5FM Hold the Phone (2007)

The Hold the Phone competition was hosted by 5FM and Hunter’s Export. The competition entailed that one phone, carried by a person, called the transporter, travelled across the country over a period of 14 days. Each transporter received a specific challenge that had to be completed on the same day. At the end of the day, the phone was handed over to the next transporter. Transporters who successfully completed their task stood in line to win a brand new Hummer. The listeners could also vote for their favourite transporter in order to qualify for a cash prize of R10 000.

Praekelt Consulting gave Upfront Systems the exciting task of building the official competition website, the spill around which the competition evolved. The website featured the challenge of the day, information on the transporter, the location where the handover would take place, messages and videos from the transporters (indicating their progress), messages from the public and listeners and the exact location of the transporter and the phone with the use of Google maps. The map was integrated with messages received from the transporter that kept it updated.