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Sir Elton John performed at Tallinn Song Festival Grounds on 20 June 2001. For
the first time in history, a concert of a star of this magnitude was
warmed up with an SMS-quiz, where the participants could win an
opportunity to meet the star for 15 minutes before the concert.
 Exactly
one hour before the main event, the show hosts Aigi Vahing and Ivo
Uukkivi took the floor and introduced the SMS-quiz. The following question
was displayed on large screens on either side of the
stage: "What is Elton John's real name?". Four options followed shortly.
The audience was invited to participate in the quiz by sending an SMS with
a letter corresponding to the right answer to a short number. The number of
people participating and the results were displayed live. Text
messages (cost) 9 EEK each, about three times the cost of a standard SMS.
Altogether, there were 6 questions. The questions included the title of
Elton's next album, the name of his co-songwriter etc. More than
300 people participated, almost 200 of them answered all 6 questions
correctly. The winners were drawn at random for all the winning
participants. Two excited Elton John fans, 10-year-old Tanel,
and Andre were subsequently taken backstage to meet the star,
before he appeared on stage.
SMS-quiz was organized in partnership with concert promoter BDG and
Mobi Solutions. The idea, originating from Mobi,
had a final approval from Elton John Management one week
before the concert. The week before the concert, the Mobi team had been
working hard developing the technical solution while BDG took
care of the content of the show and selecting the hosts.
SMS-quiz, when used with a large audience, is a successful
revenue generator for the event promoter, provided that the awards
are motivating enough to arouse interest in participants
July 2001
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