Alltel Wireless is calling on college students to campaign for the chance to win a football experience—having a game of their own.
The My Own Game promotion launched across 12 of its partner universities asking students to submit essays of 50 words or less on the theme of Why I Deserve My Own Game. Campuses, including the University of Florida, North Carolina State University and the University of New Mexico, will participate.
Ten finalists will be selected at each of the 12 schools for a chance to win the grand prize, a Samsung HDTV and MP3 player, a college football game named in their honor and tickets to that game for the winner and 10 friends.
The 10 finalists are being revealed at pep rallies at each school. Ten Alltel brand ambassadors, some with TV T-shirts airing Alltel ads, tout the company’s services at the rallies. The finalists compete to have the biggest circle of friends, family and classmates to cast text message votes for them (the candidate’s unique key word to 123456 on Alltel phones) or online votes in their favor at AlltelVote.com.
Alltel provides each finalist with campaign tools including a Schwinn mountain bike to crisscross campuses to cull votes, a Samsung phone and their own Web page on the contest’s AlltelVote.com Web site. The finalist who garners the most votes the first day of the voting period wins $1,000. Students with the most votes during the entire voting period win that school’s grand prize.
Each of the 12 winners will have a college football game day named in their honor. Their name will be featured on stadium signage and billboards and vocalized through PA announcements. They will also receive VIP treatment that complements the traditions of that college.
“It’s really important for us to use any promotion platform we have to drive consideration of Alltel,” said Samira Zebian, director of sponsorship marketing, Alltel. “We’re trying to elevate awareness of our brand and we wanted to reinforce the benefit of My Circle which is at the core of everything we’re doing.”
Alltel’s My Circle calling plan launched in April. The service allows its customers to choose 10 friends across wireless cell phone carriers who they can call for free. The company turned to college campuses to promote the service because “we have this great relationship with them and we want to make sure we maximize those benefits and deliver against those opportunities,” Zebian said.
As part of the promotion, between 5,000 and 20,000 branded foam fingers will be handed out at each of the winner’s game day. In addition, participants who cast their votes for students are automatically entered into a separate drawing for prizes from Samsung including an HDTV, DVD camcorder and a MP3 player.
For the call to action, Alltel tapped student groups and advertised in school publications to get the word out. The last student-named game day will be held Nov. 25 at Florida State University.
Jack Morton Worldwide, Chicago, is the lead agency for the campaign; Campbell-Ewald’s Detroit office developed the microsite; GMR Marketing, Charlotte, handles the sweeps; Alan Taylor Communications, Charlotte, handles p.r.
Network
