We developed an interactive SMS game for TV. To reflect the ‘live’ feel of ‘24’, we decided to produce live ads via satellite — with no broadcast delay. Viewers had to guess the outcome of 24-second challenges, and SMS was the only way to enter. To harness word-of-mouth and press publicity, the challenges bordered on the bizarre. One featured a local infomercial queen with a chainsaw. Another featured the New Zealand cricket wicket keeper. The winners were revealed on air within minutes, and the ads were built around templates to allow them to be modified each week. This format was a world-first.

These results are based on the six live challenges that appeared after 04 March 2002. The average weekly audience for ‘24’ was 159,944. Of these, 44,784 were Vodafone customers. Around 70% of Vodafone customers are text users. That gives us 31,349 potential respondents. On average, 6,692 people entered per week (many sending multiple entries). That is a response rate of over 21%. Hamish Wilkie, Vodafone Consumer Marketing Manager, said: “V24 created tremendous positive publicity for Vodafone and strengthened our competitive advantage. The results are all the more extraordinary given the 20c cost of sending each SMS.”