The other day we came across an interesting editorial at Chief Marketer.  Columnist Lane Michel opines on the current state of mobile ad spending, and what the future will bring. The article is worth a full read, but we've got some excerpts:

Will mobile phone advertising be intrusive or a boon for the consumer? That debate, which has been building, is about to boil over as wireless phone companies and advertisers run tests.

From today’s $3 billion in mobile advertising spending, ABI Research projects that spending to grow to $19 billion by 2011.

That growth will not come without challenges though:

To consumers, that could translate into many unwanted messages and interruptions on a device most consider very personal.

Despite these challenges, Michel recognizes that the potential is simply to great for them not to be overcome:

Every call made, every text message sent, every Web page surfed from the mobile device is attributable to you, the owner of the phone having a contract with a wireless phone company. It doesn’t take too many leaps to realize that your wireless provider knows where you live and what you do. All phones have GPS tracking as mandated by the FCC for emergency call locating. The behavioral information collected, or that can be collected, about you is what the advertising industry is so interested in.

It’s the holy grail of advertising to make a direct personal ad that gets a direct purchase connection. This is about as close as it gets.

He sees a successful future for advertisers who understand grouped needs, who set up permission systems, who responsively learn, and who build positive consumer experiences.

For more, read the entire article.

As text messaging has proliferated, it was only a matter of time before some tech-savvy artist figured out a way to integrate the power of SMS into a piece of art. Enter TXTUal Healing:

TXTUal Healing is an interactive public theater piece. It looks at the cell phone as a device not just to remove oneself from a physical space, but to interact with and explore  it.

Using 'always on' technology, cell phones with SMS allow an audience to interact with public space through projections on the structures that surround us, like the facade of a building for instance. The Speech bubbles are positioned near windows and doors to encourage an audience to create the conversations happening inside. The public audience receives a flyer with a cell number and simple instructions. A participant sends a text message to the provided phone number and it is then displayed inside the speech bubble. Multiple bubbles may be used and the audience can direct their input to a specific bubble.       

The piece explores the use of mobile technology to trigger dialogue, action and create content for a staged public performance. By using the facade of a building the intention is to engage an audience to think about the physical spaces we move through, live in and share. I'm trying to address public vs. private space and what kind of dialogue might transpire if we shared out private thoughts. The piece was designed to encourage play, idea sharing, thought, discourse, and entertainment.

Some cool examples:

• Graffiti in the style of the famous Jesus Saves, on the sides of Brooklyn apartment buildings.
• An interactive, text-bubbled Last Supper: One Of Your Will Betray Me
• And, in a cool juxtaposition of the past and the present, text messages projected on the walls of the Roman Coliseum.

(Via Textually)

When Portland, Oregon's Rose Quarter decided that they wanted to find more effective, cost efficient promotional tools, they looked to text messaging. After a bit of early apprehension, they decided to go for it; the results speak for themselves:

...when the Rose Quarter was mulling over text messaging, one of the major issues wasn't the cost, but the size of the database, and whether to wait until the database had fattened up before management moved forward.
"We started with 3,000 people," Eric Blankenship, Global Spectrum Director of Marketing at the Rose Quarter, told Pollstar. "That was what we wrestled with. Do we want to wait until it's 10,000? Do we want to wait until it's 15,000? And we didn't. We have 3,000 people who want our message via text messaging. Let's give it to them."
The Rose Quarter launched its first round of text messaging with a ticket presale announcing the June 13th Faith Hill / Tim McGraw Soul2Soul date at Portland's Rose Garden Arena. All 3,000 participants received a password and Web link to purchase tickets before the general public.
How did it go?
"Through text messaging alone, we sold $25,000 worth of tickets on the first day," Blankenship said. "Again, it goes back to, ‘Should we do something with the 3,000 people or should we wait until its bigger?' If we had waited a little bit we wouldn't have sold $25,000 worth of tickets. So, for us it was good."

You can read the full article at Pollstar.

Who needs MovieFone when you can get local movie listings text messaged to your phone?

The MovieConnect application invites consumers to sign up to receive text messages directly from rich media ad units. Essentially, by "rolling over" a PointRoll unit, consumers can enter their mobile number and ZIP code to receive local listings and showtimes directly on their mobile device when they become available.
...
The goal of MovieConnect is also to create targeted advertising with a local focus that can help studios and theaters buff ticket sales and enable tracking of individual customer interaction and behavior.

Read the entire article at MediaPost Online Media Daily.

Messaging services provider 4INFO announced the launch of what it calls the industry's first marketplace for SMS advertising:

The 4INFO Advertising Marketplace platform will enable marketers to include targeted advertising within SMS content from 4INFO's mobile services as well as partners including USA Today, Spark Networks and TV Guide.

Read more at FierceMobileContent.

And finally, in an example showing just how deeply text messaging has become a part of American society, the AP is reporting that the NCAA has approved a ban on text messaging between coaches and recruits. (Via Textually.org)

Although the mobile marketing industry is still in its infancy, we're hearing more and more tales of successful campaigns. Each story like the one below that lands in our inbox, is one more affirmation of the coming explosion in the mobile marketing space.

Mobile Insider reports that MVNO Boost Mobile partnered with mobile community provider AirG to produce a successful campaign for West Coast Customs, a popular California car customizer. The response was overwhelming--over 1.5 million entries:

Those 1.5 million entries came in almost entirely via the phone in a 90-day span. Keep in mind that Boost Mobile is an MVNO form Sprint Nextel aimed at the youth market. It only has 3.8 million customers.
...
Part of the secret sauce for this campaign was careful media planning and targeting on the front end. “We don’t think this would have worked on another network,” says Ghahramani. “The offer doesn’t resonate with the demographic or the user. But with Boost Hookt you got urban youth who care about pimping out their cars.”

The 'secret sauce,' of course, is based upon one of the most desirable principles of mobile marketing--that you can target and directly reach exactly the type of consumer who will respond to your campaign.

When you plan properly, the results speak for themselves:

In fact, the winner of the pimped-out car at the center of this contest was a young Jersey man who was a gas station attendant and one of ten kids in his family. A $40,000 tricked-out car was exactly the lure he would have wanted. The contest, the delivery vehicle, and the offer apparently hit their target dead-on.

Here's Mobile Insider's take on the power of targeting:

Getting 1.5 million entries off of a niche audience on a small carrier in 90 days is a good indication of how powerful the medium can be when marketers really hit their relevancy target. On mobile, media planning could be king. Aligning just the right offer with just the right target via just the right content may become the mobile marketer’s delicate dark art. Which is to say that mobile requires all the same disciplines that make all forms of digital marketing work… only more so.

Check the source to read more details about the campaign: http://blogs.mediapost.com/mobile_insider/?p=59

ClubTexting, the parent of this blog, opened for business a year ago with a radical marketing proposition--allow nightclub patrons to use their cellphones to opt in to read about promotions and events in the palm of their hands. Instead of relying on promoters to hand out flyers to people who may or may not be interested, opt-in mobile messaging allows you to speak directly to customers who want to know about what your venue has to offer them.

What differentiates ClubTexting from so many other similar mobile messaging services, is that ClubTexting allows customers to sign up with their thumbs--not by heading to a website, not by writing their name on a form, and not by sending them to a WAP site--with ClubTexting, Customers opt-in to the service by sending a text message with your venue name to the number 25827 (Clubs). That's it.

The possibilities for a venue owner looking to sign up loyal patrons are endless. Do you often have long lines outside of your venue? What better way to impress upon your customers the value for them of signing up for your service than having a bouncer or a rep. walk down the line handing out cards with your keyword?

DJ's can call out the short code--"Text VenueX to CLUBS to sign up for our VIP list." You can post signs inside your venue with your new keyword. And of course, you can integrate your new mobile marketing campaigns with your existing campaigns. If you print flyers add your keyword to them and see just how effectively you are reaching potential customers. If you've spent the last few years cultivating an email database, you now have a new way to exploit that asset--when you send your weekly list of events you can let your customers know about your keyword.

Text Messaging is not just another way to communicate with your customers; it's a better way. Today no one goes anywhere without their cell phone, which means that with a ClubTexting account, you have permanent, 24/7 access to your customers. And not just any customers, customers who want to hear from you! Further, ClubTexting is unique because it allows your customers to easily let you know that they want to hear from you with a few taps on the keys of their phone. Why send them to a website--as other providers often make them--when you can allow them to sign up right then, right there, with the device on which they will receive the actual messages?

Once you've built up a list of customers, sending them messages is simple. Just log on to the ClubTexting website, compose a message in our simple form, and click Send.

While ClubTexting was originally conceived with venue owners in mind, the service has rapidly expanded, rolling out solutions tailored for event marketers,  retailers, and magazines. Check back Friday to hear about how magazine publishers are implementing mobile marketing strategies.

    2007—already dubbed by many the year of the iPhone—will likely be remembered as the year that the handheld advertising market exploded in to an essential distribution platform, especially for marketers looking to reach the much desired 18 – 34 demographic.
    Unlike radio, television, and even the internet, mobile marketing promises to deliver advertisers narrowly targeted, uniquely personal messages, broadcast to multiple users on diverse platforms. An advertiser who implements a mobile marketing plan is now able to reach users via text messages (SMS), the mobile web, enhanced multimedia messages, rich content (ringtones, ringbacks, graphics, & games), and even voice and video.
    A nightclub owner can send patrons on his opt-in VIP text list a short message about a drink special that evening, or, he could send out an invitation, which the patron could show the bouncer, rewarding the loyal patron with expedited entry.
    Well known female oriented magazines send out weekly text blasts filled with tips on food, clothing, exercise, and more.
    People vote for American Idol contestants on their cell-phones, and cast ballots in the MVP polls for major sporting events.
    Instead of the bottom of a soda bottle cap having printed on it, "You win a free liter of soda," you now text in a special code to the number that spells out the name of the beverage company.
…
    As mobile web browsers mature, the speed of American cellular networks increases, and the screen sizes of phones and other handheld devices expands, a presence on the mobile web will be as essential for your business as a regular web presence is for it today.
    Why 2007? When you combine an ever-growing group of Americans who have grown up experiencing cell-phones as a part of their everyday lives, with the maturation of data services, and the imminent arrival of the iPhone, it becomes clear that we have reached a tipping point. Cellular data services have been around for a long time—witness the popularity of the Blackberry in the business world—and it seems that the release of the iPhone or an imitator will likely put us over the top. MP3’s and digital music files, as well as portable MP3 players were around before the iPod came out; it was the iPod’s runaway success as not just a technological marvel, but a status symbol, that led us to a 2007 where older adults who are afraid to use a computer have their children (and grandchildren) load up iPods with their favorite music for them.
    And this brings us back to the rise of the mobile marketing platform. As users become more and more comfortable using their cellular phones as more than just phones, whether because of device functionality convergence (eg a Cameraphone, an MP3 Player/Phone) or the rise in popularity of rich-media products such as ringtones and mobile applications, users will understand, respond to, and come to expect personalized mobile marketing campaigns delivered to the palm of their hand.