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18 competitors, 4 winners, $8,000 in prizes, 100,000+ views

We have just announced on Facebook® the names of the 4 winners in the first Lending Club Video Contest. The Contest took place simultaneously on Facebook® and YouTube® from July 18th through August 10th and the Lending Club videos have been watched a combined 100,000 times on YouTube® in this past 5 weeks.

Our original plan was to give away a single $5,000-prize to the most-watched video. However, after reaching out to the top competitors, we have all agreed to split the main prize, create additional prizes and incorporate other criteria than just YouTube® views including overall quality of original content, clarity of the message, and entertainment value of the video.

And the winners are…(drum roll):

$3,000 Best Video Award - Chris Barrett

Chris Barrett: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G43bLni8Or4 (17,825 views). Chris Barrett is a professional filmmaker and co-founder of Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment, LLC along with actor Efren Ramirez. Chris is currently directing the documentary "After School" studying the phenomenon of illicit teacher-student relationships. He can also be seen in the award winning documentaries "The Corporation" and "Maxed Out," both currently on DVD. Read Chris’ interview by Tom Tolman.

$3,000 YouTube® Viewers Award - Steve Dinelli

Steve Dinelli: http://youtube.com/watch?v=S6RtyX47r_M (19,011 views). Eighteen-year-old Steve Dinelli’s « stop motion » video shows Steve’s talent as well as his ability to convey the right messages about Lending Club. Steve’s video was acclaimed by YouTube’s viewers and has passed the 20,000-view mark. Read Steve’s interview by Tom Tolman.

$1,500 Storyboard Award - Jonthan Reed

Jonathan Reed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSn9nlZC8kM (6,480 views). Jonathan Reed entered the contest in its last week, with an astonishing video that blends Lending Club’s branding and Facebook® presence with a well thought-through and very convincing storyboard. Congratulations Jonathan!

$500 Jury Prize - Share Ross

Share Ross: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOyl4Vh-ZhE (1,018 views). Share feels p2p lending is a wonderful form of anarchy and her video is compelling in its direct exchange of information. Share is the former bassist for the platinum-selling EMI recording artists Vixen and guitarist and singer for Bubble. Read Share’s interview by Tom Tolman.

We are delighted at the outcome of this first contest, have gathered great videos that we will be posting on our Web site to explain the benefits of person-to-person lending, and have learned a lot more about the YouTube ecosystem and the best ways to reach out to the filmmaker community.

By watching videos made by people not previously familiar with p2p lending, we also understood better how our company is being perceived, and how we can best benefit from, or when inaccurate, positively influence, that perception.

A big “thank you” to all 18 participants; we certainly hope to see you around soon for our next video contest!

We are about half-way through the first person-to-person lending YouTube Video Contest announced by Centernetwork, Prosperlendingreview and on this blog on July 19. The contest will be running for another 8 days until August 10.

The goal of this contest is to invite Lending Club users (and just about everyone) to think of entertaining or educational ways to convey the benefits of p2p lending and to help spread the word about those benefits. With more than 12,000 views, the contest has already reached its objective!

For a reason that we cannot fully explain, we are getting a lot of animal-related videos, including cats, raccoons, lions, alligators and buffalos! As an example, you can see lions (banks) and alligators (credit card companies) attacking a buffalo (borrower) who gets rescued by other buffalos (lending club members) in this video posted yesterday by the latest entrant.

The winning contender so far is Steve Dinelli, with more than 6,000 views on YouTube with this excellent Lending Club Contest video.

Videos can get several thousand views in just a few hours on YouTube, so there is still time to enter the contest -- all bets are off until the very last day. Remember, there is a $5,000 cash prize going to the entrant with the most views on YouTube. You can enter by posting your video in this Facebook group.

More animals, anyone?

As recently reported by CenterNetworks and Prosperlending (we can’t seem to keep up with our own news), we just launched a contest on Facebook for the best video about person-to-person lending.

Anyone with a Facebook account can participate by making a short video and posting it in this Facebook group and on YouTube. The video that receives the most views on YouTube wins, and the winner earns $5,000 for their innovative creation. The contest will end August 10. See complete contest rules here.

We are launching this contest to invite everybody to think about p2p lending in a fun and creative way, help explain the benefits, and just spread the word. We heard today about a few entries in the making that sound just hilarious and can’t wait to see them in action! Email with any question about this contest at contests@lendingclub.com.

This is just another way to get out of debt: win $5,000 and pay off your credit card balance!