A crowd at a cash giveaway publicity stunt on Orchard Road on 27 February 2018. (PHOTO: 3DollarBaller / Instagram)

A “cash vending machine” marketing stunt that caused a mob at Raffles Place on Wednesday (28 February) has been revealed to be telco Circles.Life’s promotional tactic for its new pay-per-day unlimited mobile data plan.

A spokesperson from the company told Yahoo News Singapore that a second scheduled event for 28 February was cancelled due to concerns over managing the “extreme interest” from the public, and advice given by police.

The virtual telco’s spokesperson also played down the suggestion that the event was cut because the company did not have a permit for it.

“This was an unprecedented event which no one has attempted before. Given this, there was no existing information on whether this activity required a permit. The event ending prematurely had more to do with managing the massive interest for the activity,” said the spokesperson.

“The Singapore Police Force were wonderful in their support and have issued… advice for handling our future creative activities,” added the statement from the telco.

Delbert Ty, 31, head of marketing for Circles.Life, said at a press conference by the company on Thursday (1 March) that “a couple of thousands” of dollars were given out before the event was cancelled.

“Our objective is really understanding what our target audience likes,” said Ty. “They will hopefully find (the stunt) cool and see the humour in it.”

The telco announced at the press conference that existing customers can activate unlimited 4G+ data for $3 per day without signing up for any contract. This is on top of a $28 base plan which comes with 6GB of data.

The telco also announced WhatsApp Passport, a service that entitles customers to unlimited data usage for WhatsApp messaging while roaming with partner networks in over 18 countries – including the USA, India and UK – which costs from $1 per day.

Customers can also opt for unlimited local outgoing calls by adding $16 per month to their current plans.

Customers can select and add the new services to their existing data plans via the Circles.Life app.

Huge crowd at Raffles Place

On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of participants lined up outside Chevron House at Raffles Place to get a chance of walking away with free money. The rules were simple: Feed $3 into a “vending machine” to get $50 in return.

However, a subsequent similar event, publicised on 3dollarballer.com and a dedicated Instagram account, was called off by organisers abruptly, who cited “safety” issues for its cancellation.

More at https://sg.yahoo.com/news/unprecedented-publicity-stunt-revealed-telco-circles-life-event-cancelled-based-police-advice-040703603.html