Rewarding online users with an offline concert

SPONSORED DATA platform Freenet celebrates its third anniversary with its first offline event—a “free” concert scheduled on Sept. 20 at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena in Pasay City.
While billed as a free concert, the Freeniversaya: A Freenet Concert requires concert-goers to be Freenet users who must have an adequate amount of points (earned through app registration and in-app missions that include downloading apps from partner sites/app) before scoring a ticket to the concert.
“We really wanted to have a free concert because we wanted to reward our [users] with something that’s not only online but something that is also live and offline. We wanted to make sure it’s a full rewarding experience,” Heidi Garayblas, associate director for marketing at Voyager Innovations, told BusinessWorld during their launch event on Sept. 4 at the Yes Please bar in Taguig City.
Among the performers set to hit the stage on the Sept. 20 concert are Bamboo, KZ Tandingan, Moira dela Torre, Shanti Dope, Gloc 9, Ben & Ben, and boy group Hashtags.
Tickets to the concert are tiered according to the number of accumulated points as follows: 100 freenet points gives the user access to the general admission area; 200 points, upper box tickets; 500 points, lower box tickets; 900 points, VIP2; 1,000 points VIP1; and 10,0000 points for a VVIP ticket that includes a backstage meet-and-greet.
Tickets are redeemed in-app and confirmed via SMS.
The SMS confirmation number must be shown at any SM Ticket outlet to get a print out of the ticket which should be shown together with the app to enter the venue.
The concert is Freenet’s first-ever offline event but it isn’t the last as Ms. Garayblas said that they are planning to have more offline, real-world rewards in the near future though she refused to share specific details.
Introduced in 2015, Freenet was created in order to “enable enterprises to open their websites and mobile applications to mobile data users for free,” according to the company website.
The free-to-download app offers free access to sites such as MyPal of Philippine Airlines, PayMaya, Zalora, SM Cinemas, among others. It also has a reward system where users can earn points by downloading a partner app, browsing a partner site or referring a friend. The points can be used to redeem rewards such as mobile load, game pins or enter a daily raffle.
Freenet also offers free daily access to sites such as Facebook and Twitter and to mobile games such as Mobile Legends during specific hours.
The app currently has eight million users and growing. “We’re very happy with the numbers we have,” Ms. Garayblas said.
Freeniversaya: A Freenet Concert will be held on Sept. 20, 6 p.m., at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City. For more information, visit thefreenet.com. — Zsarlene B. Chua