Rock the Vote ran a mobile campaign that drove 80,000 unique visitors to the organization's WAP site.

Rock the Vote tapped 4Info to power the campaign. 4Info helped Rock the Vote reach teens with messages about the importance of making their voices heard.

"The message of the Rock the Vote Campaign was essentially to remind teens and college-age adults to exercise their right to vote in the election," said Kirsten McMullen, senior marketing manager for 4Info, San Mateo, CA.

"4Info offered to run the campaign as a pro-bono effort because the company is passionate about encouraging young voters to participate in the voting process regardless of party affiliation, and we know that mobile is one of the best ways to reach that audience," she said.

Rock the Vote's mission is to engage and build the political power of young people to achieve progressive change in the country.

Rock the Vote uses music, popular culture and new technologies to engage and incite young people to register and vote in every election. It provides young people with the tools to identify, learn about and take action on the issues that affect their lives, and leverage their power in the political process, per the mission.

"Because the target audience is teens and college-aged adults, mobile is one of the best ways to reach and connect with this audience," Ms. McMullen said.

"Research shows that teens are already among the heaviest users of SMS and therefore putting a relevant message into the medium that they're most comfortable with is an effective way to deliver a brand message and call to action," she said.

4Info ran Rock the Vote text ads at the within text messages being sent out by content providers such as CareerBuilder, Cellware, Evite, foneshow, funForMobile, HonestyBox, Myxer and PhoneZoo,

The campaign was click-to-WAP, where users could find their closest voting station and get candidate information on Rock the Vote's mobile web site.

Once users clicked on the text ad they were rerouted to a Rock the Vote mobile site at http://rtv.tmce.biz/wap4.

The text ad read, "Rock the Vote & 4INFO remind you to exercise your right to vote on November 4. Visit http://rtv.tmce.biz/wap4 to learn more."

The campaign ran Oct.29 to Nov. 4.

"Other media like TV and print may be fine as complementary parts of a brand campaign, but only mobile has the ability to influence potential voters when they're out and about -- and the idea was not only to remind them of their right, but to encourage that they head to local polling stations," Ms. Mc Mullen said.

"Mobile could leverage this opportunistic component and drive people to a location with a direct call to action," she said.

The campaign required quick turnaround on creative.

Fortunately, creative development for SMS simply requires well-written text.

The Rock the Vote brand is well-known, so the simple call to action developed worked.

"Rock the Vote was the most successful pro-bono campaigns run by 4Info to date," Ms. McMullen said.

"We reached over 25,000 unique users per day for the first five days, with interest exploding towards Election Day, with nearly 50,000 unique users on Nov. 2 and over 80,000 unique users on Nov. 3 clicking through to the Rock the Vote Web site," she said.