Sapa Restaurant, Bar and Lounge, New York, NY, offers customers the opportunity to receive special offers and event announcements via text messages sent to their cell phones. “Cell phone numbers are a lot more sacred than e-mail addresses, so to entice people to enroll, we have a monthly drawing for a $500 bar tab with the winner notified by text message,” says Brian Matzkow, owner. Over 1,200 people have signed up via cards given out in house and on Sapa’s Web site. “The beauty of text message marketing is that it can be last minute and it is instant,” Brian explains. Recently when Sunday brunch reservations at the bar were low, he sent out a text message offering unlimited brunch cocktails for patrons dining at the bar, which resulted in a waiting line an hour later. The first customers arrived within 15 minutes saying they had been deciding where to go when the text message came in. “I try not to text more than twice a month and to keep the messages fun,” says Brian. He has hired a company to manage and track responses to individual offers, however, he executes the text messages himself. (Note: When customers sign up they must check a box that says they understand standard message rates of their carrier may apply.)