London, UK, July 28th 2010 – Today marks the launch of ShowMe.tv, an exciting new social entertainment network that challenges and rewards its community to participate in regular video-based contests across four categories. In a unique twist, ShowMe.tv also enables the traditionally unremunerated voter to bet upon their most favoured entry in a contest, with the opportunity of an attractive financial reward should they select the winning entry.
Participants have four categories to choose from, allowing them to express and share their entertaining videos, passions, interests and talents by entering one or all of the following:
- – Donkey Circus – A series of contests extolling the art of the perfectly executed prank or hilarious moments in everyday life
– Radical Playground – Showing off the best in sporting prowess across the globe, whether its keep-ups or something more extreme
– Jam Planet – Whether Mozart, AC/DC, Street Dance or Ballroom are your thing there’s a spotlight waiting for your entertaining videos and talents with an axe, piano or your feet on Jam Planet
– Beauty Island – Celebrating beauty in all its forms and the things we do to show it off!
“ShowMe.tv offers a new and unique stance on the growing ‘download, upload, view and vote’ culture that is so popular across social media sites, by financially rewarding the voter as well as the winning contributor. We want to create a community of people who can share their talents and interests across a variety of catchy categories while being rewarded for their hard work,” commented Showme.tv co-founder, Simone Patrese. “Entertainment is at the heart of ShowMe.tv and we’re looking forward to seeing the amazing things the public will put on show over the coming weeks.”
Every month ShowMe.tv will launch contests across each of its categories for the community to enter and place votes on their favourite entries. Each contest will last eight weeks and be won by the video entry that receives the most votes. The contest lifecycle breaks down in the following way:
- Initial six weeks of contest: Contests are promoted through marketing activities and social networking driven by users on the web, while participants upload their entries. The ShowMe.tv hosts, who present the shows and interact with the community, will also promote each contest.
Final two weeks of contest: The videos are published and voting commences (users are unable to view rankings until the end of final round). Up to 100 videos receiving the most votes will proceed to the final round during the second week. At the end of the second week the best videos will be announced and cash prizes assigned.
Here are the opening contests for each category, as of July 2010:
Donkey Circus – ShowMe your funniest wake-up prank
Radical Playground – ShowMe your most amazing football tricks
Jam Planet – ShowMe your best pop star impersonation
Beauty Island – ShowMe your best method of seduction
Participants must be over 18 and register as ShowMe.tv members to participate in the community. Once registered, users can place a vote against a video during the last two weeks of the contest. These votes ensure the whole community can participate in voting, and encourage other members of the community to become involved in the voting process. Basic membership enables standard voting to select a winning video but does not carry any entitlement to prize money.
However, if a user registers as a Premium Member, there are two ways their votes can win cash prizes on ShowMe.tv. Firstly, they can buy up to 100 Super Votes at £1 each, to place against a video in a contest. Unlike standard votes, this can be repeated across as many competitors in a contest as the member wishes.
At the end of a contest, premium members that have voted on a winning video will receive a prize, valued at a multiple of the Super Votes they placed. The multiple is defined based on the total number of votes in the competition and those of the winning videos.
The second voting option is through the Jackpot game, which is harder to win, but offers bigger prizes. Open in the second week of voting, voters guess the final ranking of the first five participants in a contest, by creating a top five list. The Jackpot is activated in the second week of voting when the specified number of entries is met for that contest, this ensures it is always played on the best videos. Voters can buy a £1 top five list with their forecast; there is no limit to the number of lists that can be bought. The amount collected by ShowMe is accrued contest after contest until there is a winner. Where there are multiple winners, the Jackpot is split equally.
External sponsors will be allowed on the ShowMe.tv site in the future, offering additional opportunities for engagement with brands and rewards for our members.
About ShowMe.TV
Formed in early 2010, ShowMe Ltd is a social entertainment network that drives social, interactive engagement across a range of online contests with the aim of attracting both participants and voters to participate directly with their videos while presenting both with the opportunity of winning prize money.
ShowMe encourages individuals to enter contests across four key categories; Radical Playground – Sports, Beauty Island – Beauty, Donkey Circus – Pranks and Jam Planet – Music, in the form of short video clips where they can express themselves, sharing their passions and interests with the community. However, in a unique twist, ShowMe also enables the traditionally unremunerated voter to place super votes upon the most appealing entry with the opportunity of financial reward should their selected video win the competition.
Recognising the increasing trend for people to express themselves via the media or online, the founders of ShowMe realised that there was much still to be done beyond the ‘download, upload, view and vote culture’ seen in the form of X-Factor, Big Brother, Pop Idol, Britain’s Got Talent and online via YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. This has helped to create the unique social entertainment network that is ShowMe.tv. What was missing was something really open to everybody but also rewarding and engaging.
Funded by H-Farm, an international venture capital and incubator, ShowMe launched in the UK in late July 2010.
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