Idea for oystergotchi character design

I was thinking about how to resolve some problems with the character we could have - how to cover with one character all target audiences (ages, gender, nationalities etc.) and how to keep people interested in using it.

And I came up with this:
TFL is already using some artists to do images for their printed tube map. We could adopt this tradition and make it even more interesting by incorporating a competition into it.
We could suggest a competition held once a year where designers (new graduates, students, also already well known illustrators) could participate. They would be asked to design Oystergotchi character. 12 the best designs would be chosen and designers asked to create full set of expressions of the character. Each character would be used for one month with the name of the designer shown.
As the tube is very public place used with huge amount of commuters, it's a great place to showcase yourself if you are a designer. Also winning a competition for such a big government company looks great in the portfolio. I believe it could have a great response.
And this would bring extra layer to the project. The character would be regularly changing so people wouldn't get bored and art/design would get into the awareness of the public.

And...
We could do a small competition already for the major project itself. We could ask designers if they would be interested in designing the character for us and have nice set of oystergotchis already for the exhibit. The designers could be students of our uni or we could also approach practicing designers, there is lots of email contacts in the Computer Arts magazine...

So...
What do you think? :-)