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Obama Text Message Reaches 2.9 Million!
According to Nielsen Media, Obama’s SMS campaign announce Joseph Biden as his Vice President reached 2.9 million people. Nielsen further states that this could possibly be the largest mobile marketing event in the United States.
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Ashley Furniture Boosts Sales Using SMS
Ashley Furniture used SMS and e-mail in July to inform customers about secret sales. Before a 12-hour private event, Ashley sent text messages and e-mails, allowing it to bring in $30,000 in sales during the one-day event.

To follow up after the 12-hour event, Ashley Furniture held a four-day secret sale. The morning the sale began, 6000 text messages and 28,700 emails were sent to customers. In the end, Ashley saw $138,460 in sales. What is interesting about the two modes of communication is that although the email channel was four times that of text messages, sales from the 6000 customers who received the text messages resulted in $85,438 in sales, or 61.7% of total sales.
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Armani Exchange
A|X Armani Exchange is using SMS to allow shoppers to enter a text-to-win promotion for an “A/X $1,000 Shopping Spree Sweepstakes.” Instructions on how to participate can be found on the retailer’s shopping bags. To enter, all the customer has to do is text the keyword AX to short code 276264 (ARMANI) for a chance to win a $1,000 shopping spree. The catch is that you also agree to receive up to a few SMS marketing messages a month. Not bad at all.

8/27/2008 Update: I just received my first AX SMS that “Armani Exchange End of Summer Sales starts TODAY.  Take an additional 25% off already reduced merchandise! Does not apply to existing promotions.” 
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NFL Saints Use SMS
The NFL Saints are using SMS to interact with fans during the game. They ask fans for there favorite player and display the results in real-time. As an added incentive, participants also have the opportunity to win Saints vs. Packers tickets.
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American Idol SMS Volume
AT&T shared that text messaging volumes jumped up to 78 million during the 6th season of American Idol, up from 64.5 million sent the previous season.

Tags: Marketing, SMS

The book has been out for about a year, but I finally got around to reading Our Iceberg Is Melting by John Kotter-and checking it off of my reading list. If you have an hour to spare, this book is small and can easily be read over a lunch break or before going to bed. I found the story very entertaining, easy to read, and quite enjoyable.

Our Iceberg Is Melting is a fable about a colony of emperor penguins that has lived on an ice berg in Antartica for as long as they can remember. Fred, the main character, is very curious and has a keen sense of observation and notices over a period of time that the only home that they know could be in danger of breaking apart. The story chronicles Fred’s challenges as he tries to convey his information initially to the penguin council and then to the entire colony. Fred runs into roadblock along the way, but logically navigates them, ultimately convincing the colony to change its way of thinking, resulting in them changing their way of life for the better by never being complacent and always being prepared to adapt to new situations. I highly recommend this quick read by Kotter. I have included the eight step of change below…

The Eight Step Process of Successful Change:

Set the Stage
1. Create a Sense of Urgency
Help others see the need for the change and the importance of acting immediately.

2. Pull Together the Guiding Team
Make sure there is a powerful group guiding the change-one with leadership skills, credibility, communications ability, authority, analytical skills, and a sense of urgency.

Decide What to Do
3. Develop the Change Vision and Strategy.

Make it Happen
4. Communicate for Understanding and Buy In.
Make sure as many others as possible understand and accept the vision and the strategy.

5. Empower Others to Act
Remove as many barriers as possible so that those who want to make the vision a reality can do so.

6. Produce Short-Term Wins.
Create some visible, unambiguous successes as soon as possible.

7. Don’t Let Up.
Press harder and faster after the first successes. Be relentless with initiating change after change until the vision is a reality.

Make it Stick
8. Create a New Culture.

Hold on to the new ways of behaving, and make sure they succeed, until they become strong enough to replace old traditions.

Tags: John Kotter, Our Iceberg Is Melting