KEY POINTS:
Tim Shadbolt deliberately cut down on dance rehearsals to plot his campaign and market himself as the Dancing With The Stars "no-hoper".
Shadbolt, the colourful mayor of Invercargill who bumbled and stumbled his way to the semifinals in the first season, said he deliberately spent more time promoting himself than practising dance moves.
Posters were put up in shops and flyers were sent by fax from the mayoral chambers, as he and partner Rebecca Nicholson performed in front of crowds at Otago University, Southland rugby and netball games and the Bluff Oyster Festival.
Likening the show to an election campaign, Shadbolt said his well-oiled publicity machine was a deliberate ploy to garner public sympathy - and the all-important votes - a tactic others have since adopted.
"Right from the beginning I said we're not going to spend too much time practising but we're going to spend a huge amount of time campaigning for votes," Shadbolt said.
"It was almost like an election campaign. My philosophy on life is that everything is about promotion. Marketing is the key. I've always had a love affair with that."
With Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws eliminated from the third series of the show last week, Shadbolt believed that Paul Holmes could capture the public's imagination and make the semifinals.
"You're only going to have one no-hoper make the top three. The no-hoper always goes well because it upsets people, it creates controversy."
Other contestants also freely admit that the popular television show is as much about winning the hearts and minds of the voting public - rather than actual talent.
Verbal jousts with judges, on-air radio plugs, shameless self-promotion instead of practice, as well as flyers and posters, have been revealed as deliberate tactics to garner support for less talented dancers.
Past winners, ex-All Black Norm Hewitt and former beauty queen Lorraine Downes, mixed natural talent with hard work and became media darlings as the show progressed.
In contrast, contestants such as Shadbolt and Rodney Hide danced with two left feet but managed to sidestep elimination until the final rounds, a feat which outraged many of the show's fans and even inspired hate mail.
Despite hosting a high-rating breakfast radio show with thousands of listeners, Holmes has resorted to posting flyers around his home suburb of Remuera and Southland during a recent visit.
The diminutive radio star and Herald on Sunday columnist said the show's format as a dance competition and popularity contest, was "intriguing". On-air plugs and neighbourhood posters aside, Holmes said the most effective exposure was achieved during the show - and for quick talking, not just quick stepping.
Holmes has verbally jousted with British judge Craig Revel-Horwood after being criticised, something he revealed as a deliberate strategy to entertain the audience.
"You have to remember to entertain," Holmes explained.
"The best campaigning you can do is how you dance and how you speak on the programme itself. Your whole exposure on that programme is very much your campaign for that week."
He believed the public initially backed the underdog with sympathy votes, supporting a struggling star who was trying to improve, but in the end superior dancing skills would be rewarded by the voters.
"But up until then the public likes to play a game.
"The show is a brilliant mystery. The dancing is a brilliant mystery. Why people vote as they do I don't really know. The public see an opportunity to reward humanity."
Hampered by broken toes and a self-confessed lack of natural ability, Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws was voted off last week after recording the lowest score in the show's history. Laws said he had decided not to make use of his high profile as a mayor and radio host to campaign for votes. "I'm not going to ask for people to vote for me if I can't dance. I didn't lobby at all, didn't make any trips or say vote for me," said Laws.
"If I had, yes of course, I could have stayed for another couple of rounds. In my view, that would have been an absolute travesty because there are better dancers than me who spend twice as many hours practising."
Former WINZ boss Christine Rankin was eliminated after the first round of the inaugural DWTS in 2005, despite displaying those famous long legs.
Connecting with the audience emotionally, saying the right things and appearing in public were all more important than actual talent, said Rankin. "It's a hell of lot more than just dancing. It's about selling yourself and getting the public involved. It's an entertainment show after all.
"Rodney was brilliant at campaigning."
Epsom MP and Act party leader Hide was incommunicado in China last week, but managed to make the semifinals of last season's show despite being compared to a "dancing potato".
At every opportunity, Hide danced in shopping malls and airports, gave television and print interviews, distributed flyers and seemed to thrive on garnering the public sympathy vote after stinging criticism from the judges.
The show's publicist, Corey Cooper, said the stars had no publicity obligations other than fronting up to media after being eliminated on the Tuesday night show.
He didn't believe contestants such as Holmes or Laws had an unfair advantage by plugging themselves on radio shows and reckoned that votes were split 50/50 on people supporting their favourite celebrity and those who could dance.
"We encourage everyone to campaign as much as possible," said Cooper. "Obviously everyone has fans, but I don't know if what they do for their day job really does affect the voting. I wouldn't say that 99 per cent of NewstalkZB listeners would vote for Paul."
Cooper compared that with fellow contestant Suzanne Paul, who has a high profile as an infomercial queen, but does not have her own media platform to plug herself.
"But by golly, she is incredibly popular."
