Founded in 1924 by a small group of Chicago hardware store owners, Ace Hardware® is dedicated to offering a wide variety of hardware, small maintenance, and fix-and-repair products ---as well as those hard to find niche items.  So, whether you’re looking to build a simple herb garden or finally get around to repairing that gate the dog chewed---Ace should be your first stop to set any project in motion—

Which got us to thinking…what happens when you combine Ace and Tongal? Yep--let’s create some stop motion videos that showcase the magic happens when you combine hand-crafted inspiration with what’s available within the walls at an Ace Hardware store.  

Create 30-60 second stop-motion video of a DIY project from start to finish.  The project that you choose to showcase can be anything--just get out, roll up your sleeves and build a visual story that wows by marrying your cinematic skills with the tools and expertise available at Ace Hardware.  The best videos will tell a great story, resonate with the Target Audience and give the viewer something truly unexpected. 

--Target Audience: Ace Hardware’s average customer skews older (50s), but this project is specifically designed to generate effective advertising aimed at a young group of consumers (28-49). This is less about Ace’s average customer and more about the younger creative type seeking the tools and know-how to create something new.

--Tone: Get outside the big-box--- This is not about enormous kitchen renovations. What if you could watch how the coolest product you’ve ever seen on Etsy was created through a Stop Motion lens?  What if an art installation was created out of materials procured from an Ace Hardware Store? What if you could watch the most pimped out dog house in the history of dog houses assemble itself before your eyes in 30 seconds?

This project will be worth a total of $20,000 and consist of two phases. Also, this tournament style process will progress differently from previous projects, so be sure to read the following information carefully.

PHASE 1: PITCH – Using text (500 characters or less), images (storyboards), video, and/or external links to other supporting assets of yours, i.e., your reel, etc., give us your Pitch for how YOU would go about producing a live-action or animated Video that fulfills the Project Objective. The five most compelling Pitches will be selected and the creators of those Pitches will receive a $500 production budget to produce their Video. Those winners will also be GUARANTEED to place in the subsequent Video Phase. So, if you’re Pitch is selected, you will earn a minimum of $1,000 with a 1-in-5 shot at the $10,000 first place video prize. Remember your Pitch can include any, and all, of the assets mentioned above, but you MUST include a link to some of your previous video work on Tongal or elsewhere to be considered for this phase. For an excellent example of an effective pitch, check out Robert Deutsch’s winning Dialogue Earth Energy Pitch here. To avoid information cascades, all Pitches will remain private until after the video winners of the subsequent phase are announced.

PHASE 2: VIDEO – The Pitch winners of the previous phase will submit their fully-formed Videos to be evaluated by the Project Judges. The 2^nd and 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th place winners will each receive $4,000, $2,000 $1,000, and $500 respectively and the 1st place winner will receive a $10,000 grand prize.

--Prizing Details: Prizes cannot be transferred.  No prize substitution except at Sponsor’s sole discretion. All federal, state, local and other tax liabilities, resulting from acceptance of a prize are the sole responsibility of the winner. Potential winners will be notified by email prior to posting any Winning Entries and and will be required to complete, sign, and return an Affidavit of Liability/Eligibility and Publicity Release and any other clearance documents (where legal) within seven (7) business days of the date notice is sent. If prize notification is returned as undeliverable, if potential winner fails to complete and return the prize claim forms as indicated, or if potential winner or his/her submission is determined to be ineligible for any reason, respective prize will be forfeited and Sponsor reserves the right (but not the obligation) to award the prize to an alternate.  All prizes will be awarded in accordance with the terms of the Project.

--Judging Details: There are four judging criteria for this project and each will be taken into consideration equally when evaluating and ranking the submissions:

1. Creativity (25%): Is this an original and interesting piece of content?

2. Brand Representation (25%): Does this content properly represent the brand, product and messaging?

3. Production Quality (25%): Is the video properly formatted, well-lit, well-shot, is the sound crisp and clear, is it well-acted, does it go above and beyond in terms of resourcefulness?

4. Objective (25%): How well does the piece of content fulfill the stated Project Objective(s) of this specific project?

In the event of a tie, a judge selected by Ace Hardware who has not previously participated in the judging shall select the Winning Entry based on Criteria 2 above.

1. Videos MUST not exceed 60 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. All work must be your own original creation, not have been previously submitted to any other competition or promotion, and free of any copyrighted material (other than copyrighted material for which you have express written consent from the holder of such copyright to use in connection with the project). You shall provide detailed information of your work regarding the source, the creator and background information as requested by Tongal.

3. Videos MUST use the Ace Hardware® logo at least once for a minimum of (3) three seconds on-screen. Alternatively, you can show the façade of an Ace Hardware store for a minimum of (3) three seconds on-screen.

4. Other than Ace Hardware logo, submission cannot not show any products that are competitive to or incompatible with Sponsor’s products or services, and may not contain any commercial, political, religious, or other third party advertising or messaging.

5. 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.  If such third parties are minors, then the transfer of rights, consent and written release must be made by such minor’s parent or legal guardian. Prizes will be awarded only to the person who submitted the Winning Entry.   Neither Sponsor, Tongal, their parent, affiliated or subsidiary companies, nor any of their advertising/promotion agencies, nor any of their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives or assigned (collectively “Released Parties”) are liable for any disputes between participants over who is responsible for submitting the Winning Entry.  Any submissions that do not conform with these requirements and the Official Rules will be disqualified.

6. Tongal has partnered with Audiosocket, a boutique music licensing agency representing more than 1,400 emerging bands, composers and record labels. Audiosocket tracks will be available to Tongal members at no charge solely for their incorporation into Tongal members' submissions to the Ace Project.  Tongal members are encouraged to browse the Audiosocket catalog, available at http://audiosocket.com/. If you are interested in using a track from the Audiosocket catalog, as described above, please email music@tongal.com for account and password info which will allow for the download of up to 3 tracks.

7. Any use of an Audiosocket track obtained through Tongal in connection with the Ace Hardware Project that is outside of such Tongal member's submission to such project is strictly prohibited.

8. Submission must be suitable for public viewing by general audiences and must not contain any of the following: (i) defamatory words or statements, including words or symbols that are considered offensive to individuals of a certain race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation or socioeconomic group; (ii) any lewd or sexually explicit suggestive images or statements; (iii) any content that promotes use of alcohol, tobacco, firearms/weapons, or any violent, unsafe or dangerous behavior, activities or situations; (iv) threats to any person, place, business or group; (v) indecent behavior, profanity or obscenity, including but not limited to nudity or pornography; (vi) any thing that would disparage or offend persons or organizations associated with Sponsor; (vii) anything which incites, encourages or depicts dangerous conduct, stunts or tricks, or behavior or acts that are unsafe, wrongful or immoral; or (viii) anything that violates federal, state or local laws and regulation. Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any submission that, in its sole opinion, does not comply with these requirements or the Official Rules.

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

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

11. You must be a legal resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia at least eighteen (18) years of age and a registered member of the Tongal online community at time of entry (each, a "Member") in order to enter.

12. Minimum 25 Pitches, or the contest will repost for 14 days.

13. 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 persons or 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.

14. Digital Millennium Copyright Act:  If you believe your copyright has been infringed by material posted in connection with this Contest, please see Tongal’s procedure for copyright infringement claims posted at: http://tongal.com/DMCA%20Policy.pdf

15. Privacy:  Personal information collected by Tongal in connection with this Project is subject to the privacy policy posted at: http://tongal.com/about/privacy

16. See OFFICIAL RULES for additional project information, terms and conditions. If there is any conflict or inconsistency between these requirements and any other information provided above (collectively, the “Project Details”), on one hand, and the Official Rules, on the other hand, these Project Details shall prevail.