Vibes and SPEED Hit the Road with Mobile Marketing

CHICAGO, Feb. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Vibes, a mobile marketing and technology company, today announced it kicked the results of SPEED's annual Barrett-Jackson Fantasy Bid automobile auction into high gear with a successful mobile marketing campaign. The game and campaign solicited the networks' viewers of the Barrett-Jackson automobile auction to engage with the telecast and play along by submitting "Fantasy Bids" for select cars via SPEED.com or text. The live game experienced a 128-percent increase from 2011 and a 121-percent increase in mobile bids. Mobile accounted for 45 percent of all submissions in the wildly successful three-day campaign.

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"We have a great event that brings in a lot of car enthusiasts to the telecast and in turn, the Fantasy Bid game. We continue to look for ways to optimize the game and make it simple for viewers to participate, enter their fantasy bids easily and interact with the telecast," said Kevin Annison, vice president, digital and interactive media, SPEED. "Because our viewers always have their phones by their side, mobile participation is one of the best ways for us to enable real-time bid submissions and help entice a new audience to participate. The immediacy of the bids, plus the engagement on such a personal device, was one of the key elements that made this program such a success for us this year."

The Fantasy Bid game allowed players to place bids by entering the amount of their bid in dollars without punctuation. The winners were determined by the first eligible entrant whose fantasy bid was the same as or came closest to the final "gaveled" sales price without going over on any of the selected vehicles. Winners were awarded points to determine each daily prize winner.

Players were awarded points at the completion of each Fantasy Bid car and each daily session. The player who amassed the most points throughout the four days of Fantasy Bidding was declared the grand-prize winner, receiving a 60-inch Samsung 3D high-definition television. The runner up won a $500 Amazon.com gift certificate, and the third-place overall finisher received a Kindle Fire. Daily prizes were also awarded for the players who accumulated the most points per day, claiming a $500 fuel card, and per-car prize winners collected a 16-gigabyte Apple iPad 2. And for the first time in Hagerty Fantasy Bid history, SPEED gave away a one-of-a-kind Ford Racing Champions Shelby GT500 Special Edition Mustang to one lucky grand prize winner.

"When speed is a factor, such as with real-time submissions, mobile is the only way to go," said Jack Philbin, co-founder and president of Vibes. "It's the marketing equivalent of hand-raising, because it's in an auction setting and with each bid, consumers are telling SPEED they want to engage. With a mobile campaign like this, the benefits go beyond the bids as SPEED builds a mobile database of loyal fans."

About SPEED

SPEED™, anchored by its popular and wide ranging coverage of NASCAR, is the nation's first and only cable television network dedicated to automotive and motorcycle racing, performance and lifestyle. Now available in more than 80 million homes in North America, SPEED, a FOX Sports property, is among the industry leaders in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services.

About Vibes

Founded in 1998, Vibes is a mobile marketing and technology leader that helps some of the world's biggest brands acquire, engage and deepen relationships throughout the customer lifecycle. Vibes' Catapult platform enables brands, agencies and media companies to launch a wide range of mobile solutions from SMS, to MMS, QR Codes, on-screen, alerts, mobile Web, mobile incentives and integration with social platforms. Using Vibes' Mobile Relationship Management (MRM) approach, companies forge immediate and long-lasting customer relationships by tapping into the uniquely personal nature of the mobile phone. The Company has delivered billions of mobile experiences on behalf of customers that include Verizon, Allstate, The Gap, Tribune, Fox, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Gannett and the Chicago Bulls. Vibes is one of only nine Tier 1 aggregators with secure, direct connections to all the major carriers. To learn more about Vibes, visit www.vibes.com or connect on Facebook.com/VibesMedia or Twitter.com/Vibes_Media.

SOURCE Vibes