In the absence of mass media, our objective was to generate awareness for LG’s new “QWERTY” (full keyboard) handset, the enV. Our solution was to stage two consumer events designed to trigger product-centric national media coverage: The LG National Texting Championship. The program was also designed to enable LG to “own” the behavior of texting among the valuable 13-24 U.S. consumer. At the events, consumers raced to accurately transcribe and “text” phrases on their LG handsets. Ultimately, the LG National Texting Champion was crowned and awarded $25,000. The winner immediately embarked on a highly successful whirlwind media tour.

The LG National Texting Championship events were pre-promoted through a variety of channels including newspaper, radio, online (a micro-site, search engine marketing, banner campaign, email effort), street team marketing and retailer point-of-sale materials. This support boosted event attendance but also effectively advertised the enV handset.To bolster media coverage the actual events were designed to be a high-energy fusion of a hot rock concert and a splashy movie premiere crossed with a heavyweight boxing title bout. The winner of the event, the LG National Texting Championship, was deployed on a national media tour immediately after the event.