Ohh the humanity. Trivia contest bombs.

Ahh, what a disaster. Well we didn't get any takers for the free Palco tickets. Pity. According to Tom Peters, one of a hundred such business gurus, those companies that learn to "Fail Faster," succeed. If the trivia contest was any signal, LOL, we're going to start succeeding VERY soon.

Anyway, we learned a few lessons:

1. Launching a short time limit contest on a Friday in the summer, uhh, maybe that wasn't such a good idea. But we had no choice, we didn't get the tickets till late Thursday night.
2. Once again, we are frustrated and stumped on our inability to generate any response from readers of the blog; as well, we still don't get many users to enter Events or Ratings over on DóndeEs.com.
3. In the end, this is a numbers game, just like everything else. Successful sales is a numbers game. For example, in order to make 5 sales a week, you need to visit 25 potential clients. In order to get 25 appointments, you need to talk to 125 business owners. In order to talk directly with decision makers (business owners, usually), you have to make 625 calls. All assuming a 20% success ratio.
   
   So it is with reaching and joining into a conversation (engaging in some sort of interaction) with Internet Users, in a very interesting article I found about "Nuggets from Social Media workshops as of late…", Sean O'Driscoll shared some powerful insights into the social sphere, the most pertinent to our trivia fiasco is:
   

   "Let’s assume we can generally agree that ~70% will lurk, 20% join, 9% will be regulars and 1% participate in the community in extreme ways."

   Looking at out traffic numbers for yesterday, we had approximately 107 visits to the blog, it could be more, but we don't have anything else to go on, but Google Analytics. So yesterday, the blog got 107 visits, if Sean's assumption is right, means that maybe only 9% are regulars, 9 visitors, and only 1% will participate in extreme ways, that's (holy crap) 1 visitor. So you see why point number one is so valid.
   

On the bright side, did get quite a few number of users to register over on DóndeEs.com, for the family ticket give-away. So thanks everyone for your support. For those who actually won tickets and attended the game, we hope that you enjoyed the courtesy tickets. And for everyone that is registered on DóndeEs.com or a fan of our DóndeEs.com Facebook Page, maybe soon we'll invite you all for a Palmolive bien firiiita. Very soon.

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor: s-t-r-a-n-g-e

Box Seats for Puerto Rico Islanders Game Tonight

We've been able to score two box ("Palco") tickets to the Puerto Rico Islander game tonight against the Minnesota Thunder. We're going to give away those tickets to one lucky winner. To participate just answer the trivia question I'm about to give. If you answer the trivia question correctly and you are a registered user in DóndeEs.com, then you will become eligible to win the box seats. You'll have until 1:00 p.m. to submit your answers. At 1:00 p.m. this afternoon, we'll randomly select from all of the eligible participants and award the sweet box seats.

Puerto Rico Islanders Trivia Question

Here is the question, to enter send your answer to info at dondees dot com using the email address you provided when you registered at DóndeEs.com. If you're not already registered, take a quick minute to register here. We'll match your email address up against our database to determine eligibility. Alrighty then, here is your Puerto Rico Islanders triva question:

Question: "The original Islanders soccer team was moved to Houston Texas in the United States, and eventually folded in the year 2000. What was the name of the team after it moved?

By the way: The email addresses that you provide during registration are kept in the strictest confidence. We will never use them for anything other than sending you information about events, contests, and information from DóndeEs.com. We will NEVER sell the rights to use those e-mail addresses to anyone else, EVER.

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor: akeg

Wanted - Families for free PR Islander tickets

Households with large families are some of the hardest hit during these challenging economic times. And as the recession lingers, experts predict that the impact for lower and middle income families will only grow worse. As Jared Bernstein, Economic Policy Institute senior economist put it: "We're worried about the impact of the downturn on the families whose incomes haven't recovered from the last recession." We at DóndeEs.com are too.

So we are bringing back the free ticket offer for the Puerto Rico Islanders. We have a 100 more tickets to each of the two Islander games against the Minnesota Thunder. The games will take place on Friday June 27th at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday June 29th, at 6:00 p.m. Once you've been identified as a winner, you'll have the pick of which game you want to attend, first come first served

Rethinking the Puerto Rico Islander Give-away

During this contest we want to make sure that families can participate. So if you register on DóndeEs.com or become a fan of the DondeEs.com Facebook Page, we will give you up to 6 tickets per family. If your newly wed and it's just the two of you fine, two free tickets for you. But if your married with children (up to 4 to be exact), then 6 free tickets for you.

Not sure it's worth your time?

After the last contest, we received a nice email from one of the winners. Juan Carlos Ribot had this to say:

"Gracias, por las taquillas. Ayer fui al juego y nos lo disfrutamos mucho."

The rest of the rules are pretty much the same. Oh and by the way, you don't even have to pick-up the tickets if you win. We'll make sure the tickets are waiting for you at the will-call window of Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium. What could be simpler?

So head on over to the registration page or the DondeEs.com Facebook page and get signed up to take your family to see the PR Islanders. If you've already registered and become a fan, thanks for your support, it's very important to us. For you, stay tuned, we're going to be giving away tickets through trivia and other activities here at the blog and over at the Facebook page, so pay attention.

Remember to tell your friends and family about the Dondequiera contest! Can you imagine all of your friends and family going together to see the soccer game for FREE? Wouldn't that be a great time?

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor: Lasre

Express a Band-Aid Moment and Win

In a household with young children, there are a few essential items that you should never be without. And if those children lead active life styles, Band-Aids (curitas), are essential. With a constant string of cuts and abrasions, Band-Aids, carry magical healing power that starts working as soon as they are stuck on the golpe. Throw in some Neosporin, and you have a perfect healing combination, guaranteed to provide rapid healing. The only thing that seems to work even better is a magical kiss from Mami or Papi.

Johnson and Johnson, makers of Band-Aid Brand Adhesive Bandages, is sponsoring an art contest to find the best drawings illustrating a situation where you need Band-Aids. There is nothing required to participate in the contest, all you need to do is express a Band-Aid moment from your life.

Using whatever materials you like, draw your moment on a 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. Parents and friends are allowed to help, but hopefully this won't be like all of those crazy assignments teachers give where it's obvious that the parents have to do most of the work. You have until July 27th to submit your entry.

There are three age categories, each with its own grand prize. For ages 12-15, the winner will get a pass for Galaxy Lanes for a pizza party for the winner plus 2 friends and 3 adults. In the 8-11 age category, the winner will receive a pass to Wonder Park in Carolina for a pizza party for the winner plus 4 friends and 5 adults. Finally, for the little ones, ages 3-7, the winner will receive a $100 certificate for Build-A-Bear in Plaza Las Americas.

Once finished, send your child's artwork along with your child's contact information (name address, and telephone) to:

Culinary Entertaintment, Inc.
Calle 2-A, No 115
El Palmar de Torrimar
Guaynabo, PR 00969

For more information, or to receive a copy of the rules of the contest, email miguel@ejenet.com.

First Graphic Desgn Tournament - Comando-S

There are many anonymous designers, who labor diligently behind the scenes and never receive the recognition they deserve for their ceativity and ability. That is, until now. Comando-S is a tourney that provides a forum of expression which pits graphic designers against each other in a head to head competition of passion, production, and perspiration. While increasing their self-esteem, the tourney gives exposure to the participant's outstanding graphic design.

How does Comando-S work?

First of all, each round is only 15 minutes. During those 15 minutes the graphic designer must come up with an idea for the theme provided in that round of the competition. Each designer is provided an Apple Macintosh loaded with Photoshop / Illustrator / Indesign. In addition, they are given images, fonts and applications to support the theme. While there is no need to use all of the elements provided, the designers can use ONLY the items delivered by the organizers. All the pieces have to be started and completed during the fifteen minutes, and most important of all, the pieces must be saved, otherwise the participant is disqualified.

The preliminary elimination rounds will begin in August and will last until March 2009, where the finalists will do battle at Grafica 2009. The finals will be a merger of art, music, lights, giant screens, adrenaline and youth. The finalists will face-off on a stage surrounded by a confusing bombardment of adrenaline, creativity, fury and passion.

How to sign-up for Comando-S?

Registration is currently open and will stay open util July 31st. To register send your personal data and copies of graphic works to either esolorzano@agrafico.com or wcollazo@agrafico.com. For more information you can call 787-998-4265.

If you think you're ready to duel in a winner takes all tournament, where only the bravest creatives survive, sign up now. I dare you!

The tourney is open to anyone with the skills and abilities to produce using the tools provided. All you have to do is send in your registration with the necessary samples.

Why participate in Comando-S?

Well besides the obvious reason of humiliating your opponents in front of their friends and family, the tourney offers some chilin prizes. Assorted prizes include Apple laptops, Epson printers, and if you have the right chops, maybe even the chance to design a can for Coca Cola. Can you imagine the bragging rights you'll have when your design is held in the hand of hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans!

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor: Kate_A

New Facebook Page - Win Islander Tickets

It's been pretty hectic here lately. What with the contest going on and everything, so it's pretty crazy, but we wanted to setup a new page using the relatively new Facebook Pages.

Launched back in November of 2007, Facebook Pages allows you to create a business presence to engage with your customers and fans on Facebook. Facebook Pages work almost exactly like a regular user profile. The only difference is you become a fan of a Facebook Page instead of friends. Users interact with Facebook Pages exactly as they are accustomed to, so they don't need to learn anything new; plus their actions are, now, automatically generated into social stories. In addition as an owner of a page you can add applications, expanding on where groups leave off.

As I've mentioned before, and many on the island agree, Facebook is going to be one of the most important media channels over the next five to ten years. Currently with nearly 420,000 Facebook users in the San Juan, Puerto Rico network, behind the El Nuevo Dia (including elnuevodia.com) and local television, there is no other media channel that comes near.

So you'll be seeing more and more investment from DóndeEs.com in this new treasure trove of word of mouth marketing. Our Facebook Page is just the next step. Of course we've been on Facebook for quite a while now. We were the first local company to launch a Facebook application with Eventos PR. We also have a group, but will probably phasing it out. There is no need to have a group and a page. So Facebook Pages are the new groups.

Expanding Puerto Rico Islander Ticket Contest

So to celebrate the launch of the new DóndeEs.com Facebook Page, we're going to extend the Puerto Rico Islander ticket contest onto Facebook. If you become a fan of DóndeEs.com before 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, you'll qualify to win two tickets to Thursday's game. It's just that simple.

Update: Te Invito - Puerto Rico Islanders

Tickets, get your tickets! Red hot Puerto Rico Islander tickets. Get your tickets!

Last week we announced a promotion to give away free tickets to see this Thursday's Puerto Rico Islanders game. We've already had quite a few winners already, so if you're hoping to get a pair of tickets, you had better head over to DóndeEs.com and register. For a complete description of the promotion, you can check the original post for the rules.

Te Invito - Free Puerto Rico Islanders Tickets

DóndeEs.com invites you to go see the Puerto Rico Islanders play the Carolina RailHawks. Yep, you read that right. DóndeEs.com is giving away a 100 tickets to next Thursday's game. All you have to do is be one of the first fifty people to register as a new user of DóndeEs.com.

The first fifty people to register will each win two free tickets to the June 12th, 2008 Puerto Rico Islanders game. If you're already registered then just send us an e-mail to info at dondees dot com.

• You have until 8:00 a.m. on 6/11/2008 to register
• The winners will be informed before 12:00 p.m. on 6/11/2008
• Winners will be emailed with details of how to claim your tickets.

Why register as a user on DóndeEs.com?

Here are the top five reasons to register as a user with DóndeEs.com:

1. Free tickets to see the Puerto Rico Islanders. If you've never seen a professional soccer game, this is your chance to see the Big Orange play, courtesy of DóndeEs.com.
   
2. This is just the beginning; there will be other contests announced soon. By registering, you'll receive advance notification of future contests.
3. Opportunity to receive the new and improved DóndeEs.com newsletter (boletin).
4. By selecting any of the categories of information available on the "boletin" page, we'll be able to email you with special offers that will soon be available exclusively to DóndeEs.com users.
5. We're not done yet! There are many exciting features on the drawing board, and you'll want to be one of the first to hear about them when we release them. You'll become the envy of all your friends when you start using these cool new features first.
   

The legal crapola:

1. No purchase is necessary in order to participate.
2. Each household is only eligible to win one prize.
   
3. All winners will be responsible for all costs incurred in the transportation and parking for the event.
   
4. The prize is valued at $20.80.
5. The award will be presented with the guarantees offered by the provider and the obligations resulting therefrom.
   
6. DóndeEs.com is not responsible for incorrect names or incomplete addresses, illegible or incorrect numbers, or email addresses. In addition, DóndeEs.com is not responsible for incomplete registration due to any system or network failures.
   
7. In order to qualify for the prizes, you must provide your city, your postal zip code, your sex, and your date of birth, as requested in the profile of your registration.
   
8. Participants with illegible names or email addresses will be automatically disqualified.
9. To be eligible to participate in this contest you must be eighteen (18) years old, persons who are legal residents of Puerto Rico. This contest is limited to the geographic area of Puerto Rico and is subject to all applicable laws and regulations.
10. Anyone who omits information to pretend, that qualifies as a winner, will be canceled and will be submitted to government authorities for criminal proceedings.
11. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the Legal Crapola, send an email to info at dondees dot com.
    
12. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the list of award winners, send an email to info at dondees dot com, after June 11th, 2008.
13. All winners must sign a certificate of eligibility and release. Failure to act according to these rules will result in award to an alternate winner. The prize will be delivered once graced, free of taxes or any other charge imposed on the date of delivery to the person winning. Any taxes or contributions involving the acceptance or receipt of the prize will be the responsibility of winner. This contest is subject to all applicable laws and regulations of the Commonwealth.
    

Celebrate 90 years of Tres Monjitas

In cooperation with the Puerto Rico Tourism Company and the Paradores of Puerto Rico, Tres Monjitas is running a contest to give away 34 vacations. The contest is in celebration of the 90th anniversary of Tres Monjitas, so they decided to give away some nights in local paradores. In addition, they are giving away 90 certificates of $30 in Tres Monjitas products, which at the going rate of inflation on the island pretty soon will probably only cover about a couple gallons of milk.

To participate all you have to do is collect three labels from any of their products, and then write a note with your name, address, and telephone, stuff it all into an envelople and send it to:

Celebra los 90 de las Tres Monjitas
PO Box 366757
San Juan, PR 00936-6757

You can also enroll in the contest by depositing your entry in a booth that will be located in front of Caribbean Cinemas of Plaza Las Américas on Saturdays and Sundays or an urn in front of their Customer Service Center in Plaza del Caribe in Ponce.

The contest will be open until June 30th. The final drawing will be held on July 3rd. Rules for the contest are available on their website.

Tres Monjitas WebSite

And speaking of their website, I found a nice little hidden treasure when I was researching this post. They have a really nice collection of historic photographs. The photographs span the 90 years of Tres Monjitas and feature some really old images. If you want to hear your parents go off on what it was like back when, grab your Mom and watch a few of the slide shows of the images. I'm sure it will bring back for her some fond memories of days gone by, and who knows you might even score a few brownie points with her. Here's one I "borrowed" from the site to peak your interest, good luck! Oh and by the way, before mousing over the image, guess what year this is from, the 1920's, 30's 40's, or 50's:

Cuarto Certamen de Composición

Of all of the freedoms that we are granted by the many amendments to the United States Constitution, I believe that the first amendment is the keystone. For those of you who need a little refresher to your social studies, the first amendment is "Freedom of Religion, Press, and Expression". In essence, that amendment states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

And while the founders never imagined a medium as far-reaching and all-encompassing as the Internet, I believe that the Internet is the ultimate expression of that Freedom.

Locally the Centro para la libertad de Prensa Puerto Rico carries the torch to defend the freedom of the press. In one of it's many activities, annually they hold a composition contest. Currently the call for submissions to that contest has been open for a while and will soon close. The contest, which offers a $300.00 prize and a public award ceremony, is open until April 4th, 2008.

The contest is open to high students in either a public or private school in Puerto Rico. The compositions must address this year's theme "Journalism clubs promote the freedom of the press". Entries are limited to three pages, double spaced, and must be identified with the name of the author, the current grade, name and address of their school. Entries should be either:

• mailed to CLP, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, P>O> Box 12383, San Juan, PR 00914-0383
• fazed to (787) 728-5345
• e-mailed to clp at sagrado dot edu.

For more information, call the Centro para Libertad de Prensa, (787) 728-1515, ext. 2330.

2do Certamen de Poesia José Gautier Benítez

The autonomous municipality of Caguas is sponsoring the second José Gautier Benítez poetry contest. The entry date for poems is the 11th of October and must be sent to the municipality by registewred mail to: 2do Certamen de Poesía José Gautier Benítez, Casa Amarilla Concha Meléndez, Apartado 907, Caguas, Puerto Rico 00726. The envelope must be prepared to meet certain rules, so I would recommend that you download the rules of the contest at the Caguas web portal.

The contest is open to all residents of Puerto Rico, expect for the employees of the Caguas Municipal government and their families. Each person can submit up to 3 poems, with each poem being between 100 and 300 verses. First place in the competition will receive a $1,000 prize, and there will be two second place prizes of $250 each. Finally, certificates of recognition will be awarded to the first and second place winners, as well as to the 10 runners-up. The awards ceremony will be the 12th of November in the Teatro Luis M. Arcelay de Caguas at 3:00 p.m.

José Gautier Benítez (April 12, 1848 – January 24, 1880) was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. He is considered Puerto Rico's best poet of the Romantic Era. In 1878, he wrote the poem A Puerto Rico (To Puerto Rico), which was highly acclaimed by his contemporaries as one of his greatest works. A Puerto Rico also received an award from the Ateneo.

José Gautier Benítez died in San Juan, at 31 years of age. He was laid to rest in Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in Old San Juan. Even though he wrote less than a hundred poems, his works were considered better in quality than the works of other Puerto Rican poets of the time. Gautier Benítez's verses, titled Poemas (Poems) were published posthumously in 1880.

Ultima Hora: ¿Quien Baila Mejor?

Do you love to dance? Would you like to be on a reality television program? Do you want to win $25,000 or a car? Do you want to represent Puerto Rico?

If you said yes to all of those questions, then cancel your plans for tomorrow morning, because tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. in Televicentro they will be conducting try-outs for the new reality show "¿Quien Baila Mejor?" The show will feature 10 Puerto Ricans and 10 Dominicans and the winner will walk away with the prizes and glory for his country.

The new show will pit dancers from Puerto Rico against dancers from the Dominican Republic to determine, well, who dances better. In order to participate you must:

• Complete an application form found at www.wapa.tv or at the main entrance of Televicentro.
• Be a professional dancer or know how to dance (really, so let me get this straight...the people who compete in the show about dancing should already know how to dance?)
• Be between 18 and 30 years old
• Be Puerto Rican (whatever that means....like J-Lo Puerto Rican, Rueben Berrios Puerto Rican, or Boricuazo Puerto Rican?)
• Have a recent photograph
• A copy of your ID
• Have a current passport or birth certificate

Participants are allowed to bring a dance routine, and if desired in costume with your own music (of no longer than 1 minute)

Puerto Rico's Best Bars

Caras magazine and Grey Goose vodka are looking for the best bars in Puerto Rico, and they need your help. Visit the Puerto Rico's Best Bars page and vote for your favorite bar. You could win a Christian Dior Gift Certificate valued at $1,000.

What are they looking for (besides your demographic data, that is):

• Which bar has the best ambiance?
• Which bar has the best service?
• Which bar has the best vodka drinks?
• Which bar has the best music?

The contest (voting) is open to residents of Puerto Rico over the age of 18. Typical restrictions apply. The voting will be open from June 1st through July 16th, and the winner will be announced on August 8th.

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor Today: It'sGreg

Nailed it! ..... Again!

Last week the The CW announced who was going to be the new CW Girl, and winner is Iris. Iris, if you'll remember is the theater teacher from Naranjito. In addition to the $500 prize award Iris will also become the new spokesperson for The CW.

Iris, who was born in San Juan on June 17th, 1980 does, in fact, live at home with her parents while she teaches at the University of Puerto Rico in the Theater department. She has a Bachelor's degree from the University of Puerto Rico, with high honors, and she received a Master's degree in Education from the University of Turabo. From her biography, it seems that she be just the person The CW was looking for. DóndeEs.com congratulates her and wishes her the best of success in her new opportunity. And what can I say, I know how to pick them.

Lessons Learned

As anticipated, the user generated content revolution has not yet landed upon the shores of Puerto Rico. We here in DóndeEs.com have our doubts whether it will ever arrive. The Internet culture here in Puerto Rico is really a unique breed. While we wish there we more similarities, our challenge is to translate culturally what we know about Web2.0 and what's happening elsewhere into something that respects the business realities of Puerto Rico. Which should be a lesson for everyone who wants to compare Puerto Rico to Ireland, or Finland, or Singapore to discover a model for our economic development. True we new to study their successes, but without transforming those lessons to the business realities of Puerto Rico, their lessons are useless to us.

For future contests of a similar nature, if you want to win: make sure you're original, but more importantly authentic, and above all else, try to wear a silk nightgown.

San Juan Spelling Bees

The municipality of San Juan is hosting two spelling contests. The first spelling contest or should I say "Certamen de Deletreo en Español" will be held Thursday April 26th, in the Colegio Universitario de San Juan Ampitheater. The contest will run from 8:30 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. This will be the second annual spelling in Spanish contest, and this edition will feature grades one (1) through (3). To sign up for the contest call (787) 782-1036.

The second spelling bee is the Third "Spelling Bee" in San Juan. It will also be held in the Colegio Universitario de San Juan. Grades 4th through 6th will compete in the contest which will also run from 8:30 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. Registration end on Friday, so hurry if you or your child wants to compete. The telephone number to call is (787) 792-9952.

Flickr Creative Commons Contributor Today: jurvetson

The Search for the CW Girl

Our favorite contest is winding down. You have only until April 17th to vote for one of the five finalists. The ballots are open and you can cast your vote via either text message, the PR Mix CW website, or on the Primera Hora web site (well not really, because it redirects you to the PRMixCW voting page).

The finalists remaining are: Iris, Yahayra, Adienid, Leika, Yamilette. It could be me, but I think only one of the finalists attended the open casting call. I'm not sure whether that says that the participants that had the initiative and savvy to actually submit their own video online had something the others didn't, or because the script the others read in the casting call limited them and they didn't get a chance to share any of their personality.

Who did MC Don Dees vote for? Well first, I'm kind of anal about rules. No comments please. But the video for Leika and Adienid where over the 30 second limit. So we have to disqualify them. For me, I'm a sucker for authenticity. So for me, Iris has the most truthiness. It's a combination of things:

• First, she was one of the first to upload her video
• Second, she looks really nice in her pajamas
• She's a teacher and is doing it to please her students
• She's in her bedroom, probably in her parents house
• Finally, the television in the background gives it a touch of reality, that I just couldn't ignore. Hey it was hard not to.

There are going to announce the winner of the search in a grand event on April 19th, from 2:30 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. in the Plaza del Caribe.

Three Boricuas via for Nuestra Belleza Latina Crown

Three Puerto Ricans have entered into the round of the 12 finalists in the beauty contest organized by Univision, "Nuestra Belleza Latina". The three contestants, which are competing for $200,00 in prizes and an exclusive contract with Univision, are:

• Yara Lasanta, who was previously a finalist in Miss Puerto Rico Universe in 2003 and 2006, and was Miss Teen International in 2001
• Madelise Soto, Miss Teen Rincón 2002
• Lorraine Lara, Miss Moca University 2003

The finalists currently reside in a mansion in Miami until May, when the winner is announced. The contest is being transmitted live from Miami on Univision (locally on Teleisla). The Puerto Rican Giselle Blondet is the host of the contest.

Search for the CW Girl - Second Update

Well it looks like the open casting call has saved the product manager for the "Search for the CW Girl". There are 39 new videos that were uploaded on the same day and all of the videos have the wanna-bees reading from a set script. In addition, the "models" are all standing in front of the same two backgrounds. So I'm sure they are the result of the casting call.

Besides these 39 participants there are nine (9) new participants, bringing to a toal of 14 user generated videos and 53 toal videos. So with the open casting call, they met their minimum top 20 to finish the contest (although they are still 6 shy from entries submitted over the Internet). They are still some 55 hours remaining to receive entries, however I don't think they will top 60 entries.

At this time, the top videos are still up for grabs, but Kristhina has the top rated video and Beatriz's video has been viewed the most times, with 7,157 views.

Open Casting Call

Nailed it!

Yes, I called it. The product manager for The CW saw how badly the user generated video contest was going, and said "Oh Fudge, what am I going to do?" then clearly someone closer to the reality of Internet in Puerto Rico must have told them, "Screw that video thingy, what you need is to go old school, you need to conduct a casting call." And so that is exactly what The CW is doing.

You can enter the search for the CW Girl by attending a casting call this Saturday from 10:00 am until 1:30 at the Caribbean Broadcasting Network offices in Metro 6 Suite 203, Metro Office Park, Guaynabo. I hope they just take the opportunity to make each participant make their 30 second plead for fame right on the spot, and then upload them all to the server.

They did have a bit a rush on the site today, they have three new entries:

• Jennifer from Toa Baja
• Wuainy from San Juan
• Rakelle from Toa Baja
  

Top 20 countdown: 14 remaining!
Five finalist countdown: 0 remaining, they made the first milestone, they can conduct the final voting.
Time remaining: about 11 days.
Most viewed video so far: Lizzie

Search for the CW Girl - Update

Checking in our favorite user generated content contest in Puerto Rico, we have a new entry. Yes, that's right, since last Thursday, only one additional 30 second entry was uploaded to the PR Mix The CW web site. We now have Lizze from Gurabo to consider. In the hunt to get the top 20 videos, they now need 17 more entries to start the public voting. Hey, they only need two more entries to complete the five final entries.

Top 20 countdown: 17 remaining!
Five finalist countdown: 2 remaining!
Time remaining: 13 days and about 3 hours.

If I was the event coordinator or product manager for this brand, I'd be getting a little nervous by this point. Maybe some more advertising would help, but when your primary sponsor Primera Hora, doesn't even support your contest on their web site, you're in trouble.