When we worked on the Get Your Vote On campaign last year, one of the applications we developed with Exponentia was instant polling via SMS.

At a live event, we could use our web display on big screens to pose questions, and let those in the audience vote in real time using their cell phone.

Kevin Millsip from Check Your Head had a brilliant idea on how to get people interesting in taking part. He suggested the first poll question: “Should the guy next to you buy you a beer ?”

According to The Register, Virgin Mobile in the UK is on the same page:

Virgin Mobile is offering its gig-going punters free beer and kebabs this summer as part of plans to be nice to its customers.Virgin Mobile punters attending certain youth-oriented events will be invited to text the word “beer” or “kebab” to a short code number. In return, they’ll receive a text containing a voucher for two free beers and a kebab.

So, if we had it to do all over again, maybe the question would be:
“Should the Virgin next to you buy you a beer?”