U.S. Cellular Scores With College Promotion

U.S. Cellular gathered the names of 500 prospects through an on-campus promotion designed to excite members of Generation Y about the wireless telephone brand and the hipness of text messaging.

The promotion, which ran on college campuses last fall, also generated a 15% to 20% lift in sales.

Called Dash 4 Cash, the effort involved giving cell phones to college students and directing them via text messages on a scavenger hunt across campus. First prize was $2,000.

Text messaging is using the cell's number pad to type in words that can then be transmitted — like an e-mail without a PC — to the person you are trying to reach. The recipient reads the message on the phone's screen.

Dash 4 Cash is part of an integrated campaign conducted over the last two years to reach Gen Y. Elements so far have included TV, cable, radio and campus events, but this was the first concentrated direct effort.

“We wanted to get them to interact with our brand in a little more depth than just reading something or seeing something on TV,” said Sherry Davenport, director of segment marketing at Chicago-based U.S. Cellular.

The carrier was promoting a bundled package developed for this demographic segment, which includes voice and text. The flat rate for the package is between $35 and $40 a month, depending on location.

Text messaging made sense because college kids are typically dashing off 20 to 30 messages a day to their friends, according to Jack Philbin, president of Vibes Media, an interactive mobile messaging company, which managed the campaign for U.S. Cellular.

“It added a ‘cool factor,’ Philbin explained. “The kids would feel that this company gets it. It speaks their language.”

The campaign ran for a month between September and October at 10 large campuses such as Iowa State, the University of Illinois, East Carolina University and others. Space ads in school newspapers, fliers and postcards advertised the event. Preregistration occurred at local clubs on each campus, where kids sipped non-alcoholic beverages while reviewing literature about the cell phone plan.

Game players would start off with a text message that might say, “The simplest way to wash your clothes without bringing them to mom.” Once arriving at the laundromat, they'd get another directive, and so on until they completed the scavenger circuit.

Some 500 participants registered and provided their names, addresses, e-mail address and telephone numbers. “We continually send e-mail to people who sign up for events like this and update them about what's new at U.S. Cellular,” Davenport said.

Philbin estimated that another 5,000 prospects were made aware of the promotion through the ads and watching their classmates participate in the hunt, which helped with U.S. Cellular's branding objective.