3: Seriously Social Party Competition
by Chloe Rollinson
“Can’t repeat the past?...Why, of course you can!”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Well, ‘F’, we had a competition winner with £25,000 who took your words as gospel and put on the party of a lifetime for the culmination of 3’s Seriously Social Facebook competition.
The Brief:
Amplify, in partnership with digital agency Glue, was set the challenge of building a prospecting database for 3 Mobile two weeks prior to the launch of its then top secret INQ1 handset - the first fully integrated social media handset.
It was so top-secret we weren’t even allowed to release its name or key details. So instead we focused on its super social capability – launching a search to find those Facebook users who would be the most likely to want to buy it when it was officially released. We launched a search to find for the most ‘Seriously Social’ - with the winner being rewarded with a £25k party of their dreams.
Week 1 – Launch:
‘3 Seriously Social’ invited young party planners, club promoters, students or just plain popular individuals from across the UK to submit their party manifesto, telling us how they would put on their dream party with a pot of £25k. We asked them to tell us in 100 words or less, what their night would entail.
This was seeded through student unions and lifestyle sites 4 Clubbers, Tilate, Data Transmission and Vice. This increased entries and created a buzz around the competition that spread organically beyond its home on Facebook to other social media sites Twitter, Bebo and Myspace.
Week 2 – Shortlisting & Voting:
The top 25 best ideas were selected and each shortlisted entry built a Facebook page displaying their party manifestos. Over the next two week the 25 party planners attracted as many fans to their page as possible, the entry with the most fans took the prize.
The Results:
In two weeks there were 58,000 Facebook sign-ups – achieving the key objective of building a database of warm contacts for future communications. The winner, Michael O’Shea, attracted over 18,000 fans to his page alone, proving himself truly ‘Seriously Social’.
The competition demonstrated the value in utilizing social media and how brands can get respected advocates from their target audience to do the talking for them – in this case the promoters. By doing this, 3 overcame the biggest hurdle facing brands, speaking directly to consumers in a natural, unforced way, meaning the message was far stronger than direct from a brand and it could reach areas normally not the reserve of brand activity.
The INQ1 handset has been a best-seller ever since – achieving both popular and industry acclaim. In February 2009 it won ‘handset of the year’ at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The Party:
Michael’s theme, ‘The Great Gatsby’, a lavish 1920/30’s style party as found in the novel of the same name, took place at the opulent, Grade II-listed townhouse No5 Cavendish Square in central London, the perfect backdrop for an evening of fine dining, comedy, swing, burlesque and gin based cocktails!
While the narrator of the novel comments: “on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house, I was one of the few guests who has actually been invited”, this wasn’t the case for this Gatsby party. Fans were selected at random and joined by the other 24 shortlisted entrants for a night of 30s style entertainment by acts including Fitzrovia Radio Hour, 52 Skidoo, The Correspondents, Bearded Kitten and burlesque dancers Vicky Butterfly and Kitty Bang Bang.
