News - Press Releases

January 15, 2007
Livewire Powers T-Mobile Fave 5 Promotion

York, Pa, – Livewire Kiosk is pleased to announce the completion of a unique promotional system for T-Mobile USA, Inc. powered by Livewire’s self-service technology. With the United States being one of the most highly competitive and profitable markets available to cellular telecommunications carriers today, T-Mobile wanted to break through the current advertising noise and introduce its new Fave 5 service plans via “street-level” cross-promotions in addition to its traditional advertising methods. The idea was to engage the targeted consumers directly by involving them in the Fave 5 selection process for an opportunity to win valuable prizes from its co-marketing partners, Sony, Samsung, and the National Basketball Association. The result was an innovative campaign utilizing basketball-focused events staged at numerous malls and NBA arenas throughout the country.

Livewire was chosen to create a custom solution that allowed consumers to enter into a basketball shooting competition where the winner would have a chance of winning one of several giveaways (including a PlayStation 3, NBA ’07 video game, Samsung phone, and NBA jerseys). The solution consisted of a wireless network of four IBM Anyplace kiosks (housed within large basketball-like enclosures) integrated with a central control computer and four remote display controllers. Data entered by consumers via the kiosks was stored in a database on the central control computer. Web service technology provided distributed control of the display computers to drive digital signage mounted above shoot-to-win basketball games and interaction with a 42” plasma display enclosed within a giant 10-foot high Samsung cell phone used to announce the game winner and initiate a “spin-to-win” giveaway.

Livewire, utilizing Microsoft’s .NET Framework, created software that enabled participants to enter their contact information into the kiosk and choose icons representing themselves and their Fave 5. These icons were then displayed on the screens above four basketball games while players competed to make the most baskets during a 30-second countdown. At the completion of the game, an NBA-like ticket would be printed for each player showing their Fave 5 icons with additional information and offerings from T-Mobile. The winner’s icons were then displayed on the cell phone and the player would push a button causing their icons to spin until their randomly selected prize was displayed.

“We were pleased to be involved in such an innovative project”, commented Dave McCracken, President of Livewire. “The complexity of the system, along with the short timeframe to the start of the promotion, was a challenge for everyone involved with the project. But our experience in self-service, digital signage, data communications, and hardware integration provided the foundation for the successful rollout of the promotion as planned,” he continued. “There are now three complete setups traveling around the country, sometimes being disassembled and reassembled in another location on the same night, and the feedback has been extremely positive; both on the promotion itself and the underlying technology.”

About Livewire
Livewire is an award-winning leader in interactive technology based in York, Pennsylvania. Livewire, a Microsoft Certified Partner, specializes in self-service solutions including ticketing, gift card dispensing, gift registries, electronic concierge, and human resource portals. Livewire provides integration into a multitude of devices such as kiosks, ATMs, and handheld devices, while providing the ability to remotely monitor each device and manage the content available from each unit.

Livewire is a registered trademark of Livewire Kiosk. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.