A State Farm-sponsored promotion during the University of Missouri verses University of Kansas football game resulted in more than 5,000 fans participating.

The mobile competition was conducted at Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 24. Moblico deployed the campaign via the in-stadium jumbo screen. As a result of the campaign, State Farm saw an increase of 5 times the response rate received for its text-to-win marketing efforts at the same game last year.

?The campaign differentiated them from other sponsorships at game because it extended the value of their overall sponsorship investment beyond static branding,? said Pierre Barbeau, CEO of Moblico, Kansas City, MO. ?It helped State Farm continue the dialogue with attendees post-game.

?And an added bonus was that people were talking about the fan competition even after the game was over,? he said. ?It was a lot of fun.?

Hi-Striker mobile game
As part of the promotion, a "Hi-Striker" game was displayed on the stadium screen.

Fans had 30 seconds in which to text a short code indicating which team they were there to support.

While the clock was counting down, a pair of animated carnival strongmen struck a target with hammers for each text they received, one side representing Missouri, the other Kansas.

The contest offered a fun method for friendly competition amongst fans, with the side receiving the highest number of votes winning.

Based on the text entries, the percentages of votes were visible to the audience on the screen. It was clear to the audience who was winning, and the crowds were cheering as intensely as they were during the game itself.

Why SMS?
In-event marketing is really big right now, especially amongst sports teams.

The reason is because consumers are really attached to their phones and are text messaging all the time. Consumer exchanged over 4.1 billion text messages a day as of December 2009. According to Nielsen Mobile, the average consumer sends 587 messages versus using less than 200 voice minutes.

For example, the Miami Dolphins are running an interactive text-messaging feature for all home games of the current NFL season (see story).

The Denver Broncos are celebrating their quest for the Super Bowl by giving fans the chance to win tickets to watch their favorite football team through an in-stadium mobile initiative (see story).

?The mobile component was an extension of State Farm?s sponsorship,? Mr. Barbeau said. ?They were branded on the jumbo screen and the participants received follow-up from State Farm via mobile.

?State Farm loved the instant interaction mobile provided,? he said. ?There really was no other way to pull this off without mobile, quite frankly.

?The mobile competition really brought the fans into the game like no other medium could.?