Draftfcb, through its corporate and brand public relations specialist, Redline, and its below-the-line activation studio, Impact, has successfully launched, and concluded, the South African leg of the LG Mobile Worldcup.

Taking place in 16 countries during 2009 prior to culminating in the World Championship event in New York at the end of the year, this is one of the Korean technology giant's largest global initiatives to date.

Contestants are required to demonstrate their mobile texting speed and accuracy in either a Qwerty or Numeric division. The fastest texter from each of the 16 participating countries will fight it out for the grand prize and title of LG Mobile Worldcup World Champion.

Redline was briefed by LG Korea to launch the event and activate it on a national basis in South Africa, using the Korean model as a template. This required participants to first use their mobiles to register as a participant and then to interact with a specially designed game either via the WAP site or the website

http://za.lgmobileworldcup.com

Said Redline's Events and Sponsorship Director, Ginny Daly: “The LG Mobile Worldcup is an exciting annual event aimed to create a complete mobile technology experience for consumers while they participate in the texting competition. While our task was to find the fastest texter in South Africa, the event also obviously needed to do a brand building job for LG in the minds of the cellphone consumer.

“The campaign we devised and implemented with supplier partners, after reviewing the Korean template, included an on-air promotion with 5FM, banner advertising on select websites and communication with registered MXit users.

“Activation took place at shopping malls such as Sandton, Menlyn and Canal Walk as well as at campuses of the University of Pretoria and the University of Johannesburg using suppliers such as TCC and ProGroup.

“After a full month of activity, 150 of the country's top texters came to Monte Casino for the final which also featured entertainment for spectators from EA Game stands and LG phone experiences, to live music shows by Flash Republic and Prime Circle. Big production companies such as Gearhouse, Red Pepper and Mushroom Productions were incorporated into the final event to ensure that the highest level of performance was delivered upon.

“Of course, it was a challenge to find South African solutions for the Korean model but, at the end of the day, all supplier partners came to the party and we were able to deliver a world-class event. This was the first event of the nature in South Africa and we hope to host it now on an annual basis,” she said.