Rugby is New Zealand's national game, and Telecom Mobile wanted to feed this obsession last winter, using Run The Red's proven trivia question format which was initially developed for the hugely successful America's Cup text messaging competition.

The game involved sending trivia questions on rugby - past and present - directly to Telecom Mobile's 025 and G027 networks. The campaign attracted 7500 registered users, 5500 daily players and generated 500,000 responses. Players accumulated points by answering the questions correctly.

As the player progressed through their bonus questions the points received for correct answers increased and accumulated in their personal account, which was monitored by Run The Red. The more questions answered, the more chance of winning.

Players could also text to exclusive short-code 1212 to access their personal account, check on how many points they had, request more bonus questions, or unsubscribe from the competition.

At registration stage users were asked to nominate their favourite Super 12 team. The progress of these teams (judged by accumulated points gained by all users in the team) was monitored on a web site dedicated to the SMS campaign. Here players could check who was winning what and how widespread support was for their team.

The prize pool was extensive, with daily prize draws published on the web site. Prize draws were performed by Run The Red random generator software, and distributed by Telecom Mobile. The grand prize draw was similarly selected, and announced on-line. In addition to this, all GO27 participants were sent an exclusive All Black text informing them (ahead of public announcement) of the players to make the 2003 squad.

 "From Telecom Mobile's perspective it was a great platform to promote the Telecom brand as an active and committed sponsor and supporter of New Zealand rugby," says Telecom Mobile sponsorship manager Scott Sargentina. "The GO27 network was actively promoted as the premier brand of Telecom Mobile and we continue to build a committed and enthusiastic mobile community."

The Super 12 Text Match Fever game was Run The Red's third SMS campaign for Telecom Mobile and the company is cementing its position as an innovative and leading developer of SMS applications.

"We continue to learn and be excited by the potential of this medium," said Run The Red's Ben Northrop. "We're currently in discussions with a UK-based company who are keen to utilise the potential of SMS to offer an exciting new service to their customers and we've also had talks with several US-based companies."

For information on RunTheRed, contact
Ben Northrop
+64 4 384 6880 
ben.northrop@runthered.com

July 2003