Millers Blog : Baby child contest

Another Terrific Year!

Julie Brown — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:21:00 GMT

We just closed out another terrific year of the Miller’s Baby & Child Contest! We once again shattered previous submission records with 11,426 portraits entered in this year’s contest, and with your help, sent eighty beautiful images into the Final Round to be voted on by our esteemed panel of judges. They’re working hard right now to determine the 2009 Grand Prize winners, which will be announced by the end of the month. This year’s panel includes:

Elizabeth & Trey Homan of San Antonio, TX
Brianna Graham of Rockford, MI
Dave Huntsman of Versailles, KY
TriCoast Photography of Lake Jackson, TX
Michael & Tina Timmons of Vassar, MI
Peg Buckner of Fallon, NV
Fran Reisner of Frisco, TX
Damon Tucci of Orlando, FL
Jessica Vogel of Shelbyville, KY

Thanks to our panel for sharing their time and expertise with us. If you haven’t had a chance to view the qualifying images, check them out here. Again, we appreciate all who participated in the 2009 Baby & Child Contest and look forward to announcing the winners very soon – stay tuned!

Round 2 Voting - Ends Tonight

Julie Brown — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:37:00 GMT

Tonight is your last chance to vote on Round 2 of our Baby & Child Portrait Contest. Vote now here.

Check the website tomorrow for Round 2 winners. We'll also begin accepting entries for Round 3 of the contest then.

Complete details on the 2009 Baby & Child Portrait Contest are here. Good luck to all who have entered!

Round 2 Contest Posting Ends Tonight!

Julie Brown — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:50:00 GMT

Round 2 of the Miller’s Baby & Child Contest is quickly coming to an end! The posting period closes tonight at midnight CDT. Enter your portraits here by the end of the day to participate. Tomorrow, at noon, we’ll open the Contest back up for voting. You'll have until April 30th to log in and vote for your favorites. Good luck to all!

Oh Baby!

Julie Brown — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:29:00 GMT

We kick off Round 1 of the Miller’s Baby & Child Contest on March 1. To participate, simply post your images here starting Sunday. You have up until midnight on March 21 to enter the first round. Once the posting session has closed, we’ll open the contest for voting, asking for your help in determining this year’s winners. To learn more, visit How It Works. Good luck to all!

2009 Baby & Child Portrait Contest

Jason Becking — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:27:00 GMT

Miller's is once again sponsoring our Baby & Child Portrait Contest. Entries will again be accepted in four different qualifying rounds, the first three weeks of March, April, May, and June. Miller's provides cash prizes to the families in the winning portraits.

Contest entry and initial judging will again be online. According to both the number of entries and the number of votes, that seemed to work wonderfully for both us and our customers last year. Winners were selected from 10,648 entries with nearly 3 million (yes, million) votes cast.

For help in marketing the contest in your community, visit the Marketing Materials section of the contest area. We have some free downloads available plus instructions on how to receive discounted printing prices for any of these materials. Contest rules and additional information is available here.

Best of luck on your entries, and most importantly, we hope it helps your portrait bookings!

Winners Crowned!

Julie Brown — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:50:00 GMT

With thousands upon thousands of beautiful images entered into the Miller’s 2008 Baby & Child Contest, we wondered if we’d ever be able to narrow the entries down and crown just one Grand Prize winner. Well, thanks to you, plus our panel of esteemed judges, the 2008 Baby & Child Contest winners have been named! Each winner has received a studio sample of their image, and we’ll now be giving cash prizes to the families of the winning portraits. Congratulations to this year's winners and thanks to all who participated!

View the Grand Prize Winner below. To see all winners, click here.

Grand Prize: $5,000 Winner

Stickin’ Together by Photography by Lori

WOW…

Julie Brown — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:26:00 GMT

With Round 4 of the Miller’s Baby & Child Contest now over, we just had to say thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s online contest. We were amazed by the high level of participation – 10,648 images entered and close to 3,000,000 votes cast – wow! Now that Round 4 is complete, all eighty qualifying images are being submitted to our esteemed panel of judges. Together, our panel of renowned photographers will help determine the winners, including the overall Grand Prize winner of the contest. This year’s judges include:

Tom Bagby of Russellville, Arkansas
Cary Garrison of Edmond, Oklahoma
Jen Hollis of Mission, Texas
Susan Michal of Jacksonville, Florida
Heidi Miller of Lewiston, California
Jacklyn Patterson of Wewoka, Oklahoma
Bryan White of Cumming, Georgia

We appreciate this group taking time out of their busy schedules to help us crown this year’s winners! Take a minute to check out the Baby & Child Contest to see what images have qualified for the Final Round, and stay tuned – Final Round winners will be announced by the end of July.

Baby & Child Contest - Ends Tonight

Julie Brown — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:14:00 GMT

This year’s Baby & Child Contest is quickly coming to a close! With over 10,000 images submitted in the 2008 contest, tonight is your last chance to participate. Log in to the Baby & Child Contest by midnight and vote for your Round 4 favorites. We’ll post Round 4 winners tomorrow, and our esteemed panel of photographers will then step in to judge our Final, Grand Prize Round. Click here to begin voting or to view previous Round winners.

Round 3 Posting of the Baby & Child Contest Ends Tonight

Julie Brown — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:24:00 GMT

Round 3 of the Baby & Child Contest is almost over! The posting period ends tonight at midnight CST. Voting will then start at noon tomorrow and run through May 31^st. Be sure to log in and vote for your favorites.

In case you were curious, participation for this year’s contest has been outstanding so far. Here are just a few stats for Rounds 1 & 2:

Round 1 – 2,121 images posted with 800,000 votes cast. View Round 1 Winners
Round 2 – 2,914 images posted with 825,000 votes cast. View Round 2 Winners

Round 2 Winners of the Miller’s Baby & Child Contest

Julie Brown — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:54:00 GMT

With two rounds of the Miller’s Baby & Child Contest now complete, we’ve had 5,035 images submitted and close to two million votes cast. We’ve seen a diverse group of images entered so far with truly fantastic portraits moving on to the Final Round. Check out the top-forty winning images on the Miller’s Baby & Child Contest site.

View Round 1 Winners

View Round 2 Winners

Don’t miss your chance to take part in this year’s contest! The posting period for Round 3 started on May 1^st and will continue through May 21^st. To find out more, visit the How It Works section of the Baby & Child Contest site.

Round 2 of the Baby & Child Contest Ends Tonight!

Julie Brown — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:30:00 GMT

If you haven’t had a chance to vote for your favorite Round 2 entries in the Baby & Child Contest, you have until midnight tonight. Tomorrow we'll announce the winners for Round 2 on the Contest site. All twenty will move on to compete in the Final Round in July. Visit the Baby & Child Contest site now to participate.

Don't forget...the posting period for Round 3 also starts tomorrow, May 1st, and continues through May 21st. Good luck!

Round 1 Winners Just Announced

Julie Brown — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:49:00 GMT

After much anticipation, Round 1 winners of the 2008 Baby & Child Contest were posted this morning. We had over 2100 images entered into the first round and over 800,000 votes cast. Thanks to all who participated! The top five portraits with the most votes from each category will go on to compete in the Final Round, held in July. The winners will also receive a studio sample of the selected image. Check out the Baby & Child Contest site to view the winners, or to begin posting your entries for Round 2.

Happy Leap Year, Baby

Jason Becking — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:44:00 GMT

A quick reminder that we'll begin accepting entries for the Baby & Child Portrait Contest starting tomorrow, March 1. All customers will have an opportunity to help in the judging this year, so please read the details here.

Happy February 29!

Marketing the Baby & Child Contest in Your Community

Julie Brown — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:47:00 GMT

We’ve made quite a few changes to the 2008 Baby & Child Contest, but the main goal remains the same – helping you bring sessions through your door during the slower season. We’ve got a couple of ideas to get you started with marketing the contest in your own community:

Order postcards and posters advertising the contest. We’re offering several templates this year, including a couple that allow you to drop in your own images. To order, log in and click on Order Materials.

Try some ideas used by Crystal McWhirt from The Crystal Image – Winner of the 2007 Baby & Child Contest Marketing Category. She rented billboard space and updated her studio website with information about the contest. She distributed calendars and flyers throughout her community, including high-end daycares, children’s clothing and gift boutiques, and the children’s section of the public library. She also worked with a local pizzeria, sending flyers out with pizza deliveries to targeted family neighborhoods. Here are just a few of her marketing pieces from last year.

Of course, we know you’ve got some great marketing ideas too and would love to hear them!

Coming Soon - Miller's 2008 Baby & Child Portrait Contest

Julie Brown — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:36:00 GMT

We’ve revolutionized the 6^th Annual Miller’s Baby & Child Portrait Contest, taking it online so that all of you can help determine the winners. To participate, all you have to do is post images to our NEW Miller’s contest site, then vote for your favorites. The contest begins March 1^st! For more details, click here.