SINGAPORE — Local telecommunications company Circles.Life is the company behind a publicity stunt that gave out "free money" in the heart of the Central Business District on Wednesday (Feb 28).

As part of a marketing campaign running up to its launch of a daily unlimited data plan on Thursday, Circles.Life set up a purple "vending machine" at Raffles Place, where people received S$50 in return for paying S$3.

The "vending machine" was in fact a man giving out S$50 notes to people from inside a purple box.

The idea behind the campaign was to illustrate "how S$3 can go further", said Circles.Life head of marketing Delbert Ty, adding that the turnout "exceeded our expectations".

"The idea was to create a sensation to show people that they can get so much more for only S$3 with the launch of our Unlimited Data on Demand," a Circles.Life spokesman said.

"The objective was to get a really strong reaction of disbelief that with S$3 you can act like a baller and use as much data as you want," the spokesman added, using the term baller to describe high spenders.

The campaign saw hordes of people rushing towards and crowding around the "vending machine" in the hope of getting the promised cash, prompting the police to step in and advised the organisers to halt the proceedings for crowd safety reasons.

The event was cut short after an hour.

"The Police were alerted to a publicity campaign event held at Raffles Place on 28 February 2018, after the gathering of a large crowd in the area posed a security concern," the police said in a statement.

"Police engaged the organisers, Circles.Life, who acknowledged the concerns raised by Police on crowd safety.

"Prior to Police's engagement, Circles.Life had already decided to stop the event, as they realised that they were not able to manage the unexpected large turnout.

"The organisers also informed Police that they have decided to cancel other planned events for the day."

Mr Ty said the subsequent event, to be held at Orchard Road, was called off because "the overwhelming response in Raffles was beyond what we expected", and that the S$50 notes were fully redeemed.

Declining to go into specifics, he would only say that "couple of thousands" worth of S$50 notes were given out during the Raffles Place event.

"Circles.Life is proud of the team that managed the event as it was able to create massive interest towards our newly launched S$3 Unlimited Data on Demand," a Circles.Life spokesman later told TODAY.

While admitting that the event became "too massive to handle" for the company, Mr Ty said the "crowds were handled appropriately, and no one was hurt (or) injured" from the event.

"After having discussion with police (and letting them know of the intention) they came to the conclusion there was no further issue," Mr Ty said.

He added that "(the police) did not have any particular permit for us to apply for. They didn't say you need to have to apply for Permit X (to be able to hold such events)."

Unlimited data for S$3

Mobile virtual network operator Circles.Life on Thursday (Mar 1) launched a daily on-demand unlimited data plan, the latest telco to throw its hat into the unlimited data ring.

To enjoy unlimited data, Circles.Life users need to pay just S$3 a day. They also have the option to purchase only when they require the service.

Thursday's announcement came a year after the Circles.Life — the Republic's fourth mobile operator that offers no-contract mobile plans — made waves by offering customers 20GB of data for S$20.

Speaking to TODAY, Circles.Life co-founder and director Abhishek Gupta said when it launched its expanded data plan, it monitored data usage among its customers.

As it spoke with its customers to know them better, the telco realised that, while the customers appreciated unlimited data, "they didn't want unlimited data...throughout", Mr Gupta said.

"They didn't want to pay (a lot) to be on a long plan. We realised it is possible to offer something more flexible for the customers ... (and also) make it easy for them to purchase," he added.

In a media release on Thursday, the telco added: "Circles.Life believes that the current unlimited plans in the market are limiting customers instead of empowering them."

It also took a potshot at its telco rivals: "Unlimited plans should not be limited to weekend usage, be throttled after hitting a small data cap, or be tied to annual contracts. They also should not be available only to consumers with deep pockets."

Circles.Life also launched the WhatsApp Passport on Thursday, which offers an unlimited roaming option for its customers that use WhatsApp.

From S$1 a day, its customers can get unlimited data usage for WhatsApp messaging in over 18 countries, like Hong Kong, India, the United States, Malaysia and Indonesia.

It is also rolling out unlimited outgoing calls for S$16 a month. Its customers currently are entitled to 100 free minutes of talktime.

These add-ons, all available from Thursday, can be purchased on Circles.Life's mobile application.