Method of providing for interactive voting

Abstract

An interactive direct response system combines the use of short text message systems transmitted via GSM-SMS enabled cell phones with a database and website to enable advertisers to view in real time customer responses to a direct response campaign. Customers are invited to respond to a defined advertisement on for example a billboard by responding to a single telephone number associated with the website by sending a text message linked to that particular advertisement, i.e. a single word. A computer receives and analyses the responses and sends an acknowledgement message to the customer.

1 . A method of providing for interactive voting, the method comprising:
 presenting one or more requests for a vote between different vote possibilities;   inviting one or more responses to the presented one or more requests, each of the responses being one of a number of different defined short text messages via short text message service (SMS);   receiving one of the short text messages as the response;   comparing, by one or more processors, the received short text message with one or more retained reference records; and   when the received short text message matches any one of the one or more retained reference records, storing information from the received short text message in a data base.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the request invites the response to a common telephone number. 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein all requests use the same common telephone number, but each request instance uses one or more distinct pre-allocated short text messages,
 the method further comprising analyzing, by the one or more processors, each received response; and   displaying the received responses, sorted in relation to associated requests.   
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the one or more requests are presented from one or more of television, magazines, newspapers, billboards, films, and the Internet. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the request is broadcast on radio or another non-visual device. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors is connected with a computer database used to compare the received short text message with the one or more retained reference records, the computer database being connected by a virtual private network via the Internet to an SMS provider. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising recording the number of responses to each of the presented requests for a vote. 
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein a number of phone numbers and/or groups of reference records corresponding to different requests or surveys conducted are retained in a data storage,
 the method further comprising maintaining a record of the frequency of responses to a particular request, each phone number, or group of records to obtain quantitative data with regard to a particular request or survey.   
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein the quantitative data is one or more of the frequency and a total number of voting responses to a particular request or survey. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the short text message response to one of the requests is a single word compared against a reference list of words stored on a computer database, the reference list of words stored on the computer database being words that are indicated at the computer database as being correct responses to the request.