Virgin Mobile: GAME OF PHONES

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Craft
Category: Use of Data/Insight
Advertiser: VIRGIN MOBILE AUSTRALIA
Product/Service: VIRGIN MOBILE
Agency: HAVAS WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Client: VIRGIN MOBILE AUSTRALIA
Product: VIRGIN MOBILE
Entrant: HAVAS WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Type of Entry: Craft
Category: Use of Data/Insight
Entrant Company : HAVAS WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Advertising Agency : HAVAS WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Agency : STARCOM MEDIAVEST GROUP Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production Company : PHOTOPLAY FILMS Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Executive Creative Director: Steve Coll (Havas Worldwide Australia)
Executive Creative Director: Kat Thomas (One Green Bean)
Creative Director: Christopher Johnson (Havas Worldwide Australia)
Art Director: Paris Giannakis (Havas Worldwide Australia)
Copywriter: Christopher Johnson (Havas Worldwide Australia)
Digital Creative Director: Jay Morgan (Havas Worldwide Australia)
Digital Creative: Frida Engstrom (Havas Worldwide Australia)
Account Management Team: Dan Smith/Ben Fayol/Jenny Fallon/Olivia Coyne (Havas Worldwide Australia)
Account Management Team: Matt Holmes/Vyvyan Hammond (One Green Bean)
Tv Producer: Ros Payne (Havas Worldwide Australia)
Print Producer: Warrick Nicholson (Havas Worldwide Australia)
Director: Scott Otto Anderson (Photoplay Films)
Production Producer: Florence Toubier (Photoplay Films)
Client: David Scribner/Nicole Bardsley/Jade Mackay/Serina Saroian/Jordan Kerr (Virgin Mobile Australia)
Post Production: (Method)
Editor: Simon Njoo (Method)
Photographer: Sean Izzard (The Pool Collective)
Music: Hylton Mowday/Andrew Stevenson (We Love Jam)
Client Business Director/Client Business Manager: Chris Caley/Jacqui Purcell (Starcom)
Retouching: (Cream Studios)
Creative Execution:
Our solution was a mobile app-based alternative reality game called ‘Game of Phones’. Prizes were geo-cached throughout Australia’s major cities. To claim a prize, players had to reach a prize location first. To keep it, they had to prevent nearby players from ‘stealing’ their prize for 48 hours. In a world-first, we used dynamic digital posters and mobile GPS tracking to communicate with game players in real time.


Over 3 weeks, 40,000 active players travelled over 230,000 KM’s with prizes, the equivalent of 6 times around the world. The 531 prizes were stolen 82,395 times; an average of 155 steals per prize. The average time playing was 1hr and 12 minutes per active user. Our campaign generated huge interest in Virgin Mobile with 103+ million online impressions, 76,200 visited Facebook tab (50% on mobile), 12,992 social shares & 66% positive online sentiment. It was a Top 20 App on the Android store. Virgin Mobile experienced a 29% uplift in post-paid sales during the campaign period.


Australia’s three big telco’s spend millions on their customer loyalty schemes. But they rely on high-profile prize giveaways that do little to truly engage customers. Virgin Mobile has a much smaller budget, and couldn’t compete in bought media. But we saw an opportunity to prove Virgin Mobile gives customers a better experience. Australia has one of the highest instances of smart phones useage in the world, so we created a fun, engaging mobile gaming campaign called Game of Phones. This mobile campaign became an exciting, engaging customer experience that promoted Virgin Mobile rewards.