One free SMS vote, per consumer, per day for the duration of the campaign

Walkers and O2 today announce a key marketing collaboration, which has enabled Walkers to offer consumers the largest-ever completely free SMS vote for the voting stage of its 'Do us a flavour' campaign. For the first time all consumers in the UK and Ireland - irrespective of which mobile phone network they use - will have the opportunity to benefit from one free SMS vote per day until the voting phase closes on 1st May 2009.

The Walkers 'Do us a flavour' campaign, launched in July 2008 challenged crisp lovers around the country to invent a brand new flavour of crisp. Six flavours were shortlisted from over 1.2 million entries - these flavours are Chilli & Chocolate, Fish & Chips, Onion Bhaji, Crispy Duck & Hoisin, Cajun Squirrel and Builder's Breakfast. The new flavours are on sale now until May 2009 and, during this time, crisp fans will be able to vote for their favourite flavour. The creator of the winning flavour will win £50,000, plus 1&percent; of future sales of their winning flavour.

Walkers invites the nation to vote on their favourite flavour from the shortlisted six. It is now up to the public vote to pick which flavour stays on shelves. The free SMS vote, one of several free ways for consumers to vote, was made possible through the collaboration with O2.

The Walkers free SMS vote will be promoted on the 30 million finalist flavour packets in circulation in the UK and Ireland, inviting consumers to text in the keyword of their favourite flavour to shortcode 51199. In response each participant will receive a message saying 'Thanks for voting with Walkers. Want some fun? Visit http://m.walkers.co.uk for free downloads. Vote was made free by O2, reply FREE to get 2 free SIMs to share', prompting consumers to either visit the Walkers mobile internet site to continue interacting with Walkers or to reply and type the keyword 'FREE' to obtain their O2 free SIM cards.

Miranda Sambles, Marketing Manager, Walkers Crisps, said, "Our consumers are key to the success and longevity of the Walkers 'Do us a flavour' campaign. We immediately recognised the benefits of offering a free SMS vote to all consumers, as the ideal engagement tool to incentivise interaction. The partnership has provided the perfect foundations for success, utilising the mobile channel alongside a highly interactive website, to enable our consumers to engage with the promotion, cast their vote, and ultimately decide which flavour wins!"

Stacy Manger, Head of Mass Distribution Telefónica O2 UK said, "This is the first time O2 has worked with a leading FMCG brand in this way to enable a free SMS vote, irrespective of the mobile phone network the consumer is connected to: We are delighted with this initiative with Walkers and we are already seeing extremely positive results.

MIG is parent company to both Jigsaw - www.digital-jigsaw.com - a cross platform digital agency and 4th Screen Advertising - www.4th-screen.com - a specialist mobile advertising agency all of which were involved in establishing the Walkers & O2 partnership.