SABC3 to launch interactive SMS loyalty campaign - 3BEE

Offering the chance to win loads of instant prizes, participation in 3BEE will be simple:

1. The 3BEE character (an animated television set), already introduced to SABC 3 viewers in a teaser campaign, will appear during selected programmes. This is the cue for viewers to use their cell-phones to SMS the text 3BEE to 34811.
2. Within split seconds, the viewer/text-sender will receive an SMS asking them a question relating to the programme currently being broadcast on SABC 3.
3. The viewer is required to answer the question by return SMS. If answered correctly, they will be automatically entered into the stakes to win an instant prize. The winner(s) will then be announced on-screen during SABC 3 programming within the next hour.

Viewers will stand a chance to win three times a night, seven days a week. The prizes at stake are valued up to R250,000, and range from appliances, cell-phones and vouchers to cars and overseas trips.

"We're very excited about 3BEE," says Savannah Williams, SABC 3 Marketing Manager. "Not only is the format of the programme unique in terms of loyalty programmes in South Africa, but it is also a novel means of interacting with our viewers. By using text technology, viewers are encouraged to watch SABC 3 and to interact with the channel by participating in the promotion. They're also enticed to stay tuned so as to find out if they have won a prize. What's more, the format of the programme gives us the means to encourage viewers to watch selected programmes, and to extrapolate the number of viewers from the entries received."

Confident that 3BEE will find strong acceptance in the market, Williams maintains that text messaging is very popular among the channel's target audience. "SMS is familiar territory to the vast majority of our viewers and is quick and easy to do," she says. "The capacity to integrate the mobile platform with other digital technologies will drive the quick turnaround time of each promotion, effectively giving viewers instant gratification for their loyalty to the channel."

While new to South Africa, the use of SMS technology for interactive marketing purposes has already enjoyed phenomenal success elsewhere in the world. Says Wayne Nelson-Esch Co-Founder and Marketing Director of Starfish Mobile, the technology supplier behind 3BEE: "The first-ever opt-in SMS TV Game Show, Game Ka Na Ba, became the highest rated game show on prime time TV in the Philippines. It was driving SMS traffic of 20 million messages per month and really created a whole new way in which television channels interacted with their viewers." Likewise, more than 4 million text messages were exchanged during the 35-day Coca-Cola "Coke Cool Summer" promotion in China, held at the end of the Northern Hemisphere's 2003 summer season.

"The potential of SMS technology as a marketing tool is without question," says Williams. "However, it must be used responsibly. Rather than aggravate viewers through excessive SMS alerts, we've chosen to give viewers the option of corresponding with SABC 3 via text messages. The associated positive experience - especially the possibility of winning great prizes - should prove irresistible."

Williams advises that the on-air campaign will be supported via a radio, print and cinema campaign designed to further inform and educate audiences regarding 3BEE and the promotion mechanics. "Above all, our ambition is to bring to life SABC 3's positioning statement, namely 'locally rooted, globally connected'. SABC 3 remains a truly South African television channel while using world-class technology and great prizes to reward viewers," she says. "Altogether, we're offering our viewers, a 'much better' loyalty programme."