Try This at Your Next Event…
SmartMobs points to a Reuters story on U2 using text messaging at their shows to influence policy (or get signups… depending on how cynical you feel).
Then the band launches into the song “One,” and Bono encourages the audience to use their phones to send a text message to the one.org Web site, a sort of digital petition voicing support for poverty relief in Africa. Later, during the encore, the names of all who did so are scrolled on the same screen, and each receive a message of thanks from Bono on their phones.
It has all the important pieces - a celebrity request, a good goal, collective action (peer-pressure), and recognition…