By Peter Berton

LOS ANGELES – Adult toy company Screaming O has invited the public to help choose the cover girl for its 2014 Scream Team calendar. By visiting a special page on the company’s website, surfers may vote for their favorite among the six beautiful, bikini-clad contestants. When they vote, fans automatically are entered to win a $200 gift box filled with Screaming O swag.

Always intrigued by clever marketing, YNOT.com convinced Screaming O spokeswoman Conde Aumann to give us a behind-the-scenes tour of the project.

YNOT.com: Why a calendar contest?

Conde Aumann: We produce a calendar every year. This year we decided to do something a little different and bring our fans into the boardroom to help with one of the most important decisions: choosing the cover girl. Simply visit a special page on our website to peruse the preview photos and make each vote count with just one click. Every first vote will get fans closer to winning a $200 gift box and the honor of helping The Screaming O celebrate swimsuit season all year long.

Since word is already spreading online like wildfire, the Screaming O has posted an exclusive behind-the-scenes video featuring the models getting drenched as photographers snap away. It was hard not to get hot and bothered on set — literally; it was 99 degrees outside — but our models made it look super-cool. You can check it out on YouTube.

What inspired the contest?

Our fans have great taste and love to send us feedback about our products, so we thought it’d be fun to get them involved in this year’s calendar. The cover is the most coveted spot, of course, so what better way to choose the cover girl than to ask which model is our fans’ favorite?

To thank everyone for participating, we created the Vote to Win contest, so every fan gets a chance to win a massive swag bag filled with sex toys and other Screaming O goodies. It’s also a fun and interactive way to help promote our brand online through social media to further support our online retailers. Our goal is to inspire shoppers to search for Screaming O products by name and help boost online sales with fun and fresh promotions like this.

The voting deadline is tight, right?

Yes. Voting began Sept. 30, and fans must cast their final votes by midnight Pacific Time on Oct. 6. One lucky winner will be selected at random and notified via the submitted email address with a request for shipping address and information. Offer is null and void if not responded to within 30 days of receipt of email notification.

Who are the hard-working models?

It never feels like work when you have this much fun, especially when you get to work with a talented and professional team. The Screaming O would like to thank 2013 Playboy Playmate Kristen Sanne, Gemma Farrell, Mercedes Terrell and the rest of our 2014 Screaming O Calendar models: Katelynn Ansari, CJ Gibson, Sydney Maler, Danielle Ruiz and Shawna Welch.

What level of buzz do you hope to achieve with this contest?

The highest level possible, of course! Not only are we promoting the contest to the Screaming O’s fan base, but each of our models also is asking her fans to vote for her. It’s a contest, after all!

With Instagram, Twitter and Facebook as part of our arsenal, we plan to reach fans across the country and get everyone excited to see who makes this year’s coveted cover.

What sort of response have you had so far?

We literally just launched the contest, so it’s too early to tell — but since voting ends Oct. 6 at midnight Pacific, we anticipate the buzz to start within a few hours.

When will the winner be announced?

We’ll announce the winner once he or she has been notified and confirmed.