In June, Sprint and Rolling Stone selected 8 street musicians, from cities known for breeding great musical talent, and asked consumers, to come together, and help one of them go from “Street to Stage”. Each artist was setup with banners and flyers and heavily utilised their social networks to promote themselves. Online banners and print advertorials with QR codes driving to the online hub helped spread word of the program on a national scale. Consumers were incentivised to vote and interact by sharing photos, videos and their personal reviews of the artists, through weekly prizes and a giveaway contest, including Sprint’s latest phones, Rolling Stone merchandise and magazine subscriptions. With two rounds of voting in August and September, the 8 musicians were first narrowed down to 4 finalists and then, in October, the winner was announced on the online hub and celebrated in the November issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

The “Street to Stage” competition was built around the spontaneous sense of community that comes from gathering around an amazing performer. Receiving 34% of the over 60,000 total votes (56% via mobile devices) Charles Rangel was declared the winner. With nearly 10,000 Facebook 'likes' and Tweets of the artists’ pages and 400 pieces of UGC the program truly encouraged social interaction with mobile devices.

Via online and mobile voting, texting and QR codes, the program generated a digital community of fans who took action, uploaded their own content, voted and shared to their social networks, all to support their favourite.