TextMarks launches Interactive T-shirt
How's this for a vertically-integrated Web 2.0 company? TextMarks, a service I covered in early February, has launched a new service that monetizes content both online...and on your back.
TextMarks is an app that enables a publisher to distribute content via SMS text to a cell phone. Users subscribe with a keyword and instantly receive whatever message you send to them. At the time I first wrote about the company, price points for a monthly subscription were set by the publisher and ranged from $4.99 to $9.99 a month - TextMarks kept a significant portion of all subscription fees collected.
Now, TextMarks has launched Reactee, a clever retailer offering you the ability to create a T-shirt with a logo saying just about anything you want: Obama in '08...Save the Whales...Save Jimmy Wales... The shirt is assigned a code (OBAMA) which is texted to 41411 - the TextMarks short message center - and your preprogrammed message is sent right back.
From the FAQ:
You create a shirt by selecting a slogan, keyword and initial response at the Reactee web site. You then select a color and size for your shirt, enter your cell phone number so that we can activate it, and your billing and shipping information so that we can print and ship the shirt. When someone sees your shirt and sends a text message (SMS) with your keyword to the Reactee short code (41411) they get a text message back that you specified.
You can also receive text messages via your shirt if you choose.
Gizmodo has a shirt, as does Hillary (or a supporter - hard to tell which). They cost between $20 - $27 each, and as far as I can tell you get zero of the sale. On the other hand, you can get texts from strangers without having to divluge your actual mobile number...
A verzion of this could be adapted to a news org's marketing team. I'm not recommending TextMarks specifically, but a hybrid text-promo item model during a sports event or festival could equal fantastic brand awareness both in both digital and analog worlds...
