While text messaging is popular, MMS has achieved slow growth. However, once people experience MMS for themselves, they can appreciate it so much more.

So to encourage usage, we launched a themed promotion titled ‘Shoot Your Animal’.Optus traditionally uses animals in their ads, however this promotion would position the consumer as the animal. Customers were invited to take a picture of someone they knew who either resembled or behaved like an animal, and send it in via MMS.The major prize, an African safari, also tied into the competition theme, and offered a real incentive for people to trial MMS.

This campaign was a great success. There were over 8,200 unique visitors to shootyouranimal.com, and over 2,000 entries into the competition itself. The competition received over 270,000 votes, and 31% of approved entries published online were ‘sent to a friend’ via WAP push (sent from web to mobile).During the promotion there was a 4% increase in active MMS users across the Optus mobile customer base.Overall, this campaign allowed us to communicate the spontaneity and fun of using MMS. Customers got used to how it worked, and could ultimately identify occasions when they could use it in the future.