"Viral" Marketing

A little NYT item you may have missed today in the Business section...

Typically you are told to turn off your cellphone before a performance. But at a recent Saturday matinee of “Spring Awakening”[...] the audience was told to do just the opposite.

“Win Your Chance to Come Backstage!” said a flier inserted into the Playbill, which encouraged theatergoers to send the text message “bdway spring” to a five-digit number before the end of intermission.

And so the lucky winner is "texted" and invited to come backstage post-show for some rudimentary tour.So much for banning cellphones from the theatre...

Oh, and just in case you thought this was just for fun:

At the performance, 62 people sent text messages, which included their telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, in hopes of winning the contest. All of their information went into a database that will be used to pitch Broadway tickets and other promotions.

Big Brother, or at least "Situation Marketing" is watching.