Sherman Dodd (left) and his 16-year-old son, Joseph "JoJo", are all smiles after learning that they were the first big $1,000 weekly winners of Cellular South's "Your Network. Your Stories." contest, which features customer-created video stories about the company's superior wireless network. Dunn and his family live in the small southwest Mississippi town of Carriere in Pearl River County.
Ridgeland, MS - (December 18, 2008) – – Sherman Dodd, who lives in the small southwest Mississippi town of Carriere in Pearl River County, is the first big $1,000 weekly winner of Cellular South's "Your Network. Your Stories." contest, which features customer-created stories about the reliability, quality and coverage of the company's nationwide network.
Dodd, a 41-year-old logistics manager for Air Products & Chemicals Inc. in New Orleans, received the most votes for a short video he filmed along with his 16-year-old son, Joseph, and two nephews focusing on Cellular South's superior network reliability, quality and coverage.
The video was actually a funny spoof on the famous urban legend about Bigfoot, also know as Sasquatch, an alleged ape-like creature that purportedly inhabits forests in the Pacific Northwest. In the video, two teenagers on a hike in the forest stumble across a pink-haired female Sasquatch sitting in a tree reading the paper.
When they pull out their mobile phones, only the teenager with Cellular South service is able to take a picture and send it to the e-mail accounts of all his friends as proof of their Bigfoot sighting. The video, entitled "Cellular South: There When it Counts," is one of many that Dodd and his son have collaborated on in the last several years.
"My son came up with the concept, wrote the script and helped produce the entire video," Dodd said. "He's very creative and has done a lot of video work for our local church and on YouTube."
Joseph Dodd, a sophomore at Picayune Memorial High School, said his mother, a counselor at Picayune Junior High, and Mellissa Burge, a teacher at the school and a family friend, actually tipped him off about the contest. "They know I'm into videos and thought this would be perfect for me," he said, adding that he plans to take his mother to dinner at her favorite restaurant as a token of his appreciation.
The "Your Network. Your Stories." contest, which runs through Jan. 15, 2009, invites Cellular South customers to be creative in illustrating how the company's network is superior to other competing wireless carriers in the areas of quality, reliability and coverage. In addition to testimonials, the company is encouraging customers to submit their own commercial, music video, song, road trip diary or short film.
"We're excited about the contest and the types of submissions we are receiving from customers," said Jim Richmond, director of corporate communications for Cellular South. "We have one of the nation's best networks in terms of quality, reliability and coverage and can't think of a better way to reinforce that fact than to ask our customers to illustrate all the different places where they get coverage on our network – like when they are traveling around the country, at a remote hunting camp, in a stadium packed with thousands of football or baseball fans, in their homes, offices or stores or in unexpected areas where other networks do not provide coverage."
Customers can register online at www.cellularsouth.com/networkstories to win cash prizes and a chance to be in a Cellular South television commercial that will air during broadcast of the "Big Game" on Feb. 1, 2009. All winners will be announced no later than Jan. 20, 2009.
Entries, which are limited to one per day per person, will be judged based on originality and creativity, focus on the creative assignment and overall appeal. In addition to this week's winner, five remaining weekly cash prizes of $1,000 each will be awarded based on a tally of online votes submitted by users who register on the third-party contest website. A $10,000 grand prize, along with a free wireless device and one year's worth of service, will be awarded to the winner by a panel of qualified judges from Cellular South marketing and research and its advertising agency.
Richmond said customers can submit multiple entries, but must have a valid driver's license and be at least 18 years of age and live in Mississippi or Tennessee or 19 years of age and live in Alabama. Video entries can range from 15 seconds to 1 minute in length and must be taken with a camera phone, video camera or other similar digital device. No still photo entries will be accepted. There is no cost or purchase required to enter the contest.
Cellular South has one of the most advanced networks in the wireless industry. With the completion of a recent $50 million investment in equipment, services and software, Cellular South was the first carrier to offer customers advanced 3G high-speed broadband data access on their mobile phones, smartphones and PDAs in six times as many markets as other carriers in its primary footprint, Richmond said. With its nationwide network of networks, no other carrier has a larger 3G high-speed broadband data network, he added.
"We receive so many testimonials from customers about how they rely on our network in every way – so we're excited about providing this creative opportunity for them to tell us how and why the Cellular South network is unbeatable and the only one they need to count on," Richmond said.
About Cellular South
Cellular South is a privately-owned diversified mobile communications company passionately committed to helping customers get the most out of their wireless devices and services. The company accomplishes this goal by providing the most reliable and advanced 3G nationwide wireless voice and data network, offering industry-leading unlimited flat rate plans, and through its online and in-store Discover Centers, which give customers easy, simple and convenient tools, tips, advice and information to get the most out of their mobile phone. For more information, visit www.cellularsouth.com.
