Captology Notebook

SingTel has created a "moblog" contest where subscribers can win US$10,000 and a cruise by creating a homepage about themselves on the contest site and maintaining a web log on it. There are elements of HotOrNot and Survivor. It is partly a beauty contest but also a contest to determine who is the most interesting guy or girl. Voting and chatting wiith other users happens through SMS and users are even encouraged to introduce themselves by sending pictures to other users. The revenue from this traffic goes straight to the operator's bottom line. The top contestants are motivated by money and narcissism to generate content to lure other mobile subscribers to the site. Viewers and voters will no doubt be motivated by sex appeal and the desire to see their favorite contestant win. The need to "feel connected", as identified by Howard Rheingold, may also be at play here. One of the goals is, of course, to drive up network traffic and revenue. Another is to introduce subscribers to SMS and MMS (multimedia messaging service) and give them a reason to use these services. The front page of the website has very clear links to instructions for SMS and chat. But, in my opinion, the truly clever result of this contest is to create a new social network composed of subscribers of SingTel and Optus (their partner). As users meet each other and inevitably become friends, they will have an incentive to stay in the network because of cheaper in traffic network. Network effects are a great way to retain a customer base.