More than 54,000 photos were submitted by consumers from around the world via social media sites such as Twitter, Weibo and Wiexin as part of a recent HTC One campaign.

HTC?s recent ?The Most Beautiful Smartphone? campaign leveraged mobile and social to enable consumers from the United States, Britain, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to share photos that were posted on a billboard in Times Square for a chance to win a free HTC One smartphone. All participants received a digital keepsake photo showing their own photo posted on the Times Square billboard that could then be shared on social as a way to drive viral awareness.

?What is unique about this campaign is that it brings all the different channels together and it used out of home in a very unique way,? said Sanjay Manandhar, CEO of Aerva, Cambridge, MA. ? Out of home, in particular, historically has been about eyeballs in a particular geographic location.

?But what this campaign did was it turned the whole out of home model upside down, and said no, we are going to really integrate all of the channels,? he said.

HTC partnered on the program with Aerva, which offers a SaaS platform for integrating social and user-generated content.

Digital keepsake
The HTC One campaign ran for 11 weeks during the holiday season, encouraging consumers in five markets to submit a photo so that it could be posted on a Times Square billboard.

Participants then received a message from HTC informing them that their photo had been posted along with a link to an image showing the billboard with their photo appearing on it.

This digital keepsake could be shared via email or social media sites.

Initially planned as a U.S.-only effort, the campaign was quickly scaled to multiple geographies around the world.

HTC drove engagement and participation in this campaign through paid marketing across social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Weibo and Weixin as well as static out-of-home placement.

HTC also used a street team on specific high-traffic dates in Times Square.

Additionally, the campaign was promoted on the HTC.com Web site and on the brand?s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Gold-plated HTC One
Over the course of the campaign, consumers submitted more than 54,000 photos, which were posted during high-traffic periods in Times Square, such as New Year?s Eve.

Each market's submissions were entered into regional drawings, where each week one winner was selected to receive an HTC One. There was a special drawing around Christmas and New Year?s for a 24K gold-plated HTC One phone worth over $2,500.

?It is not only about me submitting and having my photo up in Times Square,? Mr. Manandhar said. ?Now I have evidence that I was in Time Square.

"Furthermore, we leave the digital keepsake to come visit on the HTC.com site,? he said. ?They can come even after the campaign is over and the long-tail of social takes over.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York