JotYou!

JotYou is a site that allows you to send SMS text messages to mobile phones, but with a twist. You can set up the message delivery so that it only delivers when people are in a specific geographical area and you can adjust the send time and expiration time of the message. So, your recipients only get the message if they are in the area you have selected within the specified time frame. If they arrive too late or if they do not move within the location radius, they never get the text message.

After looking at the demo video for JotYou, I got to thinking that this service might actually be useful to arts organizations. I'm not going to go into the pros, cons, and etiquette of using mobile messaging as a marketing tool, since that's a whole other can of worms. But, for the sake of argument...

Let's say your organization sponsors a gallery or art crawl through your downtown cultural district. You could have people sign up beforehand to be part of the Art Crawl Mobile Messaging Tour, which would message the guests, as they navigate the streets, with tips about things to see, directions to get there, and maybe even clues that would lead them to Art Crawl Mobile Messaging Tour exclusive content (like free cups of hot chocolate and coffee).  How cool is that?

I have not actually tried JotYou, so I don't know how reliable the service is or how accurate its geographical-based messaging is, but I think that the potential for creating value-added experiences for willing participants could be interesting enough to start experimenting with JotYou.