The Final Contest

The What’s in the Fridge? contest (with a prize of $500 worth of groceries courtesy of a printable coupons website) received 46 entries and 1699 votes. There were all kinds of wonderful images. Here at the office, we really liked the shot of the guy in the fridge drinking from the plastic jug. I personally thought that snapshot was brilliant and it was performance art because of the crazed expression on the guy’s face.

However the strangest thing happened… and it really threw us off balance when we had a three way tie between Lemon-aid, Chilling in the Fridge, and Eggclipse. And there’s nothing in the Lenzr Rules to determine the proper course of action in such a scenario.  And it was too late to go back to the original Lenzr Judges. (Rob made a mistake by not asking the Lenzr Judges to give a 2nd places)  so we improvised.

LemonAid by mich

This was a photo that most people had to look at twice to see what the heck is happening. From a Lenzr Judge: “Made me laugh. Double entendre. Very creative. This person went to a lot of trouble to get a laugh.”  And it made us laugh too.

Chilling in the Fridge by seattledredge

From a Lenzr Judge: “Great humour, good exposure, nifty product placements.” Which is a fascinating way to say that once again Seattle used the Lenzr canvas to tell us a story about herself and her vegetarian lifestyle or pro-biotic anyway.

And finally,

Eggclipse by silversurfer71

From a Lenzr Judge: “There is a certain sense of menace in this cleverly exposed shot. The ‘Jaws’ theme music right away starts to play in my mind.”  Haha yeah. We hear the Jaws theme too, followed by a giant crack!

It’s a Photo Finish!

What were we at Lenzr to do about a three-way tie? We couldn’t pick the winners ourselves, so after a bit of soul-searching, Rob Campbell he Prime Innovator of Lenzr, decided to take Lenzr to the streets. Luckily, our office is located in The Distillery District in Toronto–this postal code is overflowing with people making a living with artistic pursuits–and it only took about ten minutes for Rob to find the impressive panel of judges that he did!

Please click on the video below to see how we arrived at the winner of the What’s in the Fridge? contest. The judges, in order of appearance, are Gerry Williamson, children’s book illustrator, Rod Rennick, designer/sculptor at RPT Inc., and then finding Ian Willms, a local photographer was timely, and Philippe Souroujon of Pikto Studio were all gathered here in the lane beside Pikto in the Distillery.

Seattle Dredge wins the prize of $500 worth of free groceries courtesy of our friends at ClipDeals.

The April-May Lenzr photo contests have all come to an end. The race has been run. And one Lenzr member has come out on top.

Overall, the website attracted approximately 8500 visits and half of these folks were new visitors, with an average time on site at 4 minutes. The average visit took in 9.5 pages!  Add that up, and you get over 80,000 page views in sixty days!

There was terrific engagement – over 230 photos were uploaded into all four matches. The pictures that were submitted were either thought-provoking or beautiful and, quite often, they were both. The top ten images were a montage of marketing – a storybook with four chapters and 230 pictoral displays of the collected knowledge.

We just love pictures that tell stories with contrasts and curious captions!

All four matches have become wonderful chambers and cataclysms of mass creativity – but this session produced one big winner…

This was a special contest session. It was the last session on the old website. *Look for another post soon about the new website debuting in June!

Here are the Winners of the April May 2011 Photo Contests

BEST COTTAGE MOMENTS:

The Best Cottage Moments photo contest attracted 71 photos and 2457 votes.

The winner was Wakeboard Wipeout by movieminx

The picture pleased three out of eight Lenzr judges and the three judges who voted for this image remarked,

1. “A great capture of a moment. Shows how well motion and emotion can be caught with the right lens.”

2.” This photo captures the essence of cottage life. Out in the great outdoors letting loose and enjoying yourself. The picture itself is a great capture and showing action. You can tell that it was taken at a fairly high speed. Around 1/1000 sec I would guess. Good composition as well.”

3. “Rarely do you get an action shot so well composed; also [it gives you] a nifty view of cottage fun.”

The staff in the office liked how you could see all the hundreds of thousands of water droplets.  That’s action!

The Best Cottage Moments photo contest was exceptional for many reasons; it was Lenzr’s first dabbling in real estate storytelling for a client with a beautiful Muskoka cottage for sale near Bracebridge, Ontario.  Summer is finally here, and many people are eager to get outdoors and soak up the sun. This contest was perfectly timed.

One brand new Lenzr member really distinguished herself and thus deserves mention in the blog.  A new member named Rain uploaded a photo of her dog on a wooden deck.

“Tanner… the most gentle creature ever created soaks up the rays in Muskoka.”

The picture wasn’t remarkable except that it soon became clear that Tanner was well loved by Rain, who promoted the picture everywhere in a bid to secure a top ranked position (to let the judges and the world know how much she loves Tanner). All through the ten day voting cycle her Twitter stream and Facebook page page were alternately updated at four hour intervals as she advanced interest in the contest and her dog Tanner with friends. It was the best marketing any Lenzr member has ever done to promote their contest entry. It was truly from the heart, and its kind of a shame she didn’t even get a mention from the Judges…

BEST COTTAGE MOMENTS, LETTERS FROM THE JUDGES

WEATHER  THE STORM:

The Weather The Storm photo contest accrued 64 photos that garnered 1596 votes.

The winner was Rise of the Thunderhead by Silversurfer71

This winner has the right approach. He told a little story about a cloud when he wrote the caption, ‘ I loved the way this cloud dwarfed everything. Not long after, thunder and lightning.’

The judges who voted for this image remarked:

1. “This image is a bit busy but to me it looks the best. Looks like a high dynamic range, but I really like the drama in the clouds.

2. “Cloud Mass almost looks explosive, depicting the theme.”

3. “I’m sure Miami has its fair share of thunder storms. This photo demonstrates a towering cumulonimbus dwarfing the skyscraper in the foreground. The photo itself fits the theme of the contest. I can see the picture has been enhanced by HDR or some tone mapping. The process makes the cloud even more ominous. I would have liked if the photo was straightened a little as there is a tilt to the shot.”

LETTERS FROM THE JUDGES – WEATHER THE STORM

SHINY METAL SURFACES

The Shiny Metal Surfaces photo contest amassed 70 photos and 1323 votes

The winning photo  is  Cloud Gate – Millennium Park.

And  once again it’s the property of Silversurfer71.

The black and white image was sure to be popular with some Lenzr judges;  here are some of their comments:

1. “The exposure is perfect! The angle is great! Love the tones and the overall effect! Any shinier and I’d go blind.”

2. “Most definitely the biggest shine, love how well it looks in B&W, a bit artificial but I think the strongest out of them all.”

3.”Cool shot in black and white. Definitely hits the target on the nose, you can’t get much more shiny metal than that. Love the composition, the reflections of the subjects and the way each of them are captivated by the illusion of it all. Great Photo.”

Congratulations Silversurfer71 – you are the BIG WINNER in this session.  You already have tow Sony Cybershot HD70 cameras, and you may have won the $500 in Free Groceries in the What’s In the Fridge? contest too but we can’t confirm that yet

LETTERS FROM THE JUDGES – Shiny Metal Surfaces

These YouTube videos show what it’s like inside Lenzr Corp. Unfortunately they don’t show the winning pictures or announce the name of the victorious member or showcase the prize or sponsor. So they are humble beginnings at best. Next session we’ll do better.

The What’s in the Fridge? contest was held up by a three-way tie! Please stay tuned for the results–we’ll have them out before the end of the day.

Lenzr contest producers are business storytellers, but they don’t know how their story ends until they tally up the Judges’ scores at the end of the match. The story ends when the winner gets their prize.

Lenzr is Canada’s first serial photo contest website; it’s an interactive arena for photographic arts competition and business storytelling.

Photo contest producers dream up visual challenges loosely related to their sponsor’s goods and services, and they administrate over a growing collection of user submitted content inside a sixty day campaign period.  In that time, Lenzr’s own social media marketers work really hard to engineer an ‘orchestra of participation’ around their visual fable in as many different niches as possible, all over the web.

Storytelling is a very important part of the process.   People want to be a part of something.  When they upload a photo on Lenzr, their picture becomes part of a bigger story – their fridge contains something unusual, or they once survived a terrible storm – these are sponsored stories from the April May 2011 session.  A printable coupons website wonders What’s In The Fridge? and a commercial roofing company asks folks to Weather The Storm and tell them about it.

People are storytellers too, and they want a place to share their amusing images, and they want a chance to have the best story, perhaps even more than they want the actual prize.

Web 2.0 is a term that describes the use of Worldwide Web technology to enhance creativity, information sharing, and most notably, collaboration among users. Tim O’Reilly defines Web 2.0 as ‘a set of economic, social, and technology trends that collectively form the basis for the next generation of the Internet—a more mature, distinctive medium characterized by user participation, openness, and network effects’.

The best Lenzr contests create a visual database of user submitted knowledge that remains relevant to the sponsor’s niche long after the contest ends.

Ontario Tourist Attractions and Canadian Beaches are two excellent examples of how photo contests can build a rich media resource to benefit society for the rest of time.

Each user submitted photo becomes part of the business story. (Note: the photos supplement the media-rich story for our sponsors, they do NOT become the sponsor’s property).

Graveyard Zombie’s Food Hunt by a member named lenzrgirl2011 is a brilliant self portrait taken from inside her fridge. This user found time to get creative and tell us a convincing story about her ‘long night’s work’ at a hospital and her sweet slumber during the day. She’s a natural storyteller, and will no doubt be rewarded with a prize.. someday. All she has to do is get into the Top Ten, and the Judges will be so moved by her story, they may give her composition the nod.  She could win $500 worth of groceries from a printable coupons website.

Custom made Lenzr photo contests are a great addition to any Web 2.0 interactive marketing campaign, especially longer campaigns that are theme related. Each sponsored page becomes a bastion of user submitted visual content that can be tweeted and added to Facebook.

What’s the secret behind Lenzr?

Shutterbugs locked in competition need friends to come vote and comment on their pictures so they earn a place in the Top Ten user-ranked images. Consequently they must promote their submissions on forums, art groups, and on their own Facebook and Twitter updates, and this action shares engagement through multiple people networks. That’s Lenzr – that’s why it works. People get excited about seeing and sharing their art.

And let’s remember the sharing won’t happen unless the story is cool –people want to show off their work and remind friends of their abilities, but they won’t play if it’s too commercial or too boring.

Voting is how we throw gasoline on the image stack and set it ablaze. The client’s story and brand logo is right above this well optimized stack of user submitted content. Our Google Analytics data always shows a sharp incline in participation right around the forty-five day period when voting begins, and that’s also a part of instigating a web 2.0 story. Lenzr builds a collection, and then optimizes it through voting.  The story ends when the winner gets the prize.

On Stage At Home Contest Winner !!

On Stage At Home was a perfect photo opportunity for Sweater Eyes to enter her “Kit Girl” photo. She was pleasantly surprised to find out that she actually won the prize. The competition was set high with a large amount of photo submissions. She originally had her photo posted on a photography project blog:
http://sweatereyes.wordpress.com.   She made a typo and her photograph was named “Kit Girl” when submitted to Lenzr but it was actually intended to be named “Hit Girl”.  She gives photo credit for this image to her partner, Korpolfr.  She was kind enough to send Lenzr a kind of silly, promotional shot of the prize winner Sweater Eyes with her catopus creations that she mentions later.  They are not the technical zebra print rug that was the original prize offered, but she was thrilled with the prize alternative non the less.  The prize money allowed her to create her own whimsical creations for her budding new innovative business.

Here is what Sweater Eyes had to say when we asked for verification that she received her contest prize and how she felt about being a Lenzr contest winner:

“I heard about Lenzr and the contest on a photography network site, someone posted in the forums, a website that had photography contests that were only open to Canadians. I was pretty excited, but really skeptical… there had to be a catch, or an entry fee.. something… but there wasn’t. I think I actually entered 3 or 4 contests on Lenzr during that time period. When my picture was in the final top 10 in the At Stage At Home contest, I didn’t really expect to win. I thought that my photograph “Hit Girl” (oh by the way, I realize I made a typo way back when and said “Kit Girl” instead.. but it is “Hit Girl”) was too abstract from the theme, and then there was the fact that people were confusing my photograph with being an actual movie screen shot. I almost didn’t even get the first e-mail from you asking if the photograph was an original, as it was sent my junk mail. I’m definitely happy that I noticed it, and that I replied right away (hence the messy spelling). But I was really excited when I found out that I won, although I must admit that I felt really awkward too.. I wasn’t sure the proper way to react, and I’m actually a really shy person. I was also really nervous that people would be angry, thinking that I didn’t deserve to win. When the “critiques” were posted on the Lenzr blog, it made me feel better because I knew that my photograph won because of various reasons, and no one seemed angry (I’m probably just paranoid).”

Prize Making Catopus

Sweater Eyes had more to say about her prize.  “When you asked if it was okay to send me money instead of a rug, to be honest I was a little relieved. I made good use of my prize, and it could not have come at a better time. Since January I had been working like crazy to launch my personal business at the beginning of April, at a horror convention in London, Ontario. As a multi-media artist, I work primarily in photography and hand-sewn soft collectible sculptures. My favourite, and I suppose “trademark” (although it is not actually trademarked) items are a chimera creatures called a catopus (it is half cat and half octopus). This prize allowed me to properly launch my business: I have my own domain name for my official website, I ordered professional business cards, and I’m currently in the process of registering my business with the government of Canada. Those things would not have been possible this quickly if it had not been for Lenzr, so Thank You. This puts me more than half a year ahead of my original business plan and schedule. It has always been my dream to be able to have my own business, so that I can continue making art, and this entire experience has been such a great help.”

There is a small glitch on the website Sunday May 15 – the voting is down and the wrong messages are being displayed under all of the competing images. The contests have NOT ended.

Hopefully everything will be fixed before Monday May 16th 2011.

Okay THE WATER IS SAFE TO DRINK AGAIN !

The voting will begin Monday now when everyone is at work, instead of Sunday, when everyone was home surfing and looking for things to do including voting of friends’ photos …

Hey WHAT”S UP WITH SHAFTS OF SUNLIGHT?
Some people are wondering about the ghost contest that appears in the widget and but not in the index – and … some members have even managed to enter the challenge. But there is no official challenge yet – its just a premonition of something amazing that’s coming down the pipe… something new. Dont worry if you entered the match in May, it just means you’re first in line for the competition in June.

SOMETHING AMAZING IS COMING DOWN THE PIPE
I will update all members and readers very soon – this week perhaps, if I believe my dream has finally come true. Will the new website be ready for June 1st? Who wants a Lenzr t shirt ? we need a design – perhaps that should be a contest?