SMS Alerts: Oscars Used As a Platform For Mobile Call-To-Action
At last night's Academy Awards, the world received a call-to-action from Richard O’Barry, a key figure in the awarded film “The Cove". During the acceptance speech for "Best Documentary Film", he unrolled a sign to then raise up triumphantly. It read: "Text DOLPHIN to 44144".
The cameras quickly panned away from Richard towards the audience, but by observing how sluggish the system was, it seems the damage was done. It took three hours and twenty-five minutes to receive a response message. I woke up this morning now opted-into monthly “dolphin alerts” and linked to a petition for President Obama.
"The Cove" is a documentary about the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, a small Japanese town where dolphins are herded and then butchered by fisherman. Before Richard and crew took the stage, the world was shown clips of dying dolphins leaving streams of blood as they unsuccessfully tried to escape the deadly cove. As the clips ended I heard a sniffle and looked over to discover a friend in tears. Just a fifteen-second clip was enough to transport my friend to that level of passion. Thanks to Richard’s controversial sign, my friend didn’t just wipe away the tears and move onto Alec Baldwin’s next pun. Instead, through text-messaging, she was provided an outlet to immediately act on.
As marketers, we strive for consumer engagement and their interaction with our brands. We spend a lot of time and money in order to reach audiences on a certain emotional level so that they’ll do just that. What we need to remember are the available tools placed in front of us. With mobile devices, these inspired moments of heightened emotion can be captured.
