Posted by Jenn Lowther

Everyone here at memelabs would like to wish our readers a very spooky Halloween!

On this the spookiest day of the year when the thoughts of zombies eating our brains and witches casting spells are running through our heads, I thought I’d bring some scary and spooky themed videos to get you in the mood to dress up in costume and take some candy from strangers.

Now that you’re in the halloween spirit, get out there and have some fun!

Memelabs is excited to announce the newest contest to our block with the Houston Arts Alliance in “The Heart of Houston” which will feature some of the inspiring artists that Houston has to offer!

The Heart of Houston video contest has been launched to celebrate and elevate local artists asking the participants to submit one minute videos showcasing a favorite local artist in the category of theater, music, dance, visual arts, crafts or creative writing allowing for diverse and rich content. Following a huge launch party hosted at the creative hub in downtown Houston, many ongoing events will showcase local events giving participants and artists first-hand access to record their videos and meet the hottest artists in their city over the 3-month contest entry period.

The Houston Arts Alliance is a nonprofit charitable organization that seeks to advance the arts industry in Greater Houston. As a result they contribute to enhancing the region’s quality of life, economic competitiveness and attractiveness with a mission to nurture, fund and promote participation in the arts in Houston and Harris County. Active in Ike recovery, they have also provided resource information for artists and organizations on their blog to increase communication and leverage support which you can learn more about here.

Posted by Jenn Lowther

If you’ve noticed at lack of posting recently here at memelabs, there has been a good reason for the silence.  We’ve been busily working away night and day at memelabs HQ to bring  you the newest addition to the memelabs family - mini-meme.

Mini-meme is a low cost, self administered alternative to our award winning memelabs platform that will be offering brands, non-profits, and organizations the ability to run campaigns, allowing them to roll out video contests quickly and effectively.

We’re helping companies strengthen their client relationships using video to create powerful and immediate connections.  Mini-meme will increase these opportunities in a cost effective manner, utilizing our award winning and time tested underlying technology.

Over the past 2 years, memelabs has worked on various UGV and UGC campaigns from Intrawest, Transworld, and Wells Fargo to our most recent launch, Gap Inc. With each new launch, we have continued to showcase our ability to scale and incorporate new means of social media outreach and viral tools to fully leverage brand awareness.

What do we want to see? More successful campaigns leveraged by more people!

Key Features:

• Customizable branding from logo to color scheme
• Moderation of votes and comments
• Full Platform Scalability
• Rapid Contest Deployment
• Easy to Use Campaign Management Interface
• Built in Social Media and Viral Promotion Tools

So come say hi to our new child and feel free to send us your feedback!

Love,

The Proud Parents at memelabs.

Posted by Jenn Lowther

Vancouver’s first annual blogathon for charity is set to start 10 pm Friday, July 26 and will finish 9 pm Sunday, July 28.  There are three shifts that blogs could sign up for and Invoke - memelabs parent company - has signed up for the Sunshine Shift - 10 pm Friday to 10 pm Saturday. This may be the first Vancouver specific blogathon, but it flows from a long tradition of blogathons.  When the people who organized the previous blogathons could not organize it this year, Rebecca - Miss604 - stepped in and organized this years event.

Last year, Vancouver was represented by Rebecca and Raul, but Vancouver has really stepped up to the plate this year and as of the time I wrote this post, there are 13 Vancouver bloggers signed up - check out the list.  There is still a week to sign up and I highly encourage all the Vancouver bloggers that haven’t signed up yet to do so.

A blogathon is a 24-hour period when you write a blog post every 30 minutes for a good cause.  Yes, you read that right - we will be posting 48 blog posts!  I’ve put the word out here and our team members have really stepped up to the plate - yes 48 posts from me may have gotten a bit boring.  Thus far, Nadia Nascimento, David Tedman, Dario Meli, Ryan Holmes, Andre Liem, Murat Ayfer, James Wilson, and our very own bacon chocolate chip cookie baking Zuri Scrivens have volunteered to write at least one post.  This list will most likely grow as the actual date grows closer.

Invoke has set a fund raising goal of $3000 for the blogathon.  If you would like to support our efforts - which we would greatly appreciate - you can make a donation to the cause here (the page will be going live later today).  Invoke has chosen a charity that is very close to our hearts The Lochmaddy Foundation.  Invoke is connected to this charity through Dario Meli and David Tedman who sit on the board. Through the Lochmaddy Foundation, all donations will be directed to a community in Mali, West Africa. Families in N’Gouraba are working hard to improve their lives and the lives of their children through a special agricultural project. Your donation will empower and enable them to realize increased crops, more family income with new opportunities and a brighter future.

We are collecting donations through Plan Canada who are our partner on the ground there.  I would like to thank them and specifically Heather for all of their hard work in helping Invoke bring this all together.

An early treat for the video of the week. How he managed to eat it all and not get sick is beyond me. Enjoy but watch at your own risk - I think I gained 5 lbs just watching this. Read the whole post about the burger here