With another successful Americarna event done and dusted we thought it a good opportunity to look back on one of the more interesting campaigns that we’ve been involved with - the Miss Americarna 2008 competition.
At the inaugural event a year earlier the organisers had simply handpicked a girl to appear as the public face of the event, in 2008 they wanted to encourage more participation both from the applicants and the public. A competition presented a great way to achieve this and also raise awareness of the event 6 months out so it was decided to advertise for contestants and then allow the public to vote using the website and SMS based texting. Proceeds from the texts would go to the SPCA.
So we set to our onerous task of photographing and video the nine stunning entrants as well as designing the branding, print advertising and of the course the website where all the action would take place.
The final line-up were featured in newspapers and posters, using traditional media to raise awareness of the campaign. Contestants were supplied with their own collateral and they proceeded to spread the word through their networks and to enlist the help of friends and colleagues to capture votes. Facebook and Bebo pages were set up and other elaborate schemes were dreamt up. The eventual winner tapped into her hometown of Moosomin, Saskatchewan in Canada and was able to generate a groundswell of support.
We were amazed at the ferocity of personal campaigning of some of the contestants and there was the inevitable cheating where the voting site was hacked by more than one of the contenders (well maybe their friends). Fortunately we were able to keep a track of this and the voting system was not compromised.
The public chose the top five contestants and then judging determined the eventual winner and runnersup. Video was taken of all five and the winners video was uploaded to the internet as soon as the announcement was made. All up it was an enjoyable experience, but due to the incredible competitiveness of the contestants, one we decided not to redo in a hurry.
The site with bio’s and videos of the nine entrants can be viewed here.