Live Earth Uses TXT To Get Message Across

Written by Adam Gosling

Saturday, 07 July 2007

The global Live Earth concerts running for 24 hours on today 07/07/07 will be watched by up to two billion people in cities around the world.Concert organisers in conjunction with VeriSign, Inc. are making it possible for more people to participate by sending SMS messages which show their support. Participants will be able to use their mobile phones and personally show their commitment to making a change for the environment.  Concert goers and home viewers alike will be able to text a key word pertaining to one of six areas of their lives in which they want to make a change (home, job, shop, ride, share, and lead) to 199 66 777. In return they will receive a message back confirming their commitment, and giving them a solution to apply to their daily lives, such as replacing traditional light bulbs with more energy efficient compact fluorescents, or leaving the car at home and biking to work.  A second message will invite people to publicly join in the movement by responding with their first name, last initial and city which will then be posted on screens at the various concert venues through a VeriSign-enabled text2screen feature. TV broadcasts and online event streams on MSN.com will also incorporate text pledges, and the names of people who participate will be listed on liveearth.org after the concerts end.   "Live Earth is committed to providing our global audience with ways to ‘Answer the Call' and individually make a difference to help solve the climate crisis," said Kevin Wall, founder and producer of Live Earth. "With VeriSign's help, we're able to communicate this message on a mass scale in a way that engages people and inspires them to act." Live Earth's SMS communications launched last week and will continue long after the event. Participants can sign up for ongoing mobile communications and solutions from Live Earth by sending a keyword (SOS) to the short-code or by entering their mobile information on a Web form.  "VeriSign is proud to bring our expertise and mobile messaging technology to Live Earth's global effort to improve the environment," said Todd Johnson, senior vice president of global marketing, VeriSign. "We provide the digital infrastructure that enables more efficient communication, access to content and sharing of information, making a positive impact on our environment." The Live Earth SMS campaign is designed to communicate solutions to the climate crisis that people can easily incorporate into their daily lives while giving attendees and viewers around the world a chance to be a part of this historical event. The Live Earth SMS campaign is running in 4 global markets - the U.S., UK, Germany and Australia - and will be incorporated in venue and in broadcast in every market. Related news items Tiny Rugged UMPC WIth Vista -10/10/2007 Consumers Want FMC: Companies Don't See The Benefit -02/10/2007 Nokia Buys Map Company For US$8 Billion -02/10/2007 Seven In Unwired Takeover Bid -26/09/2007 Major Players To Test WiMAX Interoperability -26/09/2007 Newer news items Mobile TV Gets A Big Boost -19/07/2007 Google Begins Taunting Cell Phone Carriers -19/07/2007 Google Experiments With AdSense For Mobile -16/07/2007 Nokia Takes A Skype Tablet -11/07/2007 Big Brother Fans Go TXT Crazy On 3 -08/07/2007 Older news items Vodafone Puts Rugby On Your Mobile -25/06/2007 ninemsn Gets Mobilised -28/05/2007 Missy Higgins On NextG Mobilecast -28/05/2007 Drive Gets Mobile -11/05/2007 Optus, Fairfax Put Finance On Phones -04/05/2007 Tag This Now: