Archive for the ‘Text Message Voting’ Category

The NBA has certainly been innovative in its use of mobile marketing.  Since 2008, it has allowed fans to vote for their favorite athlete in the Slam Dunk competition via text message SMS voting and online at NBA.com.

This year, the NBA took it even further by allowing fans to vote by its mobile app or via Twitter using #SpriteSlam.  Sprite sponsored the event.

During the finals, fans chose the ultimate winner between the Raptors’ Terrence Ross and the Jazz’ Jeremy Evans who was the 2012 Slam Dunk champion.  Fans voted via text message by texting the name of their favorite to 38657 (DUNKS).  Ross received 58% of the vote in the finals to become the 2013 Slam Dunk champion.

But, unfortunately for the NBA, its execution of the SMS voting was not exactly a slam dunk.

I voted twice during the finals (there was no limit on the amount of times you could vote).  Both times that I voted, I received no reply text message.  That’s bad for a variety of reasons.  But, the most important reason why it’s bad is that the fan has received no acknowledgement of having voted.  If you are new to using text message voting by short code, your immediate reaction is that the text message must not have been received.

But, there’s more.  Had the NBA provided a reply message, it could have asked for an opt-in for future text message broadcasts from the NBA.  Imagine the value of that database for the NBA to promote its televised events or even the 2014 NBA Slam Dunk competition.  Moreover, what better time to get an opt-in from fans than during the exciting Slam Dunk competition.

Sure, the reply messages would have cost the NBA some money since all text messages from a short code do have a cost to them.  But, that cost could have been absorbed by Sprite to provide a mobile coupon or other event.

It’s great to see a prominent television show use text message voting, but the NBA’s use of text message voting looked more like the first round of missed dunks than the riveting final round of slams.

What a great group of colleges using our 84444 text message marketing solution.

It’s a great endorsement when a university says that your text message marketing program is good enough to be used by it.  Because, after all, if you work at a university like Princeton, you must be pretty smart!

84444.com has been used by many colleges, universities, and schools for many different reasons.  Here’s just a few:

• Voting — Local American Idol type competitions at the local school have used our text message voting and the students love it!
• Emergency Alerts — Problem on campus?  Texting is a great way to keep students safe and out of harms way.  Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA, knows it.
• Sports Information — Scores, schedules, cancellations, and news are a great way to keep family, friends, students, and alumni informed and in touch with their school.  Our texting site rode along with Virginia Commonwealth to the Final Four a few years ago.  Check out Tiger Text at Princeton.
• Cancellations — School cancelled or early dismissal?  Let parents and students know by text message.
• Cafeteria Menus — Duke University uses us to let students know about specials on campus.
• Advertiser Promotions — Grambling University uses 84444 for advertiser sponsored commercials on the scoreboard during games.
• Book Store — At West Virginia, the student book store runs specials and contests to encourage university merchandise sales.
• Recruitment — At Pierce College in Philadelphia, advertisements on public transportation encourage prospective students to inquire about the college and the leads go directly to the admissions department.  Even Huntington Learning Center has realized how this great tool can be good for business.
• Hospitals — The University of Texas uses text messaging to keep in touch with its student body.

2012 is expected to be a very tight race for the president and one pro-Obama group is offering an interactive text message program to help voters find polling places.

Given our current levels of technology, it certainly seems as though the voting system of having to go to a polling place is somewhat archaic, not to mention difficult in some cases to fight the lines.  It would seem to be high time that the public is able to vote by the internet, by an app, or by text message.

Unfortunately, that time is not quite here yet so we’ll have to continue to vote in much the same manner that our forefathers did.

But, there is an interesting use of text messaging and voting today.  A group called NARAL has come out with a text message program that enables users to find out where their polling place is.  I tried it by texting VOTE to 49609.  It then asked me for my address and when I entered it, my polling place came back perfectly.

I have no idea how many people are using this interactive text message polling place finder, but you have to admit, it’s a pretty cool idea, especially in an election that is expected to be very tight.

84444.com is making no political position by this article regarding NARAL or its beliefs.  It is merely pointing out an innovative use of text message marketing.

FIGHT FOR THE PRESIDENCY: Romney and Obama can send you political text messages so long as they aren’t from an auto dialer.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) was written to address consumer concerns about telemarketing calls.  The TCPA covers sending unsolicited advertisements to fax machines (about the only thing we get here any more are just that), the use of auto dialers, and sending text messages to mobile phones.

The law is designed to protect consumers against unwanted solicitations which is why when it comes to text message marketing, you always need an opt-in from the consumer prior to sending out your text message marketing messages.

But, hold on, the same rules don’t necessarily apply to political messages.  Wonderful, how politicians carved out their own exemption from this rule when it is precisely their messages that most consumers would least like to receive.

So, now that we are in the throes of an election campaign, what are the rules for telemarketing when it comes to political candidates?

Under the rules of the TCPA, campaign volunteers may call voters on their landline or wireless phones.  What they can’t do, however, is use an auto dialer to leave a robocall on a mobile phone.

In  a nutshell:

• LEGAL — Calling a voter on a landline phone from an auto dialer to leave a robocall message without any prior consent of the voter.
• ILLEGAL — Calling a voter using an auto dialer to their cell phone without their prior written consent.
• LEGAL — For a campaign worker to send a text message to a voter’s cell phone.
• ILLEGAL — For a campaign to use an auto dialer to send texts to a voter’s cell phone without prior written consent.

Editor’s Note — 84444.com is not considered an auto-dialer.

Fantasy football blog site Fantasy Football Sideline used 84444.com to conduct its vote for Football’s Hottest Wives.  Over 26,000 votes were cast for Football’s Hottest Wives in the annual competition sponsored by Fantasy Football Sideline and Fantasy Baseball Dugout.  Matt Schaub’s wife Laurie repeated as the champion by overtaking an early lead by Julie Dorenbos, wife of Eagles Pro Bowl long-snapper Jon Dorenbos.

Wayne, Pennsylvania – For the second consecutive year,

Voting by text message helped earn Laurie Schaub the title of Football's Hottest Wife.