Companies find success in promotional text messaging

Friday, June 3, 2005 | 10:53 a.m.

Three Las Vegas companies have teamed to develop a monthlong marketing program for a slot club that principals say offers the first use of cellular telephone text messaging to reward gamblers with prizes.

"Cash Call," offered by United Coin Machine Co., Key2Mobile and Mobile Technology Group, enables Gamblers Bonus slot club members and prospective members to call a toll-free number to receive a text message in return that can be used to collect cash prizes the day after the call is made.

The promotion has generated an undetermined number of new sign-ups for the slot club and nearly 3,000 calls a day as participants chase prizes of up to $1,000 per call.

The success of the marketing program has organizers planning new mobile phone promotions.

"Customers like it because they get control," said Erick Rodriguez, chairman and founder of Key2Travel, an online concierge service that owns Key2Mobile and is handling the technology of the program. "We don't spam people."

Here's how Cash Call works: Between May 18 and June 15, the run dates of the promotion, customers can call the toll-free number -- (866) CASH CALL -- and within minutes will receive a return text message on that phone. The customer can cash the amount of the award listed in the message at one of 465 Nevada locations that offer Gamblers Bonus.

Technological features prevent callers from collecting more than one prize per day.

Rodriguez said he thinks mobile marketing is a trend for the future and Las Vegas was a perfect place to try it, since a high percentage of residents own mobile telephones.

United Coin, the nation's largest slot route operator, services more than 10,000 video poker, keno and slot machines in bars, convenience stores and supermarkets in Nevada and Montana.

Raquel Rodriguez, no relation to Erick Rodriguez, is United Coin's director of marketing and said the system allows her company to market directly to the company's most loyal customers by tracking redemptions. She said the one-to-one approach of the system is an economical alternative to existing marketing programs like direct mail.