Russell Buckley points out a Belgium-based SMS campaign Ford is running for its Fiesta. The campaign consists a billboards that act like a giant pinball machines which are controlled by consumers who “play” the game by standing near the board and sending short codes via SMS on their cell phones. The billboards react positively or negatively based upon the players performance which can also be tracked on this website.
The technology’s available to make these types of campaigns prevalent in this country but trying to get behemoth Clear Channel to put them in place will be similar to, as Buckley alludes to, weaning agencies from their stereotypical reliance on the :30.
