Patent ID: 8249920

Claim:
An interactive system utilizing short text messages transmitted by Short Message Service (SMS), the interactive system comprising: (a) a plurality of separate advertisements each advertising by non-SMS means an identical product or service and each inviting one or more participants to respond via a cell phone to a predetermined phone number common to all of the advertisements, wherein each advertisement requests the one or more participants to respond to the advertisement by texting to the predetermined phone number a different predetermined SMS short text message having distinct content that identifies the predetermined SMS short text message as being a response to one of the advertisements and not the other advertisements; and (b) a computer system for receiving a short text message sent from the one or more participants via SMS to the predetermined phone number in response to the plurality of advertisements, the computer system adapted to identify the received short text message as being in response to a particular one of the advertisements by searching a content of the received short text message and identifying at least a portion of the distinct content associated with at least one of the advertisements in the content of the received short text message, and wherein the computer system is constructed and arranged to send an automated short text message reply via SMS to the cell phone in response to receiving the received short text message.