According to a press release, Gatti’s Pizza, an Austin-based pizza company with franchises in 11 states, will be hosting an on-line jingle contest to award a ten thousand dollar grand prize as well as numerous other prizes for finalists and a fan favorite. The contest encourages the public to re-make Gatti’s famous 459-2222 jingle via audio or video submissions to a special contest microsite at www.Gattisjingle.com. The new jingle could potentially replace the current company jingle, which is used in advertising for the company throughout the greater Austin area.
“The contest encourages everyone to enter – from your local garage band, to a singer/songwriter, to a Mom just shooting video of her kids singing a made-up jingle,” says Gatti’s CEO Mike Mrlik. “We want people to have fun with it. And by creating the microsite we’ve made it very easy for anybody to up-load an mp3 audio file or post a link to their embedded YouTube video on the contest site. It’s really very easy.”
The site went live at noon on Thursday, June 4th and entries will be accepted through 11:59pm August 8th at which time a group of finalists will be selected from among all entries. The public will be asked to vote for their favorite finalists at gattisjingle.com between August 17th and September 6th. Subscribers of Time Warner Cable digital cable in Austin, Texas can also preview finalists on Find It On Demand, digital channel 1303, and vote using their cable remote.
The grand prize winner will be selected by a panel of judges made up of Gatti’s Pizza representatives, local music celebrities and professionals from the music industry. The winner will be announced at the company’s official 40th Anniversary kick-off party at the Southpark Meadows location on Saturday, September 12th. The winner earns a $10,000 cash prize. The winner also receives a $1000 gift certificate to an Austin music
store, free Gatti’s pizza for a year, and will be featured in a congratulations TV spot to air on Time Warner Cable following the grand prize winner announcement on September 12th. Finalists who make it to the grand prize winner voting round in August will also receive a MP3 player and a $100 gift certificate for Gatti’s Pizza.
There will also be a “Fan Favorite” winner announced September 12th—a winner selected solely by visitors to gattisjingle.com. The Fan Favorite winner will receive a laptop computer with music software and free Gatti’s pizza for a year.
“There is only one requirement for jingle submissions, and that is that they all include the phrase: Dial Four-Five-Nine Twenty-two Twenty-two and get a Gatti’s Pizza delivered,” says Gatti’s Vice President of Marketing, Ed Cohen. “Contestants can write new music and new lyrics to create an entirely new jingle, or they can simply come up with new lyrics to go with the original jingle music. They can also combine, or mash, new sounds with the old jingle music bed to create an updated style or take it into a new music genre.”
The contest is open to both amateur and professional musicians. Each jingle entry should be no longer than 60 seconds. No entries will be accepted in person or by mail, only those submitted via the microsite are eligible to win. Official contest rules and additional details are posted on the contest microsite at www.Gattisjingle.com.
