Heinz Ketchup Winner Matt Cozza & a Video Contest Prize of $57,000

Gasping for air at the sight of a video contest prize of your annual income (or more) of $57,000 and all going to a guy, a high school graduate, Matt Cozza? That’s when huge brands realize how cost-effective it is to crowdsource their commercials and engage the audience from top to bottom, from tomato to ketchup.

From Suburban Chicago News:

Ketchup Kid Matt Cozza’s commercial conquered the competition and landed him a cool $57,000. Cozza, a Shorewood native and graduate of Joliet West High School, won the grand prize in the Top This TV challenge for best Heinz Ketchup commercial. Cozza, along with a crew of friends from high school, filmed the spot on a Sunday afternoon in Joliet’s Chicago Street Bar & Grill.

Matt Cozza pointed out that they managed to overcome the celebrity network effect:

“We were up against good competition, and there was no way to tell how the voting was going,” Cozza said. “Some of the people had large existing networks. One guy had a lot of fans because he’s a country music singer. It was a tough four days of trying not to think about it.”

Here are is the winning video entry, the Heinz Ketchup commercial:

If it makes you think that you could have done it too, buy a camcorder and check out the current online video contests.