R U Ready 2 Txt?
Three Ways to Engage your Audience with Text Messaging
by Terah Shelton | Published in November 2007 Focus on Technology | technology
It’s no secret that text messaging has reached critical mass. In fact, according to both Mobile Marketing Association and Pew Internet & American Life Project surveys, 40 percent of U.S. mobile phone users text. What better way to tie your guests into the event and capitalize on this growing trend then by integrating text messages? And if you’re trying to reach Generation Y-ers (ages 18-24), it just might be time 2 txt — 94 percent of them communicate via text messaging.
Here are three ways to use this new medium to your advantage:
Texting Song Requests to the DJ
Guests send song requests directly to the DJ. The song title is then projected on a white screen that can be seen by the DJ and the rest of the audience.
“If you have a large event with more than a thousand people, you don’t want people scrambling up to the stage to give him that song request,” says Philip Richardson, president of Current Affairs, a Hawaii-based event planning and production company. “We’ve gone into a different generation that uses their phones for different reasons. Texting to the DJ is just one of many innovative and exciting ways of using the technology.”
As a Networking or Communication Tool
For the launch of Calvin Klein’s new ckIN2U perfume, Coty Canada – partnered with Overcat Communications — threw a technology-themed event to target Generation Y-ers, the ideal demographic for the product.
“For us, the text messaging really was a way to underscore that the product we were launching was geared to Generation Y-ers,” said Aliki Mahshy, director of public relations and education for Coty Canada.
Free Verizon Wireless phones — activated for unlimited text messaging — were distributed to the guests, and to cap off the event, certain text messages were projected on overhead screens.
Karaoke Idol
Interactivity at events is paramount, and one way Current Affairs is getting the crowd involved is Karaoke Idol. A karaoke booth is set up and guests record themselves singing a song. Later, videos of the guests are projected on overhead screens. Then, guests — using text messaging — vote for their favorite participant.
“Because we are starting to entertain the younger generation, we try to think of some ways to have fun. You can’t have static events,” Richardson explains.
Getting Started
Unlike your kid’s cell phone bill, integrating text messages into your event isn’t necessarily costly, especially if the cost of the equipment needed — a cell phone, a laptop computer, a projector and a white screen — is already calculated into your budget.
“If you’ve absorbed the costs of projectors and screens, there’s no reason it couldn’t be put together, depending on your market and client profile, for an additional cost ranging from $500 to $1,500,” says Richardson.
Afraid it won’t translate to an older demographic? Not to worry. A 2003 MDA Professional Group report put the percentage of texters even higher than the surveys mentioned above — at 70 percent of cell phone owners — so teens aren’t the only ones utilizing this valuable resource.
“Parents of tech-savvy teens have become quite adept at text messaging in order to communicate with their kids,” adds Mahshy.