Mobile initiative at holiday party results in 65 percent opt-in

By Giselle Tsirulnik

December 12, 2008

The party was held at the Rockit Bar and Grill

It can be quite intimidating to walk up to perfect strangers at networking events and shake hands. Chicago's ACRONYM Bash 2008 used mobile to break the ice.

The ACRONYM Bash 2008 on Dec. 9 in Chicago used a mobile text-based trivia game as an icebreaker at an event to raise funds for the Chicago Tribune Holiday Campaign Charities. The ACRONYM Bash is a collaborative event from the leading nonprofit professional associations in Chicago to raise funds for local charities through a social and networking event.

"Basically we were trying to make it easier for people at the event to network," said James Heckman, president of Little Wolf Inc., Chicago, and a member of the planning committee for this event. "The trivia game gave people an excuse to start the conversation."

The ACRONYM Bash is a collaborative holiday event for the marketing, advertising and PR industries of Chicago. It is hosted by the American Marketing Association, Business Marketing Association, Chicago Association of Direct Marketing, Chicago Advertising Federation and the Promotion Marketing Association.

The event included rich and savory holiday foods and open, full-service bar in one of Chicago's hottest party venues, Rockit Bar & Grill.

Once attendees got to the venue they were handed a sheet of paper with instructions to play the game, powered by Interactive Mediums, Chicago.

The sheet explained that to play the game, attendees needed to text the keyword ACRONYM1 to 839863.

Participants were not added to a marketing list.

The people who texted in received a trivia question or a trivia answer via mobile text. Then participants were instructed to find their match and reply with the question/answer code.

For example, one person receives a text that says, "Code AA -- What color is Gumby?"

Another receives, "Code 11 -- Green."

These two people need to find each other and both reply, "AA11."

The trivia game was a big hit, with 65 percent of attendees participating. The event had somewhere in between 230-250 attendees.

All participants were entered into a sweepstakes to win an Apple iPod shuffle.

"I think that mobile was a perfect medium for this type of an initiative," Mr. Heckman said. "Mobile is fun.

"Have been a marketing consultant for about 10 years and am fairly new to mobile," he said. "But I have noticed that the No. 1 mistake is that promotions and ads on mobile sometimes are stiff and formal.

"If it is going to be a viable marketing medium, marketers can't forget to have some fun with it."