At a recent trade show we ran a promotion that asked potential contestants to register via their cell phone. In the booth were signs prompting people to text a code to play one of our themed game shows called “Blackjack Bonanza” that offers a chance to win $250,000.

At a given time, a winner was randomly selected from those registered. That person had to be in the area to participate. We only had to select a couple of people before we had one that was present and ready to play. We’d done it before but this is the first time I was on hand to see it live.

I mention this here because the process was suprisingly easy. If you’re running a promotion at a trade show, festival or sporting event, you may want to consider a “virtual draw” using mobile phones. It eliminates the paper and speeds up the process.

One of our mobile marketing partners provided the engine to make this happen. Comment or shoot me an email though the contact page and I’d be happy to pass along the info.