Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor Contest
In 2004, I was made aware of a contest that ESPN.com held that put cheerleaders from each NFL squad head-to-head in a contest to pick everyone's favorite NFL cheerleader from the group they had selected.
In 2005, I decided to take that idea and apply it to the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders.
What came about was a special contest where fans vote for their favorite lady in purple. Friends, family, fans, and casual voters got in the mix and assisted me in creating the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor Contest.
In 2005 I hand-counted each vote as it came through my email box. That tedious project led me to 2006, where I called upon my friends at www.purplepride.org to help me calculate the votes through an online tally system. In 2007, we added a poll to vikingsfanatic69.com to give voters a second vote each day and to be used in the event of a tie from the main votes at www.purplepride.org.
This contest is a blast. The fans, the families of these young ladies, and the Cheerleaders themselves look forward to the contest each year. My goal with this contest is to have the fans of the Vikings really appreciate all the time, pride, effort, and talent that goes into being a MVC. These young ladies are talented and help us cheer on our Vikings each and every week. Win or lose, they cheer their hearts out...even when we have "thrown in the towel".
The MVC Survivor Award
The key to any good contest is the award. I had to be more than to just acknowledge the winner online or get them some cheesy little trophy. The one who was voted on as the fans' favorite cheerleader needed something she could cherish forever. I looked around and found a very unique award that would do just fine. With some graphic art supplied by a friend of mine, we created the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor Award.
The graphic design:
A friend of mine, BJ Millican, designed the logo we use. He put the first design together you see above using PhotoShop. He is a very creative person and does excellent work.
The laser-engraving on black marble:
The laser engraving is done by a company in Alabama called Laser Works of Alabama. Richard and his crew do a great job.
WOW!
The award is laser-processed onto the marble by a great company here in Alabama called Laser Works of Alabama. Not only do Richard and his crew supply us with the technology to make this very beautiful and unique award, but they also proudly display a copy of each year's plaque in their store front. They are a wonderful partner in the success of the MVC Survivor Contest. You can check them out here:
THE MVC SURVIVORS
MVC Survivor - 2007
2007 was a very exciting year for the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor Contest. As most years begin, we see groups of ladies move on from week to week that we assume will be close to the finals just based on past experience and fan recognition. As the weeks went on, we realized that 2007 was going to be much different than years past. When we got closer and closer to the final week, we saw that the first-year ladies were truly dominating the field. The 2007 MVCs had quite a few new faces, but we never expected them o be THE fan favorites for our contest. As we got down to the top 3, it was going to be an all rookie showdown to determine the winner. The two ladies who ended up in the finals (AJ and Krisandra) had literally traded off each week who was the top vote-getter, so it was only fitting that one of them would be crowned as The 2007 Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor. We can only have one winner, and with the voting so close, we decided to add a secondary site at right here at vikingsfanatic69.com for fans to vote once more per day for their favorite MVC. We never needed to use the secondary voting site to determine a tie, but as the votes were tallied on both purplepride.org and vikingsfanatic69.com...it was Krisandra who won the hearts of the purple faithful in 2007.
2007 also saw some new faces in assisting with the promotion of the MVC Survivor Contest. A great photographer who takes wonderful shots of the ladies at home games shared a few of his pictures for the MVC Survivor Contest this year. The two action shots I implemented on the award for 2007 came from his generosity. In fact, he even put a few slide shows (some even with music) together on his web page at smugmug.com. Check the links below to see his work for the 2007 MVC Survivor Contest:
Photos of the TOP 4! MVC Survivor Candidates for 2007. Thanks Steve!
Video slideshows of the top 8 MVCs in the 2007 MVC Survivor Contest. Thanks Steve.
I am also thanking:
- The people at addpoll.com for what they do to allow us to add the additional polling on vikingsfanatic69.com. It was easy and FREE!
- Those at www.kansasviking.com. Vikings fans span the globe, and KansasViking helps us each year in promoting the contest and taking some nice MVC pictures for us to enjoy.
- Tami Krause. She is an excellent leader and organizer for our favorite cheerleaders. She has also been supportive of our contest by agreeing to assist us in getting the award to the winner each year. She works hard, and for her to take time to acknowledge us and our contest is wonderful.
MVC Survivor - 2006
The next year saw the updating of the voting go to an online poll version hosted by www.purplepride.org. The challenge here began to come to the front when so many voters would hit the site to vote and it would bog down the servers. When more space was acquired, the contest went into high gear and saw some pretty intense weeks of voting. The rookie, Katie M., who had come in 2nd in 2005 would come around again and take the Contest. She had some tough weeks, but her fans stayed true to the end and by the last week it was all but over.
Congratulations to Katie M. who won the MVC Survivor Contest in 2006 (Should she start packing for Hawaii?).
MVC Survivor - 2005
The "rookie" year for this contest saw it's fair share of challenges. This contest had to be something special. The idea stalled when I asked for help in promoting it, but once it was underway people hopped on to help support this contest. I did not have an online poll to set up, so I took all votes by hand each week. The vote came down to one veteran and one rookie. The veteran took the contest by the end, but the rookie had staked her claim as a fan favorite. My only hope was that she would be on the squad the following year to see if she could finish what she started.
Our lovely MVC red-headed Stephanie won the first Survivor Contest (In 2006 she was elected to the Pro Bowl to represent the Minnesota Vikings).
