PR releases

Targeted SMS defeats Henry VII at Bosworth but helps Napoleon win at Waterloo

SMS is with us now but came too late for some, apart from King Gromit the
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Observations by SMS text-messaging company KAPOW! demonstrate that text between mobiles has been one of mankind’s greatest advances, and had it been around before now the world would have been a very different place. Years ago we had to walk or ride great distances to tell some poor king that his army had been wiped out some months back, or light a chain of beacons to warn of an enemy approaching, and just try doing that on a wet day.

Things have moved on through the telegraph and telephones and mobile communications have taken us even further. One of the best business and domestic communications tools to arrive is SMS text messaging, and it’s not just a way for teenagers to swap garble amongst themselves.   It enables the medical profession to remind people of appointments, schools to broadcast messages to parents warning when they are shut for emergencies and ticketing agencies to let people know when their tickets are available, amongst many other uses. It is incredibly easy to use, very fast and the messages stay around for people to read at their convenience.

In fact to state that SMS has the power to change the world is not over-egging the omelette.  But what if SMS had been around going back in time? What a different place the world would have been.  KAPOW! has highlighted some situations to illustrate the point.  The messages could have been sent in plain English or in abbreviated text depending upon the audience, both versions are given:

- 1485, Battle of Bosworth Field.  Richard of York lost his throne to the Tudor Henry VII in the days when people simply maimed each other en masse to achieve objectives, with the winner generally having got more blokes on their side than the other. A broadcast SMS to supporters not present at Naseby for the event might have changed our monarchy forever: “IMO am abt to lose thrn gt sk8s on to bswrth.  TTFN.” (“In my opinion I am about to lose the throne, please come down to Bosworth for a spot of fighting.  Goodbye”).

- 1666, the Great Fire of London. A broadcast text message requesting help and buckets from the many customers of the Pudding Lane bakery could have prevented considerable embarrassment for the baker, and a different look to London for us: “Gt dwn to da bkrs! Bns brnt brng bckt.  G2G WOF.” (“Get down to the bakers with a bucket, my buns are lighting up London.  Got to go, wife is on fire.”)

- 1815, Battle of Waterloo.  Another situation where poor communication let one of the sides down.  Napoleon was unable to tell one of his armies to attack before the opposing army had built up reinforcements, and another of his armies didn’t really get to attack anyone because it didn’t get the orders. Short texts broadcast to individual army groups from Boney could have saved the day: “Gt on wiv it b4 thr m8s gt there! (Attack before reinforcements arrive) and “Hv u gt any1 2 fite?” (“Are you involved in any particular battle as of yet?”)  All in French of course.

- 1825, first passenger steam railway.  People needed some idea of when it ran as this was entirely random, there being no real timetable and operators competing for space on the line, sounds familiar..?  SMS would have been great for letting would-be passengers know that the train was about to arrive so they didn’t spend their lives at the station, could be useful now: “Trn is hr. Gt dn 2 stashe.  Brng fud 4 jrny, rlwy sarnies not gr8.” (Your train has arrived.  Bring sustenance as the railway fare is a bit ‘curly’.”)

- 1936, King Edward VIII was ‘walking out’ with American divorcee Wallis Simpson.  He wanted to do the decent thing but prime minister Stanley Baldwin advised him that the public would not have it.  To confirm this Edward could have sent a broadcast SMS to mobile users and set up a voting system for replies in order to gather the real opinion: “Wnt 2 mry Walis Wot u rekon? Txt bk Y 4 Ys or N 4 No.” (I would like to take the hand of Wallis in marriage, do you approve? Please return text saying ‘yes’ or  'no’ using an abbreviated format).  Although it is likely that the text back: “Mry Walis and u will be calld kng Gromit da frst,” would surely have provoked an abdication in any case.

SMS is to some extent a silent revolution. It is being used by a wide range of business people between each other and some organisations are only now beginning to realise the power of providing instantaneous information, which we know employees and customers really value.  SMS is instant, inexpensive, to the point and the messages will stay around until they are read.

We hope KAPOWapow!’s historic illustration of how SMS could have been used will give people ideas of how targeted SMS could work for them, as it is working for some of our well-known clients already.  The only drawback of putting this history together was the realisation that we will never be able to include Napoleon Bonaparte, Edward VIII or Richard of York on our client list.