RFID Social Marketing Campaign Case Study

The Vodacom Durban July, South Africa’s premier horse-racing event, is a VIP showcase of glamour and fashion. The “who’s who” attend, including celebrities and everyone trying to make a statement and “be seen”. Vodacom wanted to position itself at the forefront of technology, so iLogic Digital Agency set to work.

145 VIPs were selected to participate in the RFID social marketing campaign. They were tech-savvy, trendsetters, so when they do something, everyone else follows. The medium and device mix was RFID technology, digital photos and social networking using Facebook as a platform.

A VIP completed a registration application and with assistance from an RFID staff member, logged into their Facebook account, granted access to the RFID application. The RFID tag was linked to their Facebook account in a mySQL database. The C# programming was integrated with server side PHP, which integrated the Facebook Graph API. This allowed the user to scan their RFID band, have their HD picture taken with a quick visual prompt, and instantly tagged the photo and uploaded it in real time to their Facebook profile via the Graph API. The photo was also uploaded to the official fan page of the Vodacom Durban July event. This eliminated queues and manually taking and uploading pics.

The VIPs could choose from seven branded RFID podiums in and around the VIP areas of the Vodacom Durban July event.

1165 photos were taken, with an average of eight photos per VIP. VIPs and their friends were able to share their pics by harnessing the power of the Like and Share buttons on Facebook.

Considering that a Facebook user has an average of 130 friends, and there were 145 VIPs, conservatively 18 850 of their friends were exposed to the Vodacom Durban July RFID branded photos. Most of the VIPs reach Facebook’s cap of 5000 friends, so in reality this figure is much higher. A further 12 000 fans on the official Vodacom Durban July fan page were also exposed to the campaign as all 1165 photos were uploaded here as well.