Peborit

SmartBro last weekend held its B Free! Day event at the Mega Tent in Pasig City, enticing students from member-schools of NCAA and the UAAP to get free SmartBro USB dongles just by submitting their validated school IDs and a photocopies of them.

The specially-designed ZTE MF627 dongles bore logos and insignia of the NCAA and UAAP schools, their mascots and the name of their teams.

Here is the design for the UP Fighting Maroons:

Meanwhile, students of perennial NCAA rivals Letran and San Beda had these dongles made available to them:

Letran Knights

San Beda Red Lions

The whole day affair featured games, performances by prominent bands and a sale of notebook computers. Alumni and faculty were given a chance to buy the same special NCAA-UAAP dongles for P895 or P100 less than the P995 retail price.

Members of the press and bloggers who got invites to cover the event received a different kind of USB dongle, the older Huawei E156C in pristine white.

B Free Day is a great way for any company to get connected to its target market, by providing them a free conduit to connecting to its services and the day of the giveaway was marked by all sorts of fun events.

The downside about the event is that it was held in the morning and afternoon when it was hot and most students were still in school. Had it been held starting mid-afternoon to early evening, there would have been more people who would have attended it. The venue was also out of the way for most students. The nearest school, UA&P, is not even a member of either UAAP or NCAA. Another personal concern is also about how SmartBro would protect the photocopies of student IDs they collected. Hopefully, no spam. A few of them in the wrong hands — I saw some photocopies lying innocently on the ground at the venue — could spell trouble for the students.

What to expect next? Perhaps thousands of reviews or comments on SmartBro services in the next few weeks, coming from their new subscribers.