• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 27, 2010

Remember the dude who held up the sign at the Oscars with a texting DOLPHIN to 44144? A couple of the people behind that text campaign linked to the dolphin slaughter documentary "The Cove," which culminated in the surprise Oscar ad,were on hand at the Mobile Summit to talk about the effort and some of the takeaways that can apply to other text campaigns. Among them, were to keep the call-to-action simple. "Don't try to do 10 things on the first interaction," advised Matt Silk, senior vice president of Waterfall Mobile, who appeared with Stephanie Schipper, vp of technology at Participant Media/TakePart.

But the call to action should link people to compelling content and that the campaign should be spread across all channels including social properties like Twitter and Facebook, mobile and PC-based sites and other outlets. Oh, and "if you win an Oscar that also helps," he said. That 2-second text message flashed on the Oscars broadcast played a big part in helping to get 1.5 million people to sign the petition to stop the mass dolphin killings in Japan. It makes you wonder if that's more an endorsement for TV advertising than mobile, though.

With the dolphin slaughter expected to gear up again in September, Schipper said Participant is likewise preparing a new mobile effort to stop it.