The mobile phone is one of the things that have a great impact to modern times. Almost everyone is using a mobile phone daily for communication and business productivity. SMS is very popular for example in Asia, but is gaining way in Europe and in US. SMS chat is a norm of communicating to individuals and group of people.

I have observed that radio and TV industry have used widely SMS technology. Programs like American Idol have viewer participation by SMS text Shortcodes to vote for the contestants. This kind of communication is very popular among the youth. According to a study in US, nearly 60% of youth with age 18 to 25 years are using SMS technology. In Asia, I have observed that SMS is very popular than voice calls. This might be because SMS is much cheaper than calls.

This is a very effective way of interactive marketing and there are a number of company that provides this kind of service like Cellit Mobile Marketing are experiencing growth.

Some common SMS marketing technology services:

• Contest – giving out a prize for the first 10 person that send a correct SMS text answer about the question
• Voting – people could cast votes on different topics such as “who is your favorite actor?” via SMS text on the various choice available. A good example of this is American Idol or Survivor All-Stars Viewer’s Choice
• Requests – listeners could send a music request via SMS text to the radio program. Fans will have a part in the show
• Interactive TV shows – viewers could interact with the show by sending SMS text about show questions. SMS text is very popular for shows like CSI to solve a case in question.

The above are just a few of the various use of SMS technology in the radio and TV broadcast industry. There will be more use of SMS technology, I believe in the future. It’s easier to send SMS text to interact with a show than calling. Having SMS text will prevent anyone from getting a busy tone when participating in these contest and program. Thus, SMS technology is an effective tool in broadcast industry show.