Wild Rivers Water Park is using mobile coupons to drive visitors to the park.

Cable television spots in the Orange County area of California broadcast commercials encouraging viewers to text the keyword WILD to short code 74642.

"Wild Rivers Water Park is competing against other amusement parks and outdoor water parks and was seeking a differentiating factor and incentive to offer customers," said Shira Simmonds, president of Ping Mobile, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Wild Rivers Waterpark is located in the heart of Orange County in Irvine, CA. Its rides include Sunshine Terrace, Sweitzer Falls, The Abyss, The Cobras, The Patriot, Tugboat Bay, Typhoon Lagoon, Wahtubee, Water Walk and Wipeout.

Cox Media worked on the TV spots that promote the call to action.

The TV spots invite people to text-in to receive $5 off general and junior admission to the park. The campaign will run thru Sept. 28.

Consumers who text in receive a coupon code that is not unique and could therefore be forwarded to friends for redemption at the park.

Customers simply show the message on their phone at the ticket counter to redeem the offer.

This saves the hastle of having to cut out paper coupons and having to remember to bring them along when going to the Water Park.

The mobile device is so personal, that consumers never leave home without them, positioning devices as a sure way to reach consumers.

This is especially true with SMS users.

SMS is expected to generate $177 billion in global services revenues in 2013, according to ABI Research, New York.

The market researcher said SMS will account for 83 percent of all mobile messaging revenues through 2013 (see story).

Ping Mobile is running a slew of SMS-based mobile campaigns for clients across industries.

Las Vegas' Orleans Stadium Hotel and Casino used Ping Mobile to promote concerts (see story).

Additionally, the Wyndham hotel chain is running a mobile campaign for its Days Inn Business Place division to compile a database of prospects for remarketing. Ping Mobile is managing this effort as well (see story).

"Mobile was a great fit for Wild Rivers Water Park, their target audience of teens, people in their twenties and families are extremely open to receiving and redeeming mobile promotions," Ms Simmonds said.

"The mobile offer was crafted to target the Water parks key demographic via a medium that is most popular to them with and offer that is highly relevant," she said.