O2 to launch new Top Up Surprises ad campaign

For a limited period starting today (February 15), every customer is guaranteed a gold surprise when they play Top-up Surprises. Prizes include the chance to be a popstar for the day with Rhianna or fly on the official Arsenal plane to a 2010/2011 season game. Customers opt in to play by texting ’Surprises’ free to 61202.

O2 will be supporting this through a major marketing campaign, which sees the return of the original signature yellow ducks, but twice the size. The campaign will break with a TV ad during the Brits on February 16 and then run across print and online media as well as in retail, featuring the message, “we’ve upped the game.”

An online game called ’Quacky Races’ will also be launched to engage potential customers who choose a duck character and then race it around the world. The player who gets there in the fastest time wins an around the world trip.

Sally Cowdry, UK marketing director at O2, says: “Top-up Surprises is a key element, alongside initiatives like Priority Tickets, of our commitment to give something back to our customers and reward their loyalty. It’s been hugely successful and popular with our Pay & Go customers who are now going to benefit from even bigger surprises. And I’m sure fans of the yellow ducks are going to be delighted to see them back again, bigger than ever!”

The O2 Top-up Surprises service has programme has been running since November 2008 and rewards Pay & Go customers with a surprise every time they top up. Surprises have ranged from free texts, picture messages and minutes through to race days and even a car. It has been played over 28 million times, with over 2.4 million customers visiting the site every month.

Last year, O2 launched a £5.5m campaign to promote Top Up Surprises. It has recently launched a new advertising service enabling personalised mobile ads for its customers.