Arlene Pellicane asked:
In the NBC show “The Biggest Loser,” 18 contestants compete for a grand prize of $250,000. Each week, these contestants face food temptations, rigorous workouts and weigh-ins under the supervision of professional trainers. Why has this show been successful in helping overweight men and women lose hundreds of pounds? These factors make “The Biggest Loser” a success:
Begin with motivated people
Have a daily meal plan
Participate in a fitness program
Connect with others who need to lose weight
Be accountable to a trainer
Guess what? You don’t have to be on television to do these things. You can do them at home with your family, your friends, even your co-workers. My friend did a biggest loser contest at work for one month. Everyone put $25 in the pot and the winner took all.
Interested in leveraging your competitive side to help you lose weight faster? Start your own biggest loser contest by setting the stage:
1. Decide who will participate. Compete against one person or form teams. You and a partner can go against another duo, or you could have teams as large as you like.
2. Set a time limit. Will the competition last for 4 weeks? 8 weeks? 12 weeks?
3. Offer a great prize. What will the winner(s) get? Cash is always good… whoever participates can contribute $25. If you don’t want to use money, you can always offer free babysitting, meals, or house cleaning.
4. Have weekly weigh-ins. Keep each other accountable and push for success together.
Making losing weight a game introduces healthy competition, a goal to strive for, bonuses and incentives, and the list goes on.
Today’s action step: Who will you invite to be a part of your Biggest Loser Contest? Contact that person or persons today.
Glen Hopkins asked:
Competition is a great traffic tactic because people love to participate in contests. The types of contests you can implement are limited only by your imagination. Just be sure to run contests that are relevant to your business. If you sell information about fitness, make the competition somehow related to fitness. You could do this by awarding a prize to the person who lost the most weight in a certain period of time.
Another contest would be to have your contestants submit their best “fit tips.” The winner could get a free coaching session with you and have their tip sent out to your entire list. To help get your creative juices flowing, here are some ideas for types of contests you can run to generate traffic:
1. Referral Contest. Every time someone refers another person to your site, they get entered in a drawing. Pick a winner at the end of the month and give away a prize. The only way to be eligible is to refer someone, so this generates word of mouth marketing for you.
2. Mystery Contest. Pick a name at random from your list and announce they won your mystery prize for the month. To be eligible, a person simply has to be an opt-in subscriber to your newsletter.
3. Idea Contest. Visitors contribute ideas on how to improve your site.
4. Quote Contest. Entrants send in their favorite quotes. You include the best ones in your newsletter.
5. Clue Contest. Ask questions on your entry form that entrants can only find if they surf the various pages of your site. This not only makes it fun to discover the clues, but it also exposes visitors to your products.
6. Photo Contest. Have people submit photos around a certain theme. You can post the photos and have your visitors vote on the best one…after they give you their name and email address.
7. Link Contest. The entry requirement is a link to your site on another site. They have to send you the URL of the site where your live link is before they can be entered in your contest. Then at the end of the month, you draw a name from the entrants and award a prize.
8. Writing Contest. Choose a topic and set a word limit (somewhere between 400-700 words to keep it simple and easy to judge). Make sure you specify whether or not you will retain the copyright and inform entrants that you will be publishing the winning entry in your newsletter and on your website. You should only accept original work.
9. Affiliate Contest. Award a prize to your top-selling affiliate every month. This will motivate your affiliates to compete against each other to sell more.
10. Ad Contest. Let your customers submit their own advertisements for your product in whatever medium you choose: print, audio or video. This is a great way to have fun and get sales copy from a customer’s perspective!
It doesn’t matter what type of contest you choose. Just pick an idea and let your customers participate in a little friendly competition.
Johnny Summerton asked:
For the first time in 21 years a French film has scooped top honours for best movie at the Cannes film festival.
“Entre les murs” (The Class) directed by Laurent Cantet won the coveted Palme d’Or on a unanimous decision by the jury.
It was only the fourth time a French production had triumphed since the gaggle of glitterati first started gathering for the annual film festival on the Côte d’Azur in 1946.
The film is a mix of documentary and fiction, following the lives of a class and their teacher in a tough inner city secondary school in Paris over the course of a year.
It was written by, and stars François Begaudeau – himself a teacher – with most of the other roles being filled by real students and teachers.
The president of the jury, US actor Sean Penn, was fulsome in his praise for the winner calling it an amazing film. Before the festival he had insisted that it was impossible to separate film from politics, and had promised that the winning film would be a reflection of the current climate.
Most would agree that “Entre les murs” is just that.
While the win might have come as something of a surprise given the relatively low profile of the film – mainly because it was shown on the last day of competition – there were beaming smiles all round as the French media gave itself a collective pat on the back for the win.
The national state television channel, France 2, was particularly pleased with itself as it was one of the main financial backers of the film and ran a live interview with Cantet, Begaudeau and some of the students at the end of its prime time news on Sunday.
The film isn’t actually due for general release until October this year, but already the culture minister, Christine Albanel, has jumped on the proverbial bandwagon and called for it to be screened in secondary schools throughout the country.
While Cannes attracts filmmakers and actors from around the globe, it’s also a special chance for some of Hollywood’s modern greats to bask in the sun and even more importantly their own glory as they give the assembled paparazzi more than their fair share of photo ops. And this year naturally was no exception.
There was the world premiere of the latest “Indiana Jones” movie with its star Harrison Ford showing up along with the director Steven Spielberg – who popped off to Paris to collect the Legion d’honneur. Of course “Brangelina” pitched up looking resplendently pregnant with twins – well at least one half of them did. Eva Longoria, Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood and many, many others also tripped their way along La Croisette.
So the red carpet has been rolled up and another fun-packed carnival has come to an end.
While France might have triumphed at Cannes, there was no weekend “cultural” double whammy. At Saturday’s annual music jamboree, considered by many to be inappropriately called the Eurovision Song contest, the French contestant, Sébastien Tellier, could only manage 19th place (out of 25).
He notched up a miserly 47 points at the knees-up held this year in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, despite resorting to English lyrics and putting in a performance of his electro-pop “Divine” that by any critical standards was both professional and entertaining.
Still Eurovision, would not be Eurovision without the usual tactical voting as countries awarded top marks to neighbours and (former) political allies. Russia might have been victorious this time around and consequently won the right to host next year’s contest, but already there are calls for the “Big Four” (financial contributors), France, Germany, Britain and Spain to withdraw from future participation.
So no “douze points” for Tellier or France in Belgrade, but top marks at Cannes.
Patrick Omari asked:
It is another working day after being entertained by the Eurovision song contest over the weekend. A spectacular live show, broadcast in several countries and worldwide over the Internet. This year the competition was held in Belgrade Serbia. With a capacity of around 20,000 people, the Belgrade Arena is one of the largest venues ever to host the Eurovision Song Contest. Like all Eurovision contests, this year’s edition did not disappoint. There were many high points from funny dress to an intriguing mix of songs.
It is amazing how a day is too long in showbiz. By Tuesday night most people had ceded the Eurovision 2008 crown to the Swedish singer Charlotte Perrelli, who won Eurovision in 1999 as Charlotte Nilsson. She was poised to enter the annals of history as the only woman to win the crown twice since the inception of the contest. Ireland’s Johnny Logan is the only singer to have won twice in the competition’s 53-year history, in 1980 and 1987.
Well, her song ‘Hero’ did not win Sweden the 5th title as widely expected but she put up a very good show. It is a shame that she wasn’t even among the top three. I have listened to the song over and over again on You Tube and although I wouldn’t say that it is better than Shady Lady sung by Ukraine’s Ani Lorak, it certainly would have competed well against the Russian singer Dima Bilan and Secret Combination by Kalomira of Greece who took first and third position respectively. To be honest I think position 18 was a slap in the face of talent for the Swedish entry just as I think that Andy Abraham’ UK entry did not deserve to come last in this year’s contest which presented both raw talent and mediocrity in equal measure.
What I like most is the heated debate that often kicks off the minute the winner is announced. The debate often goes on until the small hours of the morning and in the next two weeks at work, pub and other social gatherings. The gossip after the contest is often an anti-climax to the tension and excitement that built up, as the national selection contests last barely a couple of weeks before the main event.
The gossip and criticism can sometimes overshadow the winner’s tour. Dima Bilan the 2008 winner is already in Helsinki, Finland ready to kick off the winner’s tour, barely 2 days since he won but the criticism, jealousy and disappointment is still simmering from those who think their act was unfairly shoved from being crowned king or queen of Europe. We all believe that Televoters from 43 countries decide who is the best talent. But pundits and bloggers beg to differ. Many think this contest has become political. Reading rave blog posts in Western Europe you would think this is farce of a competition.
In my opinion between traditional and commercial appeal, the UK, Swedish, Latvia, French, Armenia, Israel and Spanish entries presented the kind of mix that would continue making this contest a show for for all in this era ruled by a disco beat which is often devoid of originality. But when all is said an done, you may not agree that the Eastern Europeans are voting as a political block, but you will agree that Andy Abrahams and other artists of his calibre will start giving this show a miss if something is not done about the voting system. No artists will want to put his or her reputation at stake by going to a competition where from the onset you know you might bag the dubious title of a loser just because your country is not viewed favourably by voters.
There are many people with vested interest that goes beyond the charm of being entertained. It is worthwhile mentioning the economic aspect of this huge event. Before the event there was a lot of travelling and travel offers to Belgrade. Hosting this event must have been a boon to the city’s economy. I saw a newspaper, which was offering a package with hotel and tickets to the Eurovision Song Contest at a ridiculous fee. If your country, winning or losing, does not affect your taste for travel, prepare for a Eurovision package to Russia next year.
The one thing I do not want to miss is the CD with all the songs from this year’s contest. Advanced technology means you won’t have to buy all songs singly as we used to in the past; it is all in a CD. The double album contains all 43 songs taking part in this year’s competition. Long time fans used to buy Eurovision Song contest entries on 7″ vinyl record! Imagine you dusting all the 43 separate vinyl. See you in Russia next year.
