If you’ve ever been in the market for a tree you know the purchasing process can be a massive hassle. You drive to your local nursery, meander through the greenhouse having no idea what you’re looking at, and wonder which tree could actually flourish under your care. After finally figuring out what you want to buy, you have to get said tree home, but you REALLY don’t want to ask your slightly strange neighbor with the pick-up. FastGrowingTrees.com provides convenience, speed, and simplicity for anyone looking to buy trees and plants. With a comprehensive selection of over 2,000 trees, plants, and shrubs, FastGrowingTrees.com has the right selection to suit any climate, location, and customer’s individual needs.

The personality of FastGrowingTrees.com is approachable, trustworthy, confident, hard-working.

FastGrowingTrees.com RTBs:

• Comprehensive Selection, Right for You: Over 2,000 trees, plants, and shrubs carefully selected to suit your climate, location, and individual needs.
• Unequaled Quality & Care: Our plants are sourced, nurtured, and cared for by experts who have only one goal in mind---enabling you to enjoy living better and living greener, guaranteed.
• Convenience, Speed, & Simplicity... Delivered to You: No waiting in lines, no messy cars, order online or over the phone…and plants shipped to your door in 1-2 days.

Taglines:

• We Keep You Growing

The goal of this project is to produce two distinct :15 digital videos for FastGrowingTrees.com. If your videos perform well, they may even be used for broadcast! Your two videos should revolve around the below concept (feel free to riff on it as well) but should be two separate setups (given the time of year, one could be in a studio while the other should be filmed outdoors).

Homeowner views dreary backyard and imagines a trip to a gardening center or big box store - driving to the nursery, clueless apathetic employees, giant stock of dying plants, waiting in line, struggling to tie down the trees and making a mess in the car. There has to be a better way! You see a different reality when the homeowner uses FastGrowingTrees.com. With personalized selection, quality care, convenience, speed, and simplicity, FastGrowingTrees.com helps free up time for the actual project.

Your videos should create awareness of FastGrowingTrees.com, its functional and emotional benefits, and drive new customer orders by offering relevant and compelling RTBs (reasons to believe - see Background) and promotional offers. The videos should also increase confidence and trust in FastGrowingTrees.com as a brand and product provider, showing the ease of shopping and buying through their website and through their experts available by phone.

The takeaway should be that FastGrowingTrees.com will be the customer’s best and only source to meet their home-scaping (outdoor/indoor) needs through the highest-quality, best cared for, and most comprehensive selection of trees, shrubs, and plants—delivered directly to their door in days.

DELIVERABLES:

• Two :15 videos (16x9 and 1x1)

 

TIMELINE: Although you could film both :15 videos in the same production time frame, you must be confident that you could meet the location requirements (see EXECUTIONAL MANDATORIES). For the full project timeline please see the Assets section.

 

EXPOSURE: Digital channels and potentially broadcast.

 

TARGET AUDIENCE: This is primarily aimed at homeowners between 35-64 years old with land or a yard, whose household income is $75K+, who enjoy the beauty of their yard and home, and like to learn more about being a better gardener (no matter what skill level).

TONE:

• Engaging, relatable. 
• FastGrowingTrees.com is open to humor and want people to play with the sentiment "There's a Better Way!" 

 

EXECUTIONAL MANDATORIES: 

• The videos should aim to communicate the FastGrowingTrees.com RTBs (reasons to believe -- see Background), offers, and ability to purchase at FastGrowingTrees.com.
• To reflect the target audience one of the filming locations should be an upscale home (East Coast / Mid-Atlantic style) with a nice sized yard. The other location could be in a studio.
• Yards should feel evergreen. Please don't show snow on the ground or fallen leaves.
• The pitch winner must provide videos of the actors (vs just headshots) for casting approvals. As the target audience skews 40-60, please cast accordingly.
• Please note that after receiving the trees, they need about a day or two out of the box to be in tip-top shape for filming.

 

OPEN BID: 

• This is an open bid project, so you will get to set your own budget proposal between $25,000 and $35,000 to produce both videos. The sponsor is interested in seeing tiered pricing options, so please feel free to submit various versions of your pitch at budget, target, and reach price points within that price range.
• By participating in this open bid project, creators acknowledge that the sponsor is under no obligation to greenlight a bid. Though most open bid projects on our platform do move forward with a greenlit bid, we will notify you in the event the sponsor decides not to fund any bids via the project forum. Regardless of the result, all open bid submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by the sponsor and the project team.

Our priority is ensuring everyone's safety, so please review our COVID-19 Production Safety Guide and check federal, state, and local rules before and during your shoot to make sure your on-set protocols are up to date. We’re working hard to keep people working during this extraordinary time, and our advice here is to make sure your submission is executable within the anticipated timeline, while also ensuring everyone's safety.

In order to be considered for this project, you must include the below materials in your pitch submission. For examples of effective pitches, check out this gallery.

 

• TEXT (REQUIRED): 500 characters or less synopsizing how you plan to approach and execute the two distinct :15 videos.
  
  
• LINKS (REQUIRED): To your previous video work. Please specify your role (producer, director, cinematography, etc.) and DO NOT INCLUDE LINKS TO YOUR SHOWREEL. Please link to individual videos.
  
  
• TREATMENT (REQUIRED): A detailed narrative description of what's going to happen in the two videos and how you plan to approach them. If it's helpful to you, we've provided a treatment template, which you can find here.

• BID / BUDGET (REQUIRED): This is an open bid project, so you’ll get to set your overall budget proposal. You can download the budget template here. The sponsor would like each producer to create two :15 videos with a budget between $25,000 and $35,000.
  
  
• SCRIPT (Optional): This should include dialogue from the videos you intend to create.

• LOCATION (Optional): This should include location examples of where you would film.

• STORYBOARDS (Optional): Additional concept art, storyboards, shot list, anything that helps get your point across. You can download the Tongal storyboard template here.
  
  
• HEADSHOTS/CASTING BOARDS (Optional): Casting notes or concepts, headshots of actors, etc.
  
  
• PITCH VIDEO (Optional): This is your opportunity to be face-to-face with the sponsor and show them what you're capable of. Consider submitting a pitch video in which you tell the sponsor what they can expect should they choose your pitch. Also, test videos, animatics, etc. are welcome. For some examples of effective Pitch videos, check out this gallery. All Pitches will remain private until after the sponsor gives the creator the green light to move forward.

1. The preferred format for upload to the Tongal website 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. Should your submission be greenlit, you will also be required to provide a 1080p .mov master file, using a ProRes, Animation, or Uncompressed Codec.
   
   
2. Unless provided otherwise, all work must be your own original creation and free of any copyrighted material. You shall provide detailed information about your work regarding the source, the creator, and background information as requested by Tongal.
   
   
3. In the event you utilize any third-party materials, such as music provided by a third-party music provider not provided by Tongal, 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.
   
   
4. BY SUBMITTING A VIDEO ENTRY, YOUR SUBMISSION IMMEDIATELY BECOMES THE SOLE PROPERTY OF TONGAL OR ITS ASSIGNEES – 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 WEBSITE 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.
   
   
5. Submissions cannot contain any profanity, offensive language, nudity, or otherwise objectionable material, the determination of which is solely at the discretion of the sponsor.
   
   
6. Submissions must not portray the sponsor in a negative way, the determination of which will solely reside with the sponsor.
    
7. By submitting to this project, you acknowledge that your work may become subject to public voting on the Tongal site. Public voting may be used to help the project sponsor determine the final rank order.
    
8. Videos must be in the English language or subtitled.
    
9. Limit 5 submissions per member, per phase.
    
10. You must be at least thirteen (13) years or older to enter.
    
    
11. The sponsor reserves the right to repost the contest.
    
    
12. In addition to the judging criteria stated in the OFFICIAL RULES, pitches will also be evaluated on that member's ability to execute the final video based on their prior work and experience as a filmmaker.
    
    
13. The sponsor will be entitled to reasonable 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.
    
    
14. In addition to the standard Tongal W-9, Winner Affidavit, and IP Assignment, greenlit video creators MUST also provide Talent, Location, Music (or other) Releases for all assets appearing in their videos, as well as a photograph/headshot OR a copy of a photo ID for all on-camera talent releases. You must also provide all project files, editing sequences, and a 1080p .mov master file, using a ProRes, Animation, or Uncompressed Codec to claim your earnings.
    
    
15. 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.