Born and brewed in Southern California since 1963, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® is the oldest and largest privately-held specialty coffee and tea retailer in the United States.  Known for its premium, great tasting products, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® has a loyal, almost cult following, with pop culture cachet thanks to a large contingency of celebrity fans. Though the brand is still associated with its Southern California roots and the Hollywood lifestyle, it has become a national and international icon, with nearly 900 stores in the US and 27 countries around the world.

Besides being a pioneer of serving high quality coffee and teas, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® is also known for signature beverage innovations, such as Tea Lattes and The Original Ice Blended® beverage, which was introduced in 1989 and launched the frozen coffee craze.  This year The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® is celebrating its 50th anniversary and they are asking the Tongal community to create videos around this celebration while featuring their groundbreaking beverage -- The Original Ice Blended® beverage.

The goal of this project is to create a 30-60 second shareable video for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® that celebrates their 50th anniversary while featuring one of their signature beverage innovations, The Original Ice Blended® beverage (developed in 1989). 

--Key Marketing Messages: 

•    The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® is celebrating its 50th Anniversary and one of its signature beverage innovations, The Original Ice Blended® beverage (developed in 1989).

•  When the videos are released this summer they will be featuring the Birthday Cake, Rocky Road and The Original Mocha Ice Blended® drinks in their stores.   All three will be featured both domestically and internationally.

--Executional Mandatories:

•    The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® must be mentioned at least TWICE during the video.

•  Videos must incorporate the trademarked Ice Blended® beverage of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf®.

• Videos cannot mention direct or indirect competitors or reference other brands in general.

--Target Audience:

•   Customers of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® are typically college educated and skew a bit more towards female.  While content doesn’t have to be exclusively tailored to this group it should appeal to this demographic.

•  Coffee & Tea enthusiasts.

• Individuals who may have heard of the brand but have not tried it.

--Tone:  As a brand, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® is warm, genuine, and friendly, however they don’t take themselves too seriously.  They are looking for videos that are fun, engaging and shareable. 

•  Videos can be funny and irreverent.

•  Edgy humor is ok, but please avoid political, religious or intentionally insulting content.

--Exposure:   Social media channels of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf®.  Where possible, videos will air on in-store TV screens (no audio), in internal video content, and potentially on international social media and traditional media channels.

This project will be worth a total of $22,500 and consist of three phases, an Idea Phase, a Pitch Phase, and a Video Phase.  Be sure to read the following information carefully as well as the Official Rules.

PHASE 1: IDEA  – Tell us your Idea for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® around its 50th anniversary celebration and The Original Ice Blended® beverage in 140 characters or less.  Remember, an Idea (What is an Idea Phase?) is not a detailed script; it is a spark of inspiration, or a distillation of what will happen in the Video.  As always, Ideas should be clever and engaging.  The winning Idea creators will receive $250 each and a 5% one-time residual payment for the winning Video their Idea is used to generate. (That means if your winning Idea is the basis for the 1st place Video, you will receive $550, for the 2nd place Video, you will receive $300, and for the 3rd place Video, you will receive $162.50) – see Video Phase Payout details below.

PHASE 2: PITCH – Using text (500 characters or less), images (storyboards), video, and external links (to other supporting assets, i.e., your reel, etc.), give us your Pitch (What Is a Pitch Phase?)  for how YOU would go about producing a 30-60 second video based on the information contained herein. The TWO most compelling Pitches will be selected and will each receive $750 to help create their Video.  Those winners (upon submitting their Winner's Affidavit and IP Assignment) will also be GUARANTEED a winning place in the subsequent Video Phase.  So, if your Pitch is selected and you submit a video during the Video Phase, you will win an additional $3,250, at a minimum, and have a chance to compete for the $11,000 first place Video prize.  Remember your Pitch can include any, and all, of the assets mentioned above and you MUST include a link to some of your previous video work on Tongal or elsewhere to be considered for this phase.  For an example of an effective pitch, check out check out Erik Beck’s winning “3 Artists & 5,000 LEGOs” Pitch.  All Pitches will remain private until after the winners of the Video Phase are announced and the Project is complete.

PHASE 3: VIDEO – The TWO winners from the Pitch Phase will create a 30-60 second video based upon their winning Pitches, and all other creators are invited to enter a “Wild Card” (What Is a Wildcard?) submission that is not based on any winning material from the previous phases.  The Judges will score all Wild Card Videos and the one (1) highest scoring Wild Card Video and the 2 winning Videos submitted by Pitch winners will be scored to determine the standings for the Video Phase.  Remember, the TWO Pitch winners, along with one non-Pitch Video creator, will receive prizes.

--Video Phase Payout: Winners of the Video Phase will earn the following prizes: 1st place $11,000, 2nd place $6,000, 3rd place $3,250

--Music: Tongal has linked up with Audiosocket, a boutique music licensing and technology company representing more than 2,400 emerging bands, composers and record labels. This is not "stock" music. It is an inventory of more than 40,000 original, culturally relevant songs and music that have been compiled into a premium roster.  Audiosocket's music will be available to Tongal members at no charge solely for their incorporation into Tongal members' submissions to this Project.  Tongal members are encouraged to browse the Audiosocket roster, available by clicking on the "Audiosocket" button on the right hand side of this page. If you are interested in using a track from the Audiosocket roster, as described above, just add the track(s) you want to use to your cart using the "+cart" button, then click the "checkout" button.  Enter the Tongal project name and click the "purchase and download" button to acquire the track for free ($0.00). Lastly, click the "download track" button, which will initiate the music file download. You may only use THREE Audiosocket tracks maximum as part of your video submission. 

1. Videos MUST not exceed 90 seconds in length. Preferred format is HD 720p 16x9.  Acceptable file formats are .mov, .avi, .mp4, .wmv. Acceptable codecs are H.264 (MP4), MPEG-4, H.263, MPGV, WMV, DivX.

2. Unless provided otherwise, all work must be your own original creation and free of any copyrighted material. You shall provide detailed information of your work regarding the source, the creator and background information as requested by Tongal.

3. Videos must feature The Original Ice Blended®  beverage.

4. In the event you utilize any third party materials, such as music provided by a third-party music provider, you must obtain full written license and consent from the owner of such third party materials and provide such license and consent forms to Tongal.

5. Submissions cannot contain any profanity, offensive language, nudity or otherwise objectionable material, the determination of which is solely at the discretion of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf®.

6. Submissions must not portray The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® in a negative way, the determination of which will solely reside with The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf®.

7. Videos must be in the English language or subtitled.

8. Limit 5 submission(s) per member, per phase.

9. Minimum 50 Pitches, or the contest will repost for 14 days.

10. Sponsor will be entitled to one reasonable round of revisions on the finished videos without providing additional compensation. Remember it's easier to re-edit than re-shoot so try to get as much coverage as possible.

11. In addition to the standard Tongal W-9, Winner Affidavit, and IP Assignment, winning video creators MUST also provide Talent, Location, and Music Releases for all assets appearing in the video as well as the project files, editing sequence and an uncompressed quicktime .mov file in either Animation or ProRes 422 codecs at either 1920x1080 or 1280x720 to claim their prize.

12. BY SUBMITTING A VIDEO ENTRY, YOUR SUBMISSION IMMEDIATELY BECOMES SOLELY THE PROPERTY OF TONGAL – SEE OFFICIAL RULES FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT OWNERSHIP OF ENTRIES.  YOU MAY NOT PUBLICLY SHARE OR PUBLISH YOUR SUBMISSION IN ANY MANNER AND YOU MAY NOT POST OR UPLOAD YOUR SUBMISSION TO ANY WEB SITE OR VIDEO HOSTING SITE (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE OR VIMEO), WITHOUT THE PRIOR EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF TONGAL.  FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS REQUIREMENT MAY RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION OF YOUR ENTRY IN THE PROJECT.

13. See OFFICIAL RULES for additional contest information, terms and conditions. If there is any conflict or inconsistency between these requirements and the Official Rules, the terms and conditions of these requirements shall prevail.