The TXTBKS campaign for Smart Communications, Inc. by local ad agency DM9 Jayme Syfu bagged the top award, Grand Prix of the Year, at the recently concluded Ad Stars international advertising festival held in Busan, Korea, more than 12,000 entries competed for the top honors.
TXTBKS served a dual purpose: to facilitate the recycling of old phones and to lighten the heavy load carried by schoolchildren. Over six months, Smart collaborated with textbook authors and publishers to condense certain school texts into 160-character text messages programmed into the inboxes of thousands of inactive surplus SIM cards and old mobile phones.
According to DM9/Di9it Executive Creative Director Eugene Demata, initial test studies showed that children who used the reprogrammed phones recorded an average of 90% in test performance, which is a positive indicator of the campaign’s effectiveness.
DM9 Jayme Syfu also won a Grand Prix award for the Mobile category with the same campaign.