A social media campaign? A team-based game? A contest for sweet prizes? For students all across Canada, the correct answer was all of the above.
What went down:
In Fall 2010, Virgin Mobile kicked off a nation-wide contest to get students engaged and buzzing about the brand. Timed to coincide with their back-to-school product launch, the idea was to create a social platform where students could team up and work together to complete challenges, unlock prizes, build online profiles and compete for votes. Finalists received sweet gear from Samsung and Virgin Mobile, and the grand prize winner scored free rent for a year!
Teehan+Lax got the chance to be involved right from the start, laying the strategic groundwork, and crafting the social and game mechanics that ultimately defined the experience. Our job was to create something that was simple and fun—that pulled people in and motivated them to explore, collaborate and creatively reach out to their friends for support.
How it played out
The result was an event that exceeded expectations, and demonstrated the power of consumer experiences that are profoundly social. Across Canada, over 1300 student teams of up to five housemates got involved, completing over 2000 challenges and 8600 unique votes from friends in their social networks.
Results
During the contest, Virgin Mobile saw their monthly growth rate for both Facebook fans and Twitter followers double. But the best outcome of all was how much fun teams had finding creative ways to promote themselves. Students hit the streets, created fake news casts, dressed up their houses and used social media in new and surprising ways—reinforcing and enhancing Virgin Mobile’s young-at-heart brand.
And the winner is…
Out of 1362 teams that partcipated this year, Club 1700 won the top spot. Earning them free rent for a year and a ton of Samsung swag. Specifically, a TV, Laptop, Blu-Ray Player, a digital camcorder, a computer monitor, a theatre system, a digital camera, a robotic vacuum and a colour printer.
