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 that consumers waste hours looking for in the big box mega centers and rarely find.

Each Ace store is independently owned and operated by local entrepreneurs--business owners who take pride in the time and effort they put into making their stores the most helpful hardware stores on the planet. Their friendly, expert advice and service is what sets Ace stores apart from all the rest, hence the tagline: “Ace. The Helpful Place.”

Create 30-60 second video that shines a light on Ace’s helpful and impeccable customer service. Your approach can be anywhere from humorous and off the cuff to inspiring to sentimental. Either way, the best videos will be highly original, unexpected and leave the Target Audience with the understanding that Ace Hardware is synonymous with excellent customer service.   

--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 Hardware’s average customer and more about the younger creative type seeking the tools and know-how to create something new.  

--Key Marketing Messages: For more than 80 years, Ace's Helpful Hardware Folks have provided reliable service, advice and products to help customers get their projects done right.

This project is worth a total of $20,000 and will consist of two phases, so there’s a place for all of you to contribute and be rewarded, regardless of your skill set.  Winners in one phase are eligible to participate (and win) in the other phase.

PHASE 1: IDEA – In 140 characters or less give us your Idea for a 30-60 second video for Ace Hardware®. Remember, an Idea is not a detailed script, it is a brief synopsis or distillation of what will happen in the video. As always, Ideas should be clever, engaging, and fun. Winning Ideas will receive a 5% residual payment of every winning video they are used to generate.

PHASE 2: VIDEO – Select one of the five winning Ideas and create a 30-60 second video for based on it. Try not to think of the Idea you are working off of as a script, but rather, a central thesis that you should build your work around. Alternatively, you may choose to enter a “Wild Card” submission not based on any winning Ideas from the previous phase.

--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 after 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 Criteria: 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.

--Music: 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 Hardware 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.

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 entered in 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.

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

12. 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.

13. 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

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

15. 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.