Road to V 2007
A long running relationship with Virgin Mobile and their production agency ITCH saw Digital Antics providing their Mobile Messages to Screen (MMTS) solution at this year’s Road To V events.
Held over 5 nights at two different venues in the UK, Road To V provides the chance for two bands out of 14 finalists to compete for the chance of opening this year’s V Festival held in June.
The gigs, held in conjunction with Virgin Mobile, made use of the brand by only offering free tickets to those with Virgin Mobile accounts. Once inside the venue, people’s phones would be their tickets to free cloakroom service, a number of free drinks and even a complimentary kebab on leaving. These same phones would continue to be the focussing point of one of Digital Antics’ most popular products: the MMTS solution.
By sending SMS messages to the 5 digit short code number, the members of the public could see their responses to “If you could listen to any music, anywhere what would it be and where?” displayed on the large projection screen that would descend to cover the stage before, after and between bands. The best response would win a set of V Festival 2007 tickets and a Sony Ericsson W880i phone. With this incentive in place it wasn’t long before the entries started coming in their hundreds!
This year’s Road To V message display wasn’t just about SMS messages though; The Virgin Angels were doing their job circulating with phones and snapping customers having a good time, and at the front of each venue was a voting station where people could hold up the name of the band they wished to see open this year’s festival. All of these shots came through to the MMTS system and were systematically playlisted and displayed.
Another feature of this year’s Road To V was the addition of Band Blogging. Each band was assigned a phone from which to take their own snaps backstage in their green room and upload to their individual blog sites. These feeds were received and displayed alongside all the customers’ texts and photographs, combining to create a feast of visual entertainment for the crowds!
The MMTS system will next be seen at three of this summer’s major festivals: Download, O2 Wireless and of course V2007.