Wild Rivers Water Park is using mobile marketing to prompt locals to visit during the hot summer season.
Television spots running on Cox Media's cable network ask consumers to text the keywords WILD or WET to short code 269411 to receive a discount on admission. Ping Mobile is powering the messaging aspect of the campaign.

"The strategy for this client was to prompt local residents to visit the Wild Rivers water park during the summer season," said Shira Simmonds, president of Ping Mobile, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. "In addition, the client wanted to capitalize on the database that they had obtained from their mobile campaign the previous year by pushing out messages to those respondents, motivating them to visit the water park."

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.

The challenge for Wild River is motivating residents in the Orange County, CA, area to visit the water park at a time when amusement parks and activities are considered a luxury, and the general population has a severely limited disposable income.

Offering a discount was great way to overcome that.

Consumers that texted in the keyword WILD received a message that said, "Use code:'COX03' when visiting www.WildRivers.com or @the ticket window at the park for $7 off Gen or $5 off Jr. admission @Wild Rivers! Hurry, Offer Ends Soon!"

Then, recipients got another message asking them to double opt-in for future communications from Wild Rivers.

Consumers that texted in WET to the short code received a different message. This initial offer said, "Use code:'CIT09' when visiting www.WildRivers.com or the ticket window @ the park for $10 off Gen or $8 off Jr. admission @ Wild Rivers! Hurry, Offer Ends Soon!"

Consumers who received this offer were also asked to double opt-in.

The mobile device is so personal that consumers never leave home without it, positioning mobile 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).

Wild Rivers has done mobile in the past. Last summer Wild Rivers used mobile coupons to drive visitors to the park (see story).

"Mobile was suitable for this client because it provided an ideal medium to complement the existing advertising channels being used- television spots and outdoor digital signage," Ms. Simmonds said.

"Two keywords were utilized and the results were measured separately for the two mediums," she said.

"The results conclusively indicated that cable spots in conjunction with the mobile call-to-action were the most effective medium to advertise this campaign."