Each Monday, we will share some great activation practices throughout the sports and entertainment landscape. This blog will serve as a space to highlight innovative ideas and campaigns. Want to have your idea or campaign featured? Send us a note on Twitter at @Navigate_Res. 

With thousands of attendees over a 6-day festival, concert, and conference, South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, TX is a sponsor’s ideal environment to engage with consumers. This year’s sponsors included Miller Lite, AT&T, Esurance, McDonald’s, and Capital One, to name a few. In order to standout in a clutter of sponsor messages, a brand must develop a clever and engaging activation that will resonate with attendees. Mobile battery case brand, Mophie, set themselves apart by allowing attendees to charge their phones while petting some irresistibly cute St. Bernards. 

Mophie targeted both the technological need and emotional strings of people by partnering with St. Bernard Rescue Foundation and assembling a team of St. Bernards to “save” phones from dying during the event. Mophie setup a lodge approximately 1 block away from the Austin Convention Center, where the friendly St. Bernards aniously awaited to be pet and called to duty. People were able to stop in to see the dogs and learn about the nonprofit foundation. 

So how did Mophie help people get their phones charged? Mophie utilized social media by having attendees within range of the lodge tweet a screenshot picture of their dying phone batteries to @mophie using #mophieRescue, as well as their current location. Chosen attendees received a tweet reply from Mophie with a link to a GPS-based interactive map that allowed them to view where the St. Bernard’s location depicted by a dog icon on the screen. The dog, accompanied by a foundation volunteer, would then arrive with Mophie products to the attendees’ location.

Mophie’s ability to understand a need of SXSW attendees (dying phones) combined with their St. Bernard Rescue Foundation partnership made for a creative and memorable activation that engaged consumers while showcasing Mophie products. Oh, and people got to pet adorable puppies and dogs. What more could you want?