Just a quick note to let you know that the top 10 videos were announced by Post-It today and, despite hard work & hope, our entry hasn’t been included.  Congratulations to the finalists whose videos were selected; I invite you to check out their entries, and vote, at http://www.youtube.com/postitnotes.

I’d be fibbing (okay, outright lying) if I didn’t say that I still think ours was the best – or at the very least, one of the 10 best.  If I said I wasn’t disappointed in the outcome, it simply wouldn’t be true.  Last night, I may have even let a few choice words pass these feisty dogooder lips.

In the end though, despite the outcome, I think Nick, Zoe, Amanda, Sanjay, Tim, Nelle and all of the beautiful kids did an amazing job.  I’m pretty sure too that no one put more effort (or more TLC) into their entry.  Thousands of beautiful photos were taken; the children sang their hearts out; Mama Lucy and the teachers gathered witnessed photo releases from students’ parents; Nick and Sanjay edited ’til their poor brains turned to goo; and little Pius (the beautiful boy at the end of the video) must have said that tag line 1.2 gajillion times before we got the “perfect” take.  I am truly proud of what we were able to accomplish, how much of the story was shared, and the fact that the video’s now been viewed nearly 2,000 times – more than any video we’ve ever created – and we continue to get more views daily.  Thanks to all of you who have helped to spread the word!

I’m holding out hope that 3M will give us a call to offer a sizable donation since we made such a brand-friendly video, but even if that doesn’t happen,  I’m excited to have had the opportunity to participate, and I look forward to other such challenges.   (Trust me, there’s another one just around the corner!)  It’s part of the fun of being involved in a startup organization; we can color outside the lines a little, take some creative risks and be immediately responsive to great opportunities that others might not see.

I’m not certain why 3M decided to exclude our entry from the top 10; I’m sure that the judges had their work cut out for them, and I definitely wouldn’t want their role.  There were a few entries, several others that didn’t make “the cut”, that were very well done – check out this one and this one (and, of course, ours!) for just a couple examples.  Perhaps there was some risk they perceived from loosely associating their organization with a small school in Africa.  Perhaps they didn’t want their brand to be tied to an effort like ours, or to a woman like me (frankly speaking, it was probably Sanjay – that guy’s trouble).  Maybe they just didn’t like our video for some reason (actually, is that really even possible?).  Maybe.  I’d love to know your guess. In any case, I think they’ve passed up a golden feel-good marketing moment.

I recently read about a really interesting Harvard study mentioned in Slate that asked the question “Will customers pay more to do good?”  I’m wondering if there will be a point at which “doing good” is so rewarded by consumers that an entry like ours would be the clear winner in a competition like this one – not only because it’s “good” but because it’s “good business”? What do you think?