GWR Rolls Out World Cup SMS Activity

GWR is launching a World Cup SMS competition across its 31 local radio stations in an attempt to attract listeners attention throughout the tournament.

The competition, which represents GWR’s biggest use of SMS marketing to date, will run across The Mix network and digital radio stations Core, Planet Rock and The Storm, giving listeners the chance to win cash prizes via SMS interaction. GWR’s largest station, Classic FM, will not be included as its listeners fall outside the campaign’s target 14-44 year-old male audience.

Commenting on the initiative, GWR new media and digital director, Simon Ward said: “The World Cup has supplied GWR Group with the ideal opportunity to explore more ways of linking its radio portfolio with its new media, in a fun and innovative competition. Linking up with Flytxt will add to our listeners’ whole World Cup experience, with SMS text messaging and match updates throughout the day.”

Lars Becker, CEO Flytxt, which is managing the campaign, added: “SMS has already worked extremely well with radio over the past year. Premium rate SMS capabilities across all networks could even accelerate the usage of SMS in radio, as it becomes an additional revenue stream. GWR is right at the cutting edge of this development as the first radio station to deploy a premium rate campaign across all mobile operators.”

The campaign will be supported by GWR’s network of local portals koko.com, which will provide competition information and links to World Cup websites.

GWR announced a disappointing set of results earlier in the week with total turnover down 4.8% year on year during 2001 and advertising revenues down 7.2% over the same period (see

GWR Group: 020 7284 3000 www.gwrgroup.com

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