Virgin Mobile undecided whether ‘Game of Phones’ will return in 2014
Virgin Mobile has not committed to bringing back the ‘Game of Phones‘ campaign next year, despite nearly 40,000 players taking part in it, and 14,500 people entering the telco’s stores as a result.
The campaign, a follow-up to the popular Fair Go Bro with Doug Pitt last year, launched in November and ran for just three weeks, challenging players to steal prizes from each other to become the ultimate champion.
“A lot of the customers who played the game are asking when we’ll be next running the promotion which I think is one of its great testaments to its success. But time will tell, we’re working through our strategy for next year,” Nicole Bardsley, director of Virgin Mobile’s brand and communications told Mumbrella.
“We never like to rest on our laurels and are always looking for the next innovative and creative thing we can bring to market but its a bit too soon to say what we’re doing for next year.”
Across the three weeks of the marketing initiative, 39,245 users played more than 64,942 sessions with the 531 prizes stolen 82,395 times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lENyn-6ZiuY&feature=youtu.be
“We managed to get close to 40,000 players to actually engage with the game, and they were actively playing it as well,” said Bardsley.
“It was a really engaging marketing initiative that had mobile first and at the heart of what we were trying to do because it gave us the opportunity to have an ongoing relationship with customers over that three weeks and really get them engaging with our brand.”
The telco is still assessing how many of the players were existing customers compared to non-customers, however it can determine the initiative drove more than 14,500 customers into a Virgin Mobile store, which were set up as safe houses where players could protect their prizes for a one-hour period.
The ultimate winner of ‘Game of Phones’ was existing Virgin Mobile customer and 27-year-old university student, Jaxson Bateman from Perth, who was rewarded with a $50,000 dream holiday prize package.
“It was a way of rewarding customers if they’re with us because some of the prizes were credit off your mobile bill, but it was also an opportunity to drive engagement with our brand with customers who might be with other providers and might reconsider and join Virgin mobile in the future,” said Bardsley.
Players attempting to claim their share of the $200,000 rewards spent the cumulative equivalent of more than five years with Sydneysiders the most engaged with the game.
Some of the stats from the promotion include:
- 39,245 active users played more than 64,942 sessions
- 14,568 players entered a ‘Safe House’ (Virgin Mobile store) to protect their loot for up to an hour at a time
- The 531 prizes were stolen 82,395 times; an average of 155 steals per prize
- 239,500 kilometres travelled by players carrying prizes
- The ‘Game of Phones’ launch video was viewed 191,045 times
- Sydneysiders were the most engaged with the game (44 per cent) followed closely by Melbourne residents (24 per cent)
The brand campaign was the first since the telco underwent a major brand refresh in August.
Credits:
- Concept Creation: One Green Bean & Havas Worldwide Australia
- App Management: One Green Bean
- ATL: Havas Worldwide Australia
- Digital Advertising Development: Havas Worldwide Australia
- Media Innovation & Partnership Management: Starcom
- Media Strategy, Amplification & Investment: Starcom
- PR & Social Media: One Green Bean
- App Design & Development: Locatrix
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