Multi-Level Competition/Game, Talent, and Award Show Productions Systems, Methods and Apparatus

Abstract

A multi-level competition includes a competition between on-stage competition content, a competition between off-stage judges, and a competition between at-home players. The competition content (e.g., multiple television advertisements, singing contestants, etc.) is provided to at-home players, who provide a rating for each content offering and rank the content offerings. At a later time, a group of off-stage judges view the competition content, provide a rating for each content offering, and rank the content offerings. One or more accurate responses are identified by a control which may be, for example, a target demographic. A winning content offering is identified based on the one or more accurate responses. The off-stage judges and at-home players are ranked based on whether their ratings/rankings are in sync with the control, Winners may be selected from each of the group of off-stage judges and the group of at-home players.

1 . A method of conducting a multi-level competition, comprising:
 providing competition content to a focus group, wherein the competition content includes a plurality of content offerings and the focus group includes a plurality of participants;   receiving rating and ranking information from each participant in the focus group for each content offering in the competition conte   providing the competition content to a judging group, wherein the judging group includes a plurality of judges;   receiving rating and ranking information om each judge in the judging group for each content offering in the competition content;   receiving one or more control responses from a control;   selecting a winning content offering from the competition content based on the one or more control responses;   ranking each judge in the judging group by comparing the ranking information received from each judge with the one or more control responses;   ranking one or more participants from the focus group by comparing the ranking information received from each participant with the one or more control responses; and   selecting one or more winners from the focus group based on the ranking of the one or more participants.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 selecting the judge having the highest ranking as a winning judge.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 ranking the one or more participants by comparing the rating information received from each participant with the one or more control responses.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein ranking the one or more participants comprises:
 assigning a point value to each participant based on a similarity between the participant's ranking information and the one or more control responses; and   ranking one or more participants based on the point values for each participant.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein ranking the one or more participants further comprises:
 awarding a point value to each participant based on a similarity between the participant's ranking information and the one or more control responses;   awarding a further point value to each participant based on a similarity between the participant's rating information and the one or more control responses; and   ranking one or more participants based on the point values awarded to each participant.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 selecting the participant having the highest ranking as a grand prize winner.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the control includes a plurality of control members, and a control response is the content offering having the highest rank from a largest percentage of control members. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the control includes a plurality of control members, and a control response is an average control rating determined by averaging the rating information received from the control members for a content offering. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , the control is a target demographic. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the competition content is provided to a focus group via an interactive website. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the rating and ranking information from least one participant is received via an interactive website. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the competition content is provided to a focus group via a mobile interface unit. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the mobile interface unit is a mobile telephone. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the mobile interface unit is a wi-fi accessible unit. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the rating and ranking information from at least one participant is received via a mobile interface unit. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the competition content includes a first plurality of content offerings and a second plurality of content offerings, the first plurality of content offerings including attraction content and the second plurality of content offerings including advertising content. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of content offerings includes different but related content offerings. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the competition content includes a plurality of performances by one or more contestants. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving rating and ranking information from each participant comprises receiving information identifying the ranking of competition content from a participant's most favorite to least favorite content offering within the competition content. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving rating and ranking information from each participant comprises receiving a numerical assignment for each content offering from each participant. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more control responses are not revealed until after a participant rating and ranking submission deadline has passed. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the competition content is provided to a judging group after a participant rating and ranking submission deadline has passed. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the control is a subset of the plurality of participants. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the control is selected by an advertiser associated with one or more of the content offerings in the competition content. 
     
     
         25 . A system for conducting a multi-level competition, comprising:
 a web server configured to provide competition content to a focus group over an electronic network and receive rating and ranking information over the electronic network from each participant in the focus group for each content offering in the competition content, wherein the competition content includes a plurality of content offerings and the focus group includes a plurality of participants;   a viewing apparatus configured to provide the competition content to a judging group, wherein the judging group includes a plurality of judges; and a scoring module configured to:   receive rating and ranking information from each judge in the judging group for each content offering in the competition content;
 receive one or more control responses from a control; 
 receive the rating and ranking information from each participant in the focus group from the web server; 
 select a winning content offering from the competition content based on the one or more control responses; 
 rank each judge in the judging group by comparing the ranking information received from each judge with the one or more control responses; 
 rank one or more participants from the focus group by comparing the ranking information received from each participant with the one or more control responses; and 
   a selection module configured to select one or more winners from the focus group based on the ranking of the one or more participants.   
     
     
         26 . A system for conducting a multi-level competition, comprising:
 an interactive website configured to provide competition content to a focus group over an electronic network and receive scoring information over the electronic network from each participant in the focus group, wherein the competition content includes a plurality of content offerings and the focus group includes a plurality of participants;   
       a scoring apparatus configured to receive scoring information for each content offering from a set of judges and the plurality of participants, receive one or more control responses from a control, and compare the one or more control responses with the scoring information to produce a set of judge scores and a set of participant scores; and 
       a selection apparatus configured to select a winning content offering from the competition content based on the one or more control responses, rank each edge in the judging group based on the judge scores, and rank one or more participants from the focus group. 
     
     
         27 . A multi-level competition, comprising:
 a focus group element wherein a plurality of participants receive competition content and rank content offerings within the competition content;   a judging element wherein a plurality of judges receive the competition content and rank the content offerings; and   a reveal element, wherein:
 a winner among the content offerings is determined based on a selection made by a control; 
 a winner among the plurality of judges is determined based on a comparison of each judge's rank of the content offerings to the selection made by the control; and 
 a winner among the plurality of participants is determined based on a comparison of each participant's rank of the content offerings to the selection made by the control. 
   
     
     
         28 . A multi-level competition, comprising:
 a focus group element wherein a plurality of participants receive competition content and rank content offerings within the competition content;   a judging element wherein a plurality of judges receive the competition content and rank the content offerings; and   a reveal element, wherein control answers determined by a control group are revealed and compared with the rankings from the plurality of participants and the rankings from the plurality of judges.   
     
     
         29 . A multi-level reality television production, comprising:
 a content competition among a plurality of competition content offerings;   a judging competition among a plurality of judges receiving the plurality of competition content offerings; and   a participant competition among a plurality of participants receiving the plurality of competition content offerings.   
     
     
         30 . The production of  claim 29 , wherein:
 a winner in the judging competition is a judge in the plurality of judges who makes a content offering selection similar o a content offering selection made by a control.   
     
     
         31 . The production of  claim 29 , wherein a winner in the participant competition is a participant in the plurality of participants who makes a content offering selection similar to a content offering selection made by a control. 
     
     
         32 . A method advertising, comprising:
 providing a plurality of competition content sets to a plurality of participants in a focus group, wherein the plurality of competition content sets includes an attraction content set and an advertisement content set;   receiving ranking information from each participant in the focus group, wherein the ranking information from each participant includes a ranting of each attraction in the attraction content set and a rating of each advertisement in the advertisement content set;   receiving a control ranking for each attraction in the attraction content set and for each advertisement in the advertisement content set;   providing the plurality of competition content sets to a plurality of judges;   receiving ranking information from each judge, wherein the ranking information from each judge includes a ranking of each attraction in the attraction content set and a rating of each advertisement in the advertisement content set;   comparing the ranking information from each judge with the control rankings to determine one or more winning judges; and   comparing the ranking information from each participant with the control rankings to determine one or more winning participants.   
     
     
         33 . A method of conducting a multi-level competition, comprising:
 providing one or more content sets to a plurality of participants, each content set including a plurality of related content offerings;   selecting, by each participant in the plurality of participants, a favorite content offering in each content set;   providing the one or more content sets to a plurality of judges;   selecting, by each judge in the plurality of judges, a favorite content offering in each content set;   receiving, from a control, the control's favorite content offering in each content set;   awarding points to each participant in the plurality of participants based on how well the participant's favorite content offering in each content set matches the control's favorite, content offering in each content set,   awarding points to each judge in the plurality of judges based on how well the judge's favorite content offering in each content set matches the control's favorite content offering in each content set;   identifying one or more winning judges based on the points awarded to each judge;   identifying one or more winning participants in the plurality of Participants based on the points awarded to each participant; and   identifying one or more winning content offerings in one or more of the content sets based on the control's favorite content offering in the content set.   
     
     
         34 . A method of enabling an advertiser to pilot test content, comprising:
 providing a set of advertisements from the advertiser to a plurality of participants in a focus group;   receiving ranking information from each participant in the focus group, wherein the ranking information from each participant identities the participant's favorite advertisement in the set of advertisements;   receiving ranking information from a control for each advertisement in the set of advertisements, wherein the control is a target selected by the advertiser and the ranking information identifies the control's favorite advertisement in the set of advertisements;   providing e set of advertisements to a plurality of judges;   receiving ranking information from each judge, wherein the ranking information from each judge identities the judge's favorite advertisement in the set of advertisements;   comparing the ranking information from each judge with the ranking information from the control to determine one or more winning judges; and   comparing the ranking information from each participant with the control rankings to determine one or more winning participants.   
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein the control is a subset of the plurality of participants in the focus group. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein the control is a plurality of individuals in a target demographic selected by the advertiser. 
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 34 , further comprising:
 receiving rating information from each participant in the focus group, wherein the rating information from each participant assigns a numerical rating to each advertisement in the set of advertisements; and   receiving rating information from a control for each advertisement in the set of advertisements, wherein the rating information from the control assigns a numerical rating to each advertisement in the set of advertisements.   
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 34 , further comprising:
 providing feedback to the advertiser regarding the control's favorite advertisement in the set of advertisements.   
     
     
         39 . A method of conducting a multi-level competition, comprising:
 providing a first set of competition content users of social media sites, wherein each user is identified as associated with a particular social media site and the first set of competition content includes a plurality of content offerings;
 receiving rating nd ranking information from each user for each content offering in the first set of competition content, 
 receiving one or more control responses from a control; and 
 selecting a user from each social media site whose rating and ranking information is most similar to the one or more control responses from the control to be a judge in a multi-level competition. 
   
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 39 , further comprising:
 providing the competition content to the judges selected in the selecting step, wherein each judge represents a different social media site;   receiving rating and ranking information from each judge for each content offering in a second set of competition content;   receiving one or more control responses from a control;   selecting a winning content offering from the second set of competition content based on the one or more control responses;   ranking each judge by comparing the ranking information received from each judge with the one or more control responses; and   
       selecting a winning judge based on the ranking of each judge. 
     
     
         41 . A method of conducting a multi-level competition, comprising:
 providing, using a computer, competition content to a participant group, wherein the competition content includes a plurality of content offerings and the participant group includes a plurality of participants;   receiving rating information from each participant in the participant group for each content offering in the competition content;   providing the competition content to a judging group, wherein the judging group includes a plurality of judges;   receiving information from each judge in the judging group for each content offering in the competition content;   receiving rating information from a control for each content offering in the competition content;   ranking each content offering from the competition content based on a portion of the received rating information;   ranking each judge in the judging group based on a portion of the received rating information; and   ranking one or more participants from the participant group based on a portion of the received rating information.