Random House Promotes Book With SMS Chapter
Book publisher Random House is promoting a new book—Life’s a Pitch—by sending the first chapter via SMS, reports NMA. The chapter is available for free, although I have to wonder how short the chapter is for it to be feasible to be sent by SMS. People who get the chapter also receive details on how to get a 40 percent discount on the book from shops. It sounds like a one-off thing, although if it’s successful I’m sure it will be repeated.
Mar 6, 2007 4:58 PM ET
Posted In: Advertising, Media & Publishing
Newsletter
Comments (1)
Mar 7, 2007 12:17 PM
Text is coming to mobile, for sure, but it looks like most people are still in the inevitable “repurposing” stage. You’d think we’d have learned from the Web experience.
My firm (RazzberrySync.com) has actually devoted some effort to developing SMS-based fiction that accounts for the unique nature of the tech and the expectations of the customer in the 160-character world. What we’ve learned is that repurposing doesn’t work. You have to craft from the ground up around the media and the user event, and that’s a lot harder than it probably sounds.
However, there are some very cool things that DO work. If anybody is interested, you can have a look at our Mobile BlitzFiction offering by visiting the site (or you can just text BLITZ to 47647 - and of course, standard rates apply).