Just days after partnering with Coke for a greeting cards promotion, YouTube is announcing today a partnership with Southwest Airlines that asks YouTube users to create video ads for the Dallas-based airline.
The contest is called "Wanna Get Away", and appears on a separate promotional site. The prize, meanwhile, is to have your clip made into a 30-second commercial that will air as part of a national ad campaign. Being an airline, they're also giving away a vacation: the winner receives a free vacation for four to any Southwest destination, while runners up can win tickets to one of the 63 cities that Southwest flies to. Submissions begin today and end on February 20th, 2007. The integration with YouTube is quite lightweight right now: there's a Southwest group on YouTube, but no further promotion on the site today.
YouTube has clearly decided that contests are a good money-earner and drum up yet more press attention - particularly when partners and sponsors include Coke, Southwest and Cingular.
