Texting for prizes.

High school students in Chula Vista, California recently got a surprise visit from hiphop mogul Diddy. How? Students at the school sent more text messages than any other San Diego area school during a local radio station contest.

During the four-day contest, Chula Vista students sent 34,000 SMS messages to the radio station, with some students sending hundreds of messages singlehandedly.

According to the news report, 40% of Americans with cell phones have tried SMS texting — and it’s definitely catching the eye of marketers interested in snaring our attention.

For instance, it’s not uncommon to find SMS “short codes” embedded in ads, CDs, or other products. Send a message to this special short code and you can get access to special ringtones or information — or you can get a chance to win a prize.

Exciting new marketing trend? Or yet another high-tech way to distract students from their schoolwork? Let me know what you think.

About Dylan Tweney

I'm the publisher of SMS411.net and of several other sites, including daily haiku/micropoetry site tinywords.com. In my day job, I'm an editor.
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