It has been a couple of days since my last update so I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch you all up to our happenings.  First of all, the video above is our Challenge #3 entry.  The video won the third challenge popular vote with an astounding 47%!  Unfortunately, the way Samsung has been judging has the public vote as a small percentage of the overall challenge vote.  Other judges from Samsung also weigh in and help choose a winner.  So for challenge #3, while the public thought our video was the best (and it clearly was), Samsung did not.  Team Cool Kids shall NEVER give up! It just means we’ll have to work that much harder next time!  However, the video that DID win was hilarious and well executed by Freddie & David (whom we love).

Samsung Mobile Explorers Challenge #3 Results

I’m currently working on the video entry for Challenge #4 and it is taking considerably longer than I anticipated due to unforseen computer crashes, software failures, and transcoding glitches.  These are all criteria that we just can’t take into consideration when we plan our videos out ahead of time and guage time allocation.  However, when all is said and done, this video should be damn good and feature far more production value than any of the other entries.  The challenge theme was “Freestyle” so we could do anything we wanted. And we did a lot. Just wait until tomorrow morning at 9am when the videos are posted and the voting begins.

If you haven’t seen it yet, Lindsay and myself have also been blogging and droppin photos over on our facebook (check it here) everyday.  There have been so many amazing moments while we’ve been here that it’s hard to remember them all.  In recent days, we experienced REAL korean BBQ with Samsung’s CMO/EVP David Steel; a field trip to the Salish Longhouse in Squamish; Hannah Teter’s silver medal finish in the Ladies Halfpipe finals up at Cypress; holding Hannah’s actual silver medal in my hands; the band “Stars” performance at the Orpheum; and pretty much walking every niche of this gorgeous city.  This trip has been amazing.

View of the sunset along the Sea to Sky highway

Yes, it has been stressful. Yes, I’m exhausted. Yes, I miss home.  But the overall experience and memories I know I’ll have for the rest of my life will be worth it.  Just walking through the streets of downtown Vancouver last night showed me just how much energy and pride Canadians have for their country and the 10s of thousands of visitors that are currently visiting.  It was by far the most people I’ve ever seen in one place at one time.  It was electric.

Ok, my renders are wrapping up so it’s back to the grind. I miss you all and will try to keep you posted on what else happens over the last stretch of this adventure.  Team Cool Kids is so close to taking this thing. None of us can give up now. We have to see this through so let’s just nut-up and win this frakkin’ competition together!  In the meantime, enjoy this secret video I made about our driver up here, Duffy. She’s a goddess.

Okay, it’s official. VOTING HAS BEGUN in the Samsung Mobile Explorers Competition here in Vancouver during the Olympic Winter Games.  Our first challenge was to get the message out about Hannah Teter’s charity, Hannah’s Gold.  How would we do this?  Well, with tiny shots of the Hannah’s Gold Syrup from VT. that she sells on the site!  This challenge was tough.  We wanted to think of something creative and true to the Team Cool Kids spirit and humor while keeping the message intact and professional.  I think we nailed it.  As did the other teams.  The only way we’ll know is if you go to http://Facebook.com/SamsungUSA and vote (I have a preference for Team Cool Kids).  In the meantime, challenge #2 is under way. We have to create an original song for Valentines Day about Samsung. This is gonna be good…Stay tuned for that!

Kevin Pereira - G4TV's Attack Of The Show

This might be the most amazing Real Cool Club episode to date. I don’t want to spoil anything but let’s just say we do something never before done on live streaming internet television!  We owe Kevin Pereira and Scott Moore from G4 some major props for joining us and partaking in the regular Real Cool Club debauchery.  This is also our last episode from theStream.tv studios until March 1st. You can now follow Lindsay Harbert and myself as we compete in Samsung’s Mobile Explorer Competition (@TeamCoolKids).  Please vote for us and help us win $24,000 and a job!  Click the pic and enjoy!

The Real Cool Club - Garfunkel & Oates

We had these amazing ladies join us on the last episode of The Real Cool Club.  I have seen Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome perform live and seen all their videos, but I wasn’t prepared for the awesomeness up close and in studio.  They are both amazingly talented, have huge resumes (Kate can be seen in “When In Rome” & “Scrubs”, while Riki in “House” and “Imaginary Larry” to name a few credits).

This might be one of my favorite episodes of The Real Cool Club yet.  It was a blast during the show and even watching it days later still makes me crack up. Click the image above and you can laugh too.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode of The Real Cool Club.  It’s our Olympic Edition with special guest, Kevin Pereira from G4tv’s Attack Of The Show!

Team Cool Kids FTW!

So we can finally announce it:  Samsung has chosen Team Cool Kids to compete in their Mobile Explorers competition up in Vancouver, Canada during the 2010 Winter Olympics!  My partner, Lindsay Harbert, and I are STOKED to have been chosen as a finalist but our work is not yet complete. We need your help. Here is the video that got us into the competition:

The competition pits Team Cool Kids up against 4 other highly qualified teams in a series of Olympic challenges involving video making, blogging, twittering, and social networking.  The challenges have yet to be announced, but you can count on them being fun!  IT’S THE OLYMPICS!  Now what are we competing for? Well, $24k, a bunch of Samsung schwag, and the potential to do more Mobile Exploring with Samsung (wait, A JOB!? YES PLEASE!).

How do we win? Another good question.  We will be graded on the following criteria: best balance of communication skills, creativity, originality, personality and social media networking capabilities in addition to audience votes and views.  This is where you come in.  We will be posting videos and promoting them while we’re up there for the competition.  We hope that you can help us by checking out these videos as they come up, vote for us, and help us come home with the big grand prize!

The best way to stay up to date with us while we’re there is to follow us on twitter, facebook, youtube, and on the Samsung USA website.

• Twitters: @teamcoolkids, @ethannewberry, @lindsayharbert, @samsungtweets
• Facebooks: Ethan’s FB, Lindsay’s FB, Samsung’s FB
• Youtube: Ethan’s YouTube, Samsung’s YouTube
• Websites: EthanNewberry.com (you’re already here), Samsung.com/MobileExplorers

I’ve also attached the Samsung Official Press Release HERE.  If you know anyone in the press, blogs, or any other way we can help spread the word about Team Cool Kids in this competition, we would be much appreciative.  Here is the second video we made prepping for the competition:

So again, thank you so much for helping us get this far.  We have the best fans in the world.  Just a little more to go and let’s win this sucker!  Stay tuned for more information!