McDonald’s has announced it searches for 10 mini movies to launch McBites in the USA. The new snack is to appear on the McDonald’s menu in January and to be promoted with these videos created by consumers. For the project, McDonald’s has teamed up with Tongal, a video crowdsourcing platform. 

Photo: McDonald’s Bitesized poster, from tongal.com

The fast food giant is offering a total of $35,000 to encourage the winning ideas for 30-second films about McBites. The maker of the best video will get $15,000 Creators of the top-10 winning ideas will get $250 each and other winning videos also will be awarded money prizes.

The new McBites will be promoted as tiny chicken snacks. According to Rick Wion, director of social media for McDonald’s, the fast food chain is also looking for ideas that underscore the ‘on the go’ nature of McBites.

McBites is designed to fit in a car’s cup-holder and is the latest example of what’s known in the industry as ‘cupholder cuisine’, says Mashable. ‘Cupholder cuisine’ means that snacks are packed in cup-contained portions that let you eat when you drive.

Another part of the McBites promotion is a TV campaign. Probably, one of the short films might make it to TV, but it’s not certain yet.

The first phase of the campaign will run for a week starting yesterday. This week, Tongal and McDonald’s will review the ideas, and 10 winning concepts will be made into films. The winning entries will posted online in January.

The crowdsourcing campaign is a popular marketing move on the U.S. market. Another company which try to crowdsource ideas is PepsiCo with its Crash the Super Bowl contest in which consumers are asked to make Super Bowl ads for various PepsiCo brands.