Mind Control Via Wireless

Did you ever see the episode of Star Trek - The Next Generation called "The Game?" It's the one where they discover this new game and it gives you a sense of euphoria when you win? To make a long story short, everyone gets addicted to the game and an alien race tries to take over the Enterprise. Two things are learned by this. (1) I am a closet Trek fan and (2) addiction to anything can be bad.

This is what I am reminded of when I walk down the street or as I am driving along in my car. Everyone is texting! I mean everyone! It's taking over.

My opinion? It's cumbersome, it causes accidents and your message can be communicated more effectively and in a shorter amount of time if you use the same phone to actually make a phone call. So what is the big deal with texting?

OK fine. I can admit to texting a few times now that I have a PDA/Phone with a QWERTY keyboard. As hard as it is, I am really trying to embrace it. Texting gives you quick little snippets of info, kind of like a Google search. This new generation is all about the quick fix for info. According to Chris Crum over at WPN, Google has added additional features to their mobile search to accommodate "lazy texters." This is primarily due to the HUGE increase in mobile searching. In June of this year 20.8 million U.S. mobile subscribers used mobile search sometime in the month. This is an increase of 68% vs. the same month just one year prior. This will only grow as the prevalence of smart phones increase.

But I still ask why? “What we have to see is that connections are very different than when we were growing up,” said Lilli Friedland, a Los Angeles psychologist who also does consulting for the entertainment industry. Text-messaging is how kids feel comfortable communicating today...”via

We have an entire generation (12-30 year olds) that respond entirely to texting. I have spoken with countless business owners and their opinion is clear - "The only way that you can get through to this group is to send them a text." I tend to agree.

In a previous post I talked about children with cell phones and my reluctance to embrace it. In my quest to embrace the thumb writers, I went on a turkey hunting trip with a 12 year old kid who, and I am not exaggerating here, texted 3 out of every 5 minutes when he was awake. He would go to bed with the cell phone on his chest and flip it open as he woke up and before the sleep was even out of his eyes. This allowed me to witness first hand how deep this thing goes.

So what are we as marketer supposed to do? I can tell you it isn't about the Domino's coupon in the Xbox video game anymore. It's about opting in to receive promotional texts from your local pub or restaurant. Local businesses now have the ability to run short and simple 1 hour promotions through text messaging. AND is costs as little as $0.025 cents per text.

Let's say you are a pizza joint and business slows down to crawl around 7:00 PM. You can send out a text to all participants and let them know that if they come in within the next hour, they are going to get a 16 inch pepperoni pizza for only 5 bucks.

What if it was a big ticket item where you received thousands of dollars off if you came within the next 25 minutes? Instant rebates, instant promotions and instant gratification is now available where it once was not. And at 2.5 cents per impression, there is very little in marketing that you can do on demand for that that low of a cost. Now you have the ability to stop people in their tracks, divert them from what they were doing and get them to bend to your will.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you electronic mind control courtesy of SMS