these methods is bullet proof though, which is why we decided, in agreement with all the main participants, to take into account YouTube views in our rankings, but also incorporate more subjective criteria like the quality of the content and clarity of the message.

The Battle of Kruger video was in first place when it was pulled by YouTube for copyright violations. Other videos have also been accused of using music or video that they did not own the rights to. How do you feel about that?

We take copyright enforcement very seriously. All 4 winners have produced original content specifically for the Lending Club Video Contest. Too bad I really liked the bufffaloes in Battle at Kruger!

In the peer to peer industry Lending Club appears to be a leader in marketing with Facebook, YouTube, Lookery and other initiatives. What other creative marketing ideas can we expect from Lending Club in the future?

I think you can expect us to become better at these things, as we learn more about social networks, YouTube, and the way to leverage connections among people. Lookery is a fantastic tool in that respect. You will also start seeing some tie-in between social networks and some more traditional ways of exposing connections among people.

Chris Barrett shoots commercial for Lending Club's video contest

Earlier this week we profiled rock star Share Ross who made one of the videos in Lending Club's video contest. She's not the only famous entrant to the contest. Chris Barrett is an film director and producer who was featured in the Sundance Award Winning Documentary The Corporation.

Chris has formed a production company called Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment with Efren Ramirez, who is most well known for his portrayal of Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite. The company's first project is a documentary on the teacher student sex scandals called "After School". Chris was also featured as one of People Magazine's 25 Most Intriguing People of 2001 and holds a patent for the invention "My Little Footsteps" which shows children which shoe goes on which foot by using a sticker that goes inside the sole of their shoes.

Chris found out about the contest after it had already been live for nearly two weeks by another competitor, the one who made Raccoon in Da Club. Chris quickly made up for the late start. As an established video producer, the Lending Club commercial that Chris produced received immediate attention. It was featured on Elites TV and in front of the 2,200 subscribers he already has on his YouTube channel.

Chris Barrett's video, complete with an actual script and actors, shows a girl who is getting her Paris Hilton news through magazines instead of the internet since her laptop broke. "I can't believe their putting Paris Hilton in jail," she exclaims to her friend who can't believe she's so behind the news. The friend suggests Lending Club to borrow the money and replace her computer.

The competition is hot with less than 24 hours to go in the contest. One of the top three videos has been pulled from YouTube for copyright violations and the other two have been collecting views at dizzying rates. Chris Barrett's video is one of the two leaders and has rocketed to its position after a very late entry into the contest. Chris Barrett shared his thoughts about the contest and his video with us.

How did you hear about the Lending Club video contest?

I found out about the contest through one of the other contestants. I currently have a video featured on the front page of YouTube and they sent me an email and said I should enter the contest and to check out their video... so I got my team together and we shot and edited the video in the afternoon on Friday. Had it live online and boom...it began getting hits right away. I have over 2200 subscribes on YouTube who are always waiting to see my newest videos.

Tell us about how you made the video.

We shot the video in HD, and edited it in Final Cut Pro. We have never used Lending Club but we signed up on Thursday and checked out the site and it looks like a great company that could be successful if the borrowers are borrowing for the right reasons. Like with any loan or credit card you have to make sure you are able to repay what you take out.

What do you plan to do with the $5,000 if you win?

If we win the contest we will put it towards our future endeavors including a mini vacation.

Tell us about yourself.

I was the first corporate sponsored college student in America. We were sponsored by First USA (the former credit card company) and they paid for our college tuition in return we were spokesguys for the company and went on TV speaking about financial responsibility. I ended up in the documentaries The Corporation and Maxed Out which both won awards at film festivals around the world including Sundance. I realized I wanted to make films as a career and formed a production company 'Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment' with Efren Ramirez who starred in Napoleon Dynamite as Pedro as well starring in Crank, Employee of the Month and the upcoming films Ratko and American Summer. I am currently directing a documentary on the teacher student sex scandals happening in American schools.

The Battle of Kruger video was just pulled for copyright violations. Also, the 14-second stakeboard video has also been accused of using music that is not theirs. How do you feel about that?

I believe it goes without question that all of the contestants in the Lending Club contest should adhere to the official contest rules as well as YouTube’s copyright policies. The winning contestant must submit the rights of their material to Lending Club to use as it sees fit. It is impossible to license material that isn’t yours and it is unethical to try. I think the essential issue to consider here is the mission of Lending Club to be an honest, creative, and effective system. I hope that the winner of the Lending Club video contest is the person with the video that will best advertise the company: a video that was created honestly, creatively, and is able to spread the concept of peer to peer lending effectively.


By this time tomorrow we should be able to see which video has the most views. However, the contest will not be over until Lending Club announces the winners "on or about" August 11th. Lending Club CEO has reminded contestants, "that before awarding the winning prize, we will be ensuring that the winner has fully complied with the contest’s rules posted above." He has also said Lending Club is "getting YouTube's cooperation to make sure that no one tampers with the view counts." As I mentioned in my original article announcing the contest, gaming the view counts would be my biggest worry with the contest.

Lending Club's Battle at Kruger

The video was already famous before David Baldwin edited it for Lending Club's video contest. The Battle at Kruger is one of YouTube's most popular videos with millions of views and has even been featured in Time magazine.

In 2004 videographer David Budzinski and photographer Jason Schlosberg were sitting on the opposite side of a watering hole in the African savannah filming a herd of buffalo. As seen in the video, the buffalo approach the water unaware of the lions resting nearby. The lions charge and disperse the herd, picking off a young buffalo and knocking it into the water. While trying to drag the buffalo out of the water, it is grabbed by a pair of crocodiles, who fight strenuously for it before giving up and leaving it to the lions. The lions sit down and prepare to eat, but are quickly surrounded by the reorganized buffalo, who move in and start kicking at the lions. After a battle, which includes one lion being tossed through the air, the baby buffalo (who is miraculously still alive) escapes into the herd. The emboldened buffalo chase the remainder of the lions away.

David, in his re-make for the Lending Club video contest, compares the wild animals to banks and credit cards who are preparing to devour a lender. The lender is rescued from certain financial death by a pack of brave Lending Club lenders. It's a very creative and entertaining video. In fact, it's hard to watch just once. This works to David's advantage since the contest winner is the one with the most YouTube views by Friday. David shared a few thoughts with us on how he came up with the idea and created the video.

How did you hear about the Lending Club video contest?

A client in the credit union space forwarded an email newsletter to me in which the contest was mentioned.

Where did you get the idea to create this video?

Simply put, the idea behind my video was an epiphany. I learned about the contest at about 10:00 AM and pondered through the rest of the day whether or not I wanted to enter. The idea to utilize the popular YouTube video “Battle at Kruger” (an amateur shot of some truly amazing animal behavior on the African plain) came to me and by 4:45 PM that afternoon I had made the decision to throw my hat into the ring and was hard at work.

Tell us about how you made the video.

From a technical perspective I used Camtasia to capture the footage of “Battle at Kruger”, Goldwave, a laptop, and a Radio Shack microphone to record the audio, Premiere to edit the footage, and After Effects to export. From a creative perspective the work was mostly in the scripting. I wrote the initial script in my head and put it down on paper. After one revision I was ready to record. If I had to do it over again I'd make a few minor changes. Total work time was 6 to 7 hours.

Have you used Lending Club or heard about it before this contest?

Though I’ve not heard of Lending Club before, I am familiar with peer-to-peer lending.

What do you plan to do with the $5,000 if you win?

Baby needs a new pair of shoes!

Tell us about yourself.

For my day job I work in multimedia productions. You can see some of my handy work at the below links. I also do some acting which is featured below as well.

Animation - The purpose of this animation prototype for pilot training was to replace more expensive and difficult to maintain video training.

Comedy - These videos were made in conjunction with Doublesharpe Productions to market comedian Tim Hawkins.

Drama - Demo video to market David Baldwin's dramatic presentation of Scripture. Dramatic videos of David Baldwin including renditions of Patrick Henry’s “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” speech and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

‘No shoot’ Video - This marketing video was created without an actual video shoot. By using jumpbacks (video background), animation, screen capture video, voiceover, and images, the client avoided the disruption of a video shoot and got a product with which they are satisfied.

‘Screen Capture’ Video - A training or marketing video of a software product requires crisp, clear screen capture footage. This video for ChurchMetrix provided a useful sales tool to give perspective customers a quick overview of the software’s functionality.

Update (Aug 9): The video has been removed from YouTube. The page now reads, "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Negative Space Buzz." This version of the Battle of Kruger, posted in May by Negative Space Buzz, has over 9 million views and is over 8 minutes long. David was caught off guard by the copyright, "Oh, that was painful! I had no idea about the copyright! Nor did I have any advanced warning. I checked the stats first thing this morning and noticed I was in first place and then...the hammer. I managed to track down the guy who holds the copyright and I spoke with him over the phone but, alas, he was not open to the idea of me using his video for the contest. I wish all the best to the eventual winner of the contest and to Lending Club. Soli Deo Gloria."

Comedian uses 'guerrilla marketing' to promote Lending Club video

It's no surprise to learn that Sean Orndorff is a comedian. His 14 second video uses humor to convey a short but powerful message. As we watch a man wreck himself at the bottom of some steps after losing control of his skateboard, subtitles scroll...

"You can't erase the past. But with Lending Club, you can refinance old debt.

To buy a new stakeboard...or pay off medical bills."

Sean has opened up a narrow lead in the Lending Club video contest which ends Friday. The winner, as measured by the video with the most views on YouTube, will receive $5,000. Right now Sean has 13,475 views while movie director Chris Barrett has 13,327 views and Steve Dinelli, who we featured yesterday, has 12,649 views. Thousands of viewers have found Sean's video embedded on MySpace and social broadcasting site NowLive.

Although his video has been widely popular, it has also drawn some criticism. An anonymous reader left a comment on this post accused Sean of copyright violations, "[The video] uses copyrighted music from Pink Floyd, and someone else's video, i've seen it on online before many times." Sean responds, "people have to understand that viral videos and guerrilla marketing is the present. Remixing old and new themes is what keeps things fresh." Sean shared those thoughts and others as he told us about his video.

How did you hear about the Lending Club video contest?

I heard about the Lending Club contest because I participated in another contest to get the most people to join a Facebook group (I placed 7th).

Where did you get the idea to create this video?

I wanted to create a truly viral video. One that people would want to send each other because of its content. I have ADD at times, so it's nice to be able to create a video which is short, to the point, and entertaining.

Tell us about how you made the video.

I made the video using Adobe Premiere, taking the intro from Pink Floyd's "Money" and a skateboard crash.

Have you used Lending Club or heard about it before this contest?

I have not used Lending Club, but I plan to when I have enough disposable income to invest.

What do you plan to do with the $5,000 if you win?

I plan to use the money to put a down payment on my first car. I've been working all summer, so it would be nice to have some income to supplement.

Tell us about yourself (work/school).

I'm a third year at USC entering my first semester of film school. I also do stand-up comedy part-time and am looking to make a career out of it.

Anything else you would like to add?

I know there has been some concern about copyright issues as well as marketing tactics, but people have to understand that viral videos and guerrilla marketing is the present. Remixing old and new themes is what keeps things fresh.

About the video on Myspace: Often times we watch sporting events, television, movies, etc. and view ads, either through product placement or sponsorship (i.e. Nascar). Myspace and Facebook embed ads for viewers to see. The next logical step is for the users themselves to place ads on their own pages to generate revenue.



Good luck Sean and thanks for sharing your video with us!

Be sure to come back as we feature one of the top Lending Club videos each day this week. Vote for your favorite video here.

18-year-old leads in Lending Club's video contest

Eighteen-year-old Steve Dinelli has thrown his hat into the ring against rock stars and movie directors in an attempt to win $5,000 in Lending Club's video contest. Or, perhaps it's more appropriate to say rock stars and movie directors have thrown their hats into the ring to compete against this soon-to-be college freshman. Steve was one of the first to enter the contest and has nearly a two-week lead as others race to catch up. The winner will be the video with the most YouTube views on Friday. Steve's video is fascinating to watch and was created by carefully lacing together over 1,500 still pictures. Steve shared a few of his thoughts about marketing and peer to peer lending with Prosper Lending Review:

How did you hear about the Lending Club video contest?

I heard about the Lending Club contest while browsing Google. I'm always looking for new video contests. I didn't really know what to make for the contest so I figured just something fun with stop motion would be fun.

Tell us about how you made the video.

Making the video is a little harder then the 49 seconds looks, it's made completely with still photographs moving the objects slowly to create video when the pictures are played in rapid succession. It takes about 30 photos for every second of video, this video took about 1,500 photos to produce...I have the stop motion technique down pretty well and I made the entire video in less then 2 hours from the time I found out about the contest.

Have you made other videos using that technique?

The first film I made a 8 minute film using this technique titled "Nightmare On Gamer Street". It took 15,297 photographs to produce and I'm very proud of it. This is a one minute cut from the movie, which actually won 2nd place in the "askmrvideo your day in 60 seconds" contest. The entire film is not online yet because I'm entering it in a contest in a month or so, so keep a look out.

While in high school I made a Six Flags Great America marketing commercial which won a state wide contest and we won a bunch of season passes for my marketing class.

I made a short film "A real card trick" which is currently in 3rd place in the Memelabs "Cards Gone Crazy Contest" using this technique also.

I entered the Thomson Gale Library Love video contest with a video entirely stop motion which is on YouTube now.

Have you used Lending Club or heard about it before this contest?

I have not heard about Lending Club before the contest. I think its a great concept and it will take some time for more people to feel safe lending and borrowing money not from a bank, but I'm sure this will become very popular within the next few years.

What do you plan to do with the $5,000 if you win?

If I win the contest I'm starting college next year and could use all the help I can.

Tell us about yourself (work/school).

I will be attending Robert Morris College in Chicago and will be on their bowling team. I also work at Classic Bowl in Morton Grove IL doing PR and Marketing. I'm a competitive bowler and have competed in bowling at the national level. Also my senior year I competed at the national DECA competition in business service marketing.

Good luck Steve and thanks for sharing your video with us!

Be sure to come back as we feature one of the top Lending Club videos each day this week. Vote for your favorite video here.

Rock star calls peer to peer lending 'anarchy in its finest form'

Share Ross, former bassist for the platinum-selling EMI recording artists Vixen and guitarist and singer for Bubble, has produced a video for Lending Club's video contest with her husband. She's a believer and says, "person to person lending is a wonderful example of anarchy in its finest form! It's grassroots and a simple concept." I think she's a great spokesperson. If her video doesn't win, Lending Club should consider hiring her to to make more videos and get the word out about person to person lending. The video, which is embedded at the end of this article or available on YouTube, is very professionally produced and has some great music and clipart. In an email exchange, Share told us about her video and how she feels about person to person lending.

How did you hear about the Lending Club video contest?

I heard about the contest through a friend of mine on Facebook. I was already familiar with Prosper but had never heard of Lending Club. They're a little bit different to Prosper and I like the Facebook connection, too.

Where did you get the idea to create this video?

My husband and I read the contest rules and thought the simplest way to make the video would be to treat it like a tv commercial. We talked about various ways to do it and decided the simplest approach was the best. Suddenly I was elected to be the spokesperson! ha! I don't know how actors remember all their lines because I sure had a tough time remembering the script that I wrote! ha!

Tell us about how you made the video.

First was the script. We rewrote a few times and went over what graphics to use and how they could fit in. Then we went online and purchased loads of images to use. After all that, we filmed it in our backyard and my husband edited it all together in about 3 or 4 hours. Oh, and he created the background music on his computer, too.

Have you used Lending Club or heard about it before this contest?

I have not used it before and hadn't heard of it prior to the contest. I hope the publicity helps more people find out about it!

What do you plan to do with the $5,000 if you win?

The competition is pretty tough so I haven't even given it a ton of thought. We entered to help get the word out there. But if we were to actually win? I would give 5% to charity, 10% to the IRS, 20% as loans on Lending Club and the rest...well, some of it would go towards saving for our first home and maybe 10% of would go towards something fun.... like a couple of days at the beach!

Tell us about yourself.

I'm a musician first and foremost but that has led to many other endeavors. I was known as the bassist in Vixen and later, the guitarist/singer in Bubble. Now I host an online video podcast called Rock n Roll TV which is produced by my husband and me. We also do some video editing work for record labels. Recently, I published a knitting book called Punk Knits, too!

Anything else you would like to add?

I believe that person to person lending is a wonderful example of anarchy in its finest form! It's grassroots and a simple concept. While I have not researched its benefits completely as an investment, the idea is pure and I respect that. There is something great about lending your money to actually help someone.

Lending Club YouTube video contest enters final week

There is one week left in Lending Club's $5,000 YouTube video contest. Nearly three weeks ago, Lending Club announced a contest "for the best video about Lending Club and person-to-person lending" as measured by total views on August 10th. So far there are a total of 13 contestants vying for the $5,000 prize. The top video has over 7,000 views. It is still possible that someone could enter the contest before the end of the week and take the prize. The most popular videos on YouTube gain tens of thousands of views in a single day.

After reviewing all the videos I think that five clearly stand out above the rest. These are not necessarily the videos with the most views. If I was a one-man judging panel and had to rank order the videos here is where they would stand:

#1 - Chris Barrett's Lending Club Commercial Submission - 1,496 views
Funny video of a girl who is getting her Paris Hilton news through magazines instead of the internet since her laptop broke. She's so last week. Her friend suggests Lending Club to borrow the money and replace her computer. Professionally done. Great acting. It was directed by Chris Barrett and written by Elizabeth Licorish. Chris Barrett is a partner in Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment and is a documentary film director. He is currently shooting a documentary about teacher sex scandals called 'After School' which should be released this winter. Although this has less than 2,000 views it is the fastest climbing video and was featured on Elites TV. The video was just uploaded on August 3rd. Chris Barrett is an established YouTube video artist and has over 2,200 subscribers.



#2 - Lending Club Viral Video - 778 views
This video was created by Share Ross, a self-employed freelance artist, and her husband. Share is well-known as the bassist in Vixen and the guitarist/singer in Bubble. In the one-minute video she does a great job of explaining how Lending Club works. I would give this video the award of most likely to appear on actual TV. Very well done; professional quality.



#3 - Lending Club Commercial - 5,705 views
A guy attempts to clear a long set of stairs on his skateboard. Yes, you know how it ends. Captions read, "You can't erase the past. But with Lending Club, you can refinance old debt. To buy a new skateboard...or pay off medical bills." It's short (only 14 seconds), funny and very youtube-ish. It's the kind of video someone would email to a friend and say hey, check this out! It has received hundreds of views from MySpace embedded links and, in my opinion, is the most likely winner based on its MySpace popularity. It won a YouTube honor - #80 most linked to video in the sports category. It was created by Sean Orndorff from USC.



#4 - Battle at Kruger, Lending Club and You - 1,088 views
Fascinating video of a young buffalo attacked by wild animals (banks and credit cards) and is rescued from certain death by a pack of brave buffalo (Lending Club lenders). Great storyline and the audio is well done. This video, created by David Baldwin from Texas, was featured on the Lending Club blog.



#5 - Lending Club Contest! - 7,202 views
The first 15 seconds of the video is dedicated to explaining how Lending Club works - one of the few videos which does that well. The rest of the video shows various possible uses for a Lending Club loan. The biggest advantage this video has is that it was uploaded very early and has been collecting views for weeks longer than some other videos. It was created by Steve Dinelli who will be a freshman at Robert Morris College this fall.

Honorable mentions. The following videos stand out for one reason or another.

The Magic of Lending Club - 520 views
Harry Potter borrows money (transported by owl) for new textbooks, socks, a faster racing broom and friendship. Creative.

Come on in! Get your feet wet! - 228 views
A home video shot of a family playing in a water fountain while on vacation in Europe. Subtitles say things like "Cool down! Enjoy life! Lend and borrow with Lending Club!" If you hang on until the end of the two and a half minute video you will learn that the vacation was funded by eight members of Lending Club. This may be the only person who has personal experience with Lending Club to enter the contest.

Cat Lovers - 251 views
This is part two of the get your feet wet video. Art Ture explains that he and his wife borrowed money from Lending Club and took a trip to Europe. There are four and a half minutes of video from their trip including lots of cats. Again, I like how this is a personal Lending Club story. It is, however, unlikely to gain many page views because few people are generally interested in vacation videos unless you are in them.

Raccoon in Da Club - 583 views
Twenty-two second video of a raccoon. "Join raccoon-to-raccoon Lending Club. The CLUB not the tree." Nice play on LendingTree.com.

Microwaving My Credit Card - 33 views
Thedebtkid cooks his credit card in the microwave. "There is an easier way to melt away your credit card debt...lendingclub.com."

Brilliant Viral Campaign - 892 views
This was one of the first videos to enter the contest. It is a dubbed-over 1-minute clip from the Hound of the Baskervilles called The Hounds of Bad Credit. Someone wrote in the comments, "Perhaps if it was all redubbed, and the audio quality was better. As it is, it's just sort of bad. I'm giving it a 4 of 10. But the concept is a great idea! I'd just redo it." I'd agree. Creative idea but the audio quality actually makes it a little painful to watch.

The final two videos were difficult to understand. In Netbanker's review Jim Bruene said, "One is recorded so softly, you cannot understand a word of it, another features a guy reading website copy on his couch...I don't want to skew the results by linking to them. Trust me, you don't need to watch them." To be complete and fair I will link to them, but I agree with Netbanker's assessment.

Get Money, Lend Money, No Problem (Lending Club) - 4,168 views
Poor audio quality. Impossible to understand.

LendingClub.com Contest Video - 1,249 views
This was the first entrant uploaded July 23. Contains profanity. Not interesting enough to keep my attention for six minutes. It's the longest video in the competition.

Since some of you may disagree with my top video picks I threw together a quick poll so you can vote for your favorite. Which one do you think should win? Note, I was limited to 10 poll options so I combined the two entries that were made by the same person and excluded the last two videos.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Overall, some high quality videos have already been produced for Lending Club's contest. This week we will post interviews of several of the video producers. They have fascinating stories.

If you are interested in joining the contest in the final week you can get the details on our earlier post or, if you have a Facebook account, on the official contest site.

Lending Club announces $5000 video contest

How do you earn money through peer to peer lending networks? Interest on your investments or referral cash? Now there is another way. Lending Club is giving away a cool $5,000 in a video contest. You do not have to be a Lending Club member, but you do at least have to have a Facebook account to view and enter the contest. Here's the announcement for those that do not have an account:

Lending Club is a person-to-person lending application available exclusively to Facebook users. Hundreds of Facebook lenders have already extended more than $300,000 in loans to Facebook borrowers since May 24. Users borrow and lend money among each other, bypass the banks and get better rates.

Now here's what we're thinking: person-to-person is a strange idea at first. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense: users cuts the banks out and they all get better rates.

So in order to help explain the benefits of p2p lending, we are hosting a contest starting July 17 until August 10 for the best video about Lending Club and person-to-person lending. The best video wins $5,000.

The winner will be the video that has the most views on YouTube by August 10, 2007. The video must explain how Lending Club can help you refinance your debt at better rates, buy something you (really) need or just make money by lending to other users. Your video must be posted in this group's wall and in YouTube and contain the YouTube tags "Lending Club" and "person-to-person lending". See full contest rules in the "Rules" section below.

There is no obligation to join Lending Club to participate (although membership is free and you're welcome to check out our application at http://apps.facebook.com/lending-club )!

A search on YouTube for Lending Club right now turns up no results. A search for person to person lending shows two videos - one of Zopa's crop circles and a video introducting Prosper to sub-prime borrowers. Both those videos were posted in late 2006 and have approximately 2,000 views.

This seems like a great marketing strategy for Lending Club. They will likely get several very creative advertisements and in the process create fans and gain visibility. It targets their younger Facebook demographic as well.

My biggest worry is that YouTube view counts are easy to game. For a Mashable article, Gaming YouTube for Fun and Profit, Pete Cashmore showed how easy it is to build thousands of views overnight. It would be difficult for Lending Club to detect someone gaming the system since they do not have access to the YouTube platform. The potential penalties for falsely inflating view counts, however, are very strict. According to the official rules, "Any attempt by an entrant or any other individual to deliberately damage any online service or web site, tamper with the judging process, or otherwise undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest is a violation of criminal and civil laws and should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages and/or other remedies from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law."

I find it interesting that Lending Club did not make an announcement about the contest on their official blog. It was only advertised inside Facebook. More and more it looks like they want to focus their blog solely on finance education. Rex Dixon, Lending Club's director of social media content, did announce the contest on his personal blog.

Our previous coverage of Lending Club is here. If you create a video, please post a link in the comments.

Update (July 19): Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche announced the contest on their official blog.