1. The New Website
The old Miss World website was totally an understatement for the oldest and the prestigious Grand Slam pageant. It was pale compared to its key rival, Miss Universe, website and even Miss Earth, a relatively newbie pageant compared to Miss World long history, has better layout for their website. Thanks God, the people behind Miss World Organization has finally realized the importance of having a proper website and make a huge revamp this year. The website now has a better visual layout (though there is still room for improvement) and more importantly becomes more informative and easier to navigate. And as a nod to the emerging role of social media, the website also integrates all Miss World social accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) into one place, a great move which makes the website becomes more interactive as well. So far we are satisfied with the concept of the new website and looking forward for future improvements.
2. The Multimedia Award
What makes a show running is the existence and the enthusiasm of its fans. Without fans, a show would die. Miss World is certainly aware of this and in an unprecedented move, they decided to run a new event this year, the Multimedia Award. As such, each contestant will be given her own official Facebook and Twitter account and asked to tell the story of their Miss World days to the fans by uploading photos, videos, and messages. Even more exciting, whoever turns out as the best social media storyteller would be given bonus points towards her final Scoreboard, a nice incentive to push the girls to post, tweet, and upload their everyday experiences. As it turns out, the Multimedia Award works really well for both sides. Miss World and its contestants enjoy a great coverage through the use of social media. While for the fans, it would be a lot easier now to follow and support the journey of their favorite contestants plus it is more exciting because the story comes personally from the contestants themselves. Therefore, more and more fans will be invested to follow Miss World coverage.
3. The Opening Number
The Chinese are known for their spectacular shows. If you are still doubtful about that fact, just take a look at 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony, and you will become a believer. So naturally, when a pageant is held in China and they held an Opening Ceremony for the pageant, it would be, in one word, spectacular! Miss World 2012 Opening Ceremony totally lives up to its hype. Set in a grandiose stage, with hundreds of talented performers, ultra sophisticated LED backgrounds, and amazing array of colorful costumes, Miss World 2012 Opening Ceremony is totally full of pomp and pageantry. Just seeing the pictures from the ceremony has already wowed us and we can't wait to see highlights of the ceremony during the final this Saturday.
4. The Dunes Filming
Inner Mongolia is known for its breathtaking sandy dunes, and Miss World smartly took an advantage of this beautiful setting by doing the filming for their opening number at that very place. Adorned in traditional Mongolian royalty dress, the contestants look so captivating as they grace and line up against the endless sand for the filming. Even more interesting, they add some camels to the shoot and we are totally treated to a nomadic, Silk Road style, opening numbers for the final.
5. The World Designers
For long time, Miss World has been known for its glamorous taste of fashion. But this year they up their game by involving two notable international fashion designers into the pageant. The first one, Graeme Black is the Creative Director of ERDOS 1436, who has worked with some of the top names in fashion world, including John Galliano, Giorgio Armani, Salvatore Ferragamo and Hugo Boss. He specifically provides his collection for Top Model challenge event. The other one is Dany Tabet, a Lebanese designer who has won World Fashion Designer Award in 2009. He provides his Aisha beachwear collection as the official swimsuit for Beach Fashion challenge event. With the expertise of these two designers, Miss World 2012 surely will become a fiesta for fashion enthusiasts.
6. The Goddesses
What is a pageant without beautiful women. To speak the truth, we crave pageants because we are attracted to beauty. And if beauty is what you are looking form Miss World 2012 is the perfect place to seek. In one of the strongest batch ever in the history of beauty pageants, Miss World 2012 is roamed by beautiful women from all over the world.Goddesses are virtually here, there, everywhere. The only negative side from this galore of beauties is our job of creating Leaderboard becomes a lot more stressful and difficult!
7. The Return of Scoreboard
We love the scoreboard! it is one of the best scoring system ever introduced in the pageant and we are glad to learn its comeback for 2012 edition. Now even better than ever, the scoreboard will include 2 new challenge events along with the old 5 challenge events and the interview. We can't wait to see the moment the scoreboard unveiled and learn which countries has made the cut on 18 August. Surely it would be very suspenseful and exciting at the same time!
Stay tuned for Miss World 2012 Grand Final on 18 August 2012!
