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As you can see from the top contests of January, the pro football season and the “big game” taking place Sunday, February 6th, is on everyone’s mind. The ever popular “Cutest Kids” and “Cutest Pets” made quite a few appearances in this list. If you haven’t planned for running both of those contests, be sure to add them to your list now!

Top 10 Registrations
1. Journal Sentinel‘s Packers Fan Hall of Fame
2. KXLT-TV’s Cutest Baby Contest
3. WXMI-TV’s Win an iMac
4. WCVQ-FM’s Q Wedding Giveaway
5. WLUK-TV’s Bridgeport Waterfront Resort Giveaway
6. Rockford Register Star‘s Cutest Baby Contest
7. NBC San Diego’s Win Rise Against Tickets
8. The Daily Telegram‘s Cutest Baby Contest
9. Fire Engineering’s Battle of the Bands
10. KTSP-TV’s Cutest Baby Contest

Top 10 Submissions
1. Las Vegas Review Journal‘s Big Game TV Giveaway
2. WGN-TV’s Cutest Couple Contest
3. Queens Courier‘s Best of the Boro
4. Pioneer Press‘ Treasure Hunt Medallion Contest
5. CityTV’s Bachelor Canada Casting Call
6. WPXI-TV’s Pittsburgh’s Best Pizza
7. KTSP-TV’s Cutest Baby Contest
8. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s Whisker Whirl’s Cutest Dog Contest
9. Journal Sentinel‘s G Force Packers Ticket Giveaway
10. KFMB-TV’s Live with Kelly in Hawaii

Top 10 Sweepstakes
1. Popular Woodworking‘s Workshop Makeover Giveaway
2. Creative Crafts Group‘s Fabric for Life
3. KSCW-TV’s Cash in with KSCW
4. Big Ten Network’s Men’s Basketball Tournament Promotion
5. ABC15′s iPad Giveaway
6. Chicago Sun-Times‘ Mega Money Mix Up
7. Scouting Magazine‘s The Cold Comfort Giveaway
8. ABC15′s Smart Shopper iPad Giveaway
9. Our State‘s Tourmaline Necklace from Wades Jewelers
10. WJBK-TV’s Gardner-White Dream Team Contest

Montana is home to two great universities: The University of Montana & Montana State University. Billings Gazette (Billings, MT) decided to capitalize on the rivalry between the Grizzlies & Bobcats by running this simple sweepstakes in which two fans will win tickets to the match up in November. What a simple, fantastic contest. Bonus points for having an opt-in for their Today’s Deal program on the submission page!

My Pet Rox the Black and Gold from WEZB-FM (New Orleans, LA) has the formula for a successful contest:

Football + Pets + Sponsors = Touchdown!

The pet with the most votes (vote count is currently over 100K!) helps their owner win 4 tickets to a game in the Saints Dome & more…all worth $1750!

Here’s what the winner scores:

- 4 tickets to the Jan 1st Black & Gold game!
- Plus a week at Camp Bow Wow Uptown
- $200 in Lakeside Shopping Center gift certificates
- $100 in pet food and clothes from Lakeside Pets
- $100 to The Melting Pot courtesy of Toyota of Slidell
- $100 to The Olive Branch courtesy of Toyota of Slidell

What a fantastic contest – it combines sports & pets, which are 2 of of our top 30 contest ideas!

“Biggest Fans” is one of the top contests categories run on UPICKEM. “Bolt Fever” from The San Diego Union-Tribune is a testament to why these contests are so popular. Appealing graphics, a topic that reaches a large audience and high participation make this contest a touchdown.

At last, football season has arrived! With that in mind, today I’d like to showcase an excellent football contest from Tribune Chronicle (Warren, OH). The paper is running 3 football contests: a local high school contest, top 15 college games, and the national pro game (run by Second Street). To make it easy for readers to enter, they created a landing page that promotes all three contests and is surrounded by sponsors’ ads. What a genius idea! Great work – we can’t wait to see the results of your contests.

Are you running a football contest that deserves a standing ovation? Let us know in the comments.

Read our August newsletter to find out what’s new at Second Street, including:

- Watch our “If You Like Facebook “Likes”, You’ll Love UPICKEM” webinar
- Learn about The Washington Post‘s super successful Papa John’s promotion
- Upcoming Football Webinars
- Our new Systems Administrator