Recently, the technology-savvy shareholders of "Beer Below Zero (BBZ)" launched PASA-BEER at the Grilla Bar on Kalayaan St., Makati. The concept is simple: For a few hours, trivia questions will be announced through the P.A. system, and the first x-number of correct answers sent via mobile phone text messages/SMS and posted on a large-screen "shoutbox" will win certain prizes - BBZ hats, Tees, free beer.
If you're one of the winners, a text notification will be sent to your mobile phone which you can then show to an appointed person for prize redemption. In effect, this text notification that you've won is actually a virtual Gift Certificate (vGC) issued by a brand, which is BBZ in this case.Ordinarily, just showing the text notification on your mobile phone may not be ideal or secure for multi-site redemption sites if the brand has many physical branch offices or stores. The extra step, as was shown that night, was for the winner to text-in the vGC back to the AKA system so that the redemption desk can get the security confirmation, turnover the prize or item, and delete/invalidate the vGC reference number (to prevent duplicate claims at other redemption centers).
To get everyone (customers, guests, service staff) in the Grilla Bar informed of the mechanics of the "PasaBeer" launch that night, a 2-sided business-card-size guide was handed out. At the back of this card, instructions were posted on how to register for your AKA alias via mobile phone, how to submit answers to trivia questions via AKA TELL BBZ, and how to redeem prizes.As you can imagine, the place was jampacked, several long tables were celebrating promotions and birthdays, and customers were sending various fun messages to the projected SMS shoutbox whilst awaiting the start of the PasaBeer event. BBZ fans who could not make it to the event also sent SMS messages via the web-shoutbox of BBZ.
Near midnight, people who initially kept company with just their table mates were now trading shoutbox messages with other people at other tables... and everyone had a good time!To know more about AKA's integrated web+sms tools for marketing and real eCommerce, visit: AKA Mobile Directory
Media Link: Pinoy entrepreneurs intro SMS-based virtual GCs by Melvin G. Calimag
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