Classified advertising sites can be fun. Check out the winning video in Apartments.com’s Roommate of the Year contest.

Grand-prize winner Andrew Prestler of Kokomo, Ind., won free rent for a year and $10,000 for his rap-based submission, “Da Best Roommate.”

For Apartments.com, “The main goal was to raise brand awareness” and drive more exposure to the site’s advertisers, said Tammy Kotula, public relations and promotions manager.

This was the second year for the contest, which was created as a different way for people to engage with the Apartments.com brand, Kotula said.

Prestler, a telecommunications student at Ball State University concentrating on production, entered his video in The Grab Bag category of entries. Other contest categories included The Purrfect Pet Owner, The Environmentalist and The Loveable Compulsive, among others.

A panel of judges at Apartments.com selected nine finalists from among 34 entries and then opened the judging to the public, which cast 14,000 votes over seven weeks, Kotula said. The finalists were encouraged to promote their submissions on blogs and social networks to generate interest and votes.

Four runners-up in the contest each received $500.

Apartments.com is owned by Classified Ventures, Chicago, and powers apartment listings on about 1,000 partner sites including 120+ newspaper sites, Yahoo Real Estate, AOL Real Estate and Univision, among others.