Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. is using mobile as part of its effort to promote its new product called Red Stag by Jim Beam.

The campaign uses text-to-win sweepstakes called “Call of the Wild.” Consumers are asked to text keyword RS and their email address to short code 73637. Those opting in to the sweepstakes via text will receive an email invitation to join The Herd, a database of names for future marketing messages from Red Stag.

“Red Stag is not your father’s bourbon,” said Brian Gallagher, manager of sponsorship marketing for Beam Global, Deerfield, IL. “It provides a fresh, contemporary taste that appeals to both longtime Jim Beam fans and new consumers who may not have previously considered the bourbon category.

“We are aiming to extend and deepen the brand’s relevance to males of legal purchase age with contemporary executions and calls-to-action,” he said. “The mobile and interactive focus of this campaign – entering the “Call of the Wild” sweepstakes through mobile text messages – is a way to talk to these consumers in their language and in their environments.”

Red Stag by Jim Beam uses an artisanal infusion process to combine four-year-old Jim Bean Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey with natural black cherry flavors.

The Call of the Wild sweepstakes will grant one winner and three friends an all-access weekend to see Kid Rock perform live in Las Vegas, among other prizes.

The sweepstakes runs from July 6 to Aug. 31.

Consumers can also enter the sweepstakes at http://www.jimbeam.com, as well as on Facebook through the Red Stag and Jim Beam fan pages.
“The sweepstakes is open to and unites all Jim Beam and Kid Rock fans of legal purchase age,” Mr. Gallagher said. “A different breed of Bourbon and a different breed of rock star – there’s no better match.”

Red Stag will sponsor of Kid Rock’s 2009 Rock ‘N’ Rebels Tour, which will hit 25 cities nationwide this summer.

Globatel Media has launched two new SMS messaging services to provide two-way text dialogs from any PC to any mobile phone . It is will not depend on device, platform, carrier or wireless plan.

The new systems, Mobile Campaign Manager and Alirti, are designed to help companies, brands and agencies extend their market and engage in a dialog with partners, customers and prospects. The services will also allow for couponing, weekly specials, product announcements, contests and sweepstakes, as well as ticket and event promotions.

“We use the Globaltel platform to schedule all of our campaigns, create our entire messaging flow and integrate databases of numbers,” said Scott Yoneyama, CEO of Mobile Dirt, Sammamish, WA. “Messages just flat out get delivered.”

Alirti delivers rich electronic content via SMS, such as audio, video and images, offering customized content ranging from product images and lifesaving medical information to live video clips via an embedded and hosted URL within the body of a text message.

Mobile Dirt is a mobile messaging aggregator.

Globaltel’s first platform, Mobile Campaign Manager, will allow users to set up, manage, track and measure targeted two-way text message campaigns via a centralized Web interface.

This also allows for mobile-originated interactive chat and provide feedback about user interaction, response, delivery and receipt rates.

“Mobile ought to be a line-item for big brands—it should be a leg in the stool of any marketing plan, and many brands are waking up to that,” Mr. Yomeyama said. “Lack of standardization across handsets is a significant challenge.

“With more handsets becoming browser-enabled, that’s starting to push the marketplace forward,” he said.
However, some challenges still remain.

“The restrictions and the process of approving short codes, while they do have merit, make it challenging to do business,” Mr. Yomeyama said. “If the short code approval process could be streamlined so we could deploy more rapidly, with the submission of a checklist and here we go, that would help tremendously.”

The systems will also have many healthcare applications like creating public awareness about swine flu, urgent requests to mobile physicians and surgeons for emergency services, as well as secure and discreet patient information.
“Two-way texting is going to take over the marketplace,” said Robert Sanchez, CEO at Globaltel Media, San Diego, CA.

Award-winning musical “The Lion King”used mobile to drive ticket sales. at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas
 
Commercial spots on the Cox Media cable network encouraged viewers to text the keywords NALA or MUFASA to short code 269411. Ping Mobile powered the mobile aspect. The Lion King and Mandalay Bay were able to build an opt-in database of locals interested in receiving promotions in the future.
“The strategy for this client’s campaign was to generate buzz about the Lion King musical production at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, as well as drive traffic to the outdoor shopping mall – Town Square,” said Shira Simmonds, president of Ping Mobile, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
“Mobile was suitable for this campaign because it provided the ability to engage the target market, be the medium for the scavenger hunt and provide extremely detailed metrics from beginning to end,” she said. “It will also be the preferred platform for remarketing to the respondents.”
 
This campaign was unique.

Consumers who texted in NALA or PUMBA got a message that said, “Find Lion King Paw Prints near Your next clue @ Whole Foods in Town Square. Address: 6689 Las Vegas Blvd.”
 
When the consumer reached the destination, they were asked to text LION to the same short code to get the next clue.
Respondents that used the keyword LION got a message that said, “Get “ON” Your way and “sea” the latest clothing styles at Your next clue in Town Square!”
 
Once consumers reached Town Square and found the next clue, they were asked to text TIMON to the short code.
 
In return they got a message that said, “It’s a walk in the “park” to a Tropical Time with “Tommy” for Your Final Clue in Town Square!”
The last and final keyword was MUFASA. Once consumers texted this keyword in the got a message that said, “Congrat’s! You finished the hunt! Winners will be contacted on 5/7/09.”
 
The double opt-in was then sent, asking consumers to reply YES for ten entries to win a $100 Whole Foods Gift Card and to subscribe to Cox exclusives.
 
“The goals of this campaign posed a unique set of challenges, and the mobile channel provided the ideal measurable solution,” said Isaac Naor, client services manager at Ping Mobile. “It allowed enough creativity to drive locals to the new [high-end] outdoor mall, provided engagement with the brand, and enabled the campaign to stand-out and become viral.”

SMS and MMS messages showed a staggering increase on Valentine’s Day this year.The number was about an astounding 1.06 billion.

According to VeriSign’s latest quarterly index, the first quarter of 2009 registered a new high of 84 billion messages. Last year, it delivered more than 224 billion messages across mobile messaging platforms.

“Mobile messaging continues to play an even greater role in how the world communicates,” said Michael Campbell, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for VeriSign’s Messaging and Mobile Media Division, Mountain View, CA. “The mobile phone has become the most pervasive, personal communications tool available.
“We hardly ever leave our home without it,” he said. “There are more than 4 billion mobile subscribers across the world today and those users are seeking new ways to save time and money and improve their experience while on the move 24/7/365.”

VeriSign is an Internet infrastructure service provider that delivers 60 percent of the mobile message and text traffic throughout the inter-carrier market nationwide. The quarterly index of mobile messaging statistics was compiled by the messaging and mobile media division of VeriSign.

According to VeriSign, the mobile messaging growth in the U.S. remains a bright horizon in the mobile world.

Since consumers and businesses alike rely on mobile messaging, VeriSign’s chunk of the messaging market is rapidly increasing.

The company is investmenting to continue delivering the reach, reliability and scalability necessary for continued growth in messaging over the rest of 2009.

“SMS is a lowest common denominator technology that is easy to use, appeals to all consumer demographics, and access to it is now 100 percent available on mobile devices in the U.S.,” Mr. Campbell said.

“We have seen that SMS is so pervasive in all facets of life appealing to consumers young and old and integrating into our lives in more and more ways,” he said.

VeriSign expected a great deal of traffic on Valentine’s Day, a typical initiator of high volume messaging as texters type sweet nothings to their sweet hearts.

However, 2009’s Valentine’s Day was the busiest texting day of the quarter and busiest Valentine’s Day on record.

Also in Quarter 1 of 2009, VeriSign’s combined mobile messaging networks facilitated an average of approximately 932 million messages per day. This number is up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter and a staggering 96 percent from Quarter 1 of 2008.

DreamWorks’ Broadway production of “Shrek, The Musical” and candy giant M&M/Mars have placed a mobile call to action on two interactive billboards in New York’s Times Square.

The billboards are located on Seventh Avenue and Broadway right above the M&M Mars flagship store in Times Square, arguably one of the most popular tourist destinations worldwide. RedCloud Mobile is powering the campaign.

The billboard asks consumers to text the keyword SHREKMM to short code 299669 for free Shrek wallpapers.

Consumers who text in get a message that says they are now part of the Shrek and BWYNOW database. They will get news and offers from both.

BWYNOW (299669) is a community of Broadway and theatre fans.
Additionally, consumers are routed to a mobile site where they can download free Shrek wallpapers.

The site also has a call to action, asking consumers to text the keyword MMW to short code 299669 to receive offers from M&M’s World.

Earlier, in several occasions, Times Square billboard has had a mobile call to action displayed on it.

In fact, Diet Coke’s “Style Series,” campaign made use of the NASDAQ billboard in Times Square, by having a dial-in number posted on it, encouraging people in the street to use their mobile phones to call in and listen.

German carmaker Volkswagen also did a similar campaign using a digital billboard in Times Square, where consumers had to text their vote to a short code. This was part of the German automaker’s “What the People Want” campaign.

Once users texted their vote, they got a message asking them to look back at the billboard, which displayed real time results of the poll.

The Shrek the Musical campaign alows users to personalize their phones with Shrek wallpapers.

Media company City USA launches mobile campaign to gauge the reaction of New Yorkers and Big Apple visitors regarding the controversial new pedestrian-friendly Broadway.

In the wake of New York City closing off sections of Broadway to car traffic, the company is asking the following question: “Are you happy with the new Broadway? Text LOVE IT or HATE IT to 35620.” This will be posted on a light-adorned billboard in Times Square atop 701 Seventh Avenue.

 “We believe mobile marketing provides measurability and engagement in a very innovative, contemporary means, to reach targeted audiences in a very cost-effective way,” said Chris Carr, president of City USA, New York.

“We are not using any of the consumer data, but the power of the number of responses mobile marketing can provide when used in combination with outdoor, promotions and other traditional and non-traditional media is the key product,” he said.

City USA is partnering with its sister companies, including promotions company CityEventions and new mobile marketing and development company CityTouchpoint.

They provide mobile marketing platforms such as SMS and Bluetooth, and develop mobile content, Web sites and applications.

City Outdoor is the company’s traditional outdoor media company that has provided this high-profile outdoor spectacular in Time Square.

Consumers’ responses to the Times Square billboard campaign are being sent via SMS text-to vote technology.

The question will be on display for the entire month of June.

City USA street teams will distribute circulars with to call-to-action to text in responses in order to generate excitement.

The teams will be available three days a week—Monday, Wednesday and Friday—from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the final results will be revealed on the billboard itself, as well as on City USA’s Web site.

City USA is doing this to gather as much information as possible on how New Yorkers and visitors to the Big Apple truly feel about the new Broadway look.

The company will be employing a mobile technology that will give it instant reaction while hopefully creating a fun environment.

In February 2008, LocaModa Inc., a mobile and Web-based interactive company, displayed an application on Clear Channel Spectacolor’s 40 feet-by-40 feet digital screen in New York’s Times Square.

Ping Mobile’s Isaac Naor will run in a triathlon with a mobile call-to-action on his t-shirt to motivate respondents to donate money in support of brain cancer research.

Mr. Naor will compete in the 2009 Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon and his shirt will advertise the keyword, on both the front and back inviting triathlon viewers to text in. Respondents will be driven to Mr. Naor’s Twitter micro-blog, which motivates viewers to visit http://www.BringItForBrainCancer.org and donate.

“The goal of this campaign is to help raise awareness for GBM, which is a form of a common and aggressive brain tumor, and to motivate Los Angeles locals to donate money towards GBM research in Dominic Ambriz’s honor,” said Shira Simmonds, president of Ping Mobile, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

“Ping Mobile is extremely proud of Isaac and fully supports his efforts to raise awareness and funds for research on GBM, and eventually find a cure for this devastating cancer,” she said. “The Ping Mobile family encourages and supports our team to stand up for causes that touch them in both their personal and professional worlds and take action.

“Isaac exemplifies this motto and we are rooting for him in this upcoming triathlon.”

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and most aggressive type of primary brain tumor in humans, accounting for 52 percent of all primary brain tumor cases and 20 percent of all intracranial tumors, according to Wikipedia.

Consumers that text in get a message back that says, “Thanks 4 Your interest! 4 info on GBM visit http://www.BringItForBrainCancer.org, or http://www.cedars-sinai.edu/5305.html. Follow the fight on .:Twitter:. @iCsYaCaLcE”

Consumers are then asked to double opt-in for breaking news on GBM and treatment. Also, respondents will get information on the BringIt campaign.

“The mobile call-to-action provided the simplest and most effective viral link between the general public and the purpose of this campaign – to generate awareness and raise funds,” Mr. Naor said. “It also supports simple and efficient maintenance of progress updates and aids in impulsively driving respondents to reach redefined donation goals.”
Ms. Simmonds said that the challenge was to create awareness about this campaign and motivate people to donate to a worthy cause during tough economic times.

“Mobile is suitable for this campaign because it provides the ideal medium to combine all efforts in a direct, impulsive, permission-based and convenient fashion, while reaching the desired target demographic,” Ms. Simmonds said.

Highlights of President Barack Obama’s historic speech at Cairo, Egypt was sent via text message to ensure public reach.

The U.S. State Department used mobile phones to provide anywhere, anytime access to portions of the speech, which enabled and encouraged conversations worldwide with the goal of creating the world’s first “mobile town hall without borders.” This mobile service allowed interested citizens from around the world to receive speech highlights via text message.

“Delivering President Obama’s Speech highlights via SMS met a critical ‘public reach’ objective important to the U.S. Department of State and White House—because of the ubiquity of the mobile phone and SMS—the opportunity to reach people who would not ordinarily receive information or communications about President Obama’s historic speech was realized,” said Chuck Drake, executive vice president of marketing for Clickatell, Redwood City, CA.

The U.S. State Department tapped Clickatell for the initiative, which provides reach to more than 775 mobile networks in more than 275 countries.

Interested citizens needed to complete an online registration form to register to the service. This service was free of charge.

Once completed, all participants received live President Obama speech highlights during the actual speech.

Opted-in participants received up to ten excerpts from the speech, which were be determined by the White House administration.

People around the world were permitted to sign up at http://www.america.gov/sms.html to receive live SMS speech communications. This Web site was also provided in four languages, including English, Persian, Arabic and Urdu.
Posted SMS two-way replies from enrolled participants can be found at http://www.america.gov/obama_cairo.html.

This program was open to all citizens outside the U.S. worldwide.

The Obama Cairo Speech SMS Service made use of mobile’s broad reach, with speech highlights going out in real time.

“In many countries around the world, the access to traditional media is limited, filtered or in some cases even blocked,” Mr. Drake said. “If only TV, radio or other forms of traditional media were available, then some media sources would have limited the message reach, filtering, interpreting and delaying the message.

“Therefore, by using a global SMS campaign powered by Clickatell, ‘getting the message to the people’ was greatly enhanced,” he said.

“This campaigned also offered something that other traditionally media sources cannot easily do or simply don’t do: provide a mechanism for the public to provide their personal comments and opinions about the Obama Cairo speech to be received and then made broadly public, instantly.”

Without the innovative SMS two-way aspect of this campaign, there would be no way to support a “send in your comments” town-hall-style interaction aspect using only traditional media sources, according to Clickatell.

With SMS, highlights from the Obama Speech were sent live and participants around the world could text-in their comments, similar to a Town Hall approach but over the mobile phone using SMS.

Responses counted thus far in the thousands across more than 150 countries worldwide, according to Clickatell, exceeding initial projection estimates.

 

 

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Auto Driveaway, a vehicle relocation service provider, is using mobile SMS notifications to easily communicate between fleet managers, administrative staff and leasing companies that manage pick-ups and deliveries.

The new product was developed by mobile Web, SMS and IVR provider Wessan Interactive and lets customers track all notes or status changes on a vehicle via text and email alerts. The notifications can go to more than one recipient and include links to registrations and the referenced move, along with dates for pick-up and en-route notifications.

“Auto Driveaway’s strategy was to out-service the competition by keeping their customers constantly informed regarding the relocation of their vehicles,” said Karen Westerfield, cofounder/president at Wessan Interactive, Omaha, NE. “Wessan’s strategy was to find a cost-effective way to help Auto Driveaway accomplish that goal.”

This sets up a communication tool which allow quick and efficient information flow to the people so employees aren’t waiting around for a vehicle to be delivered or picked up.

This will encourage productivity as employees won’t have to waste time waiting for a driver to contact them.

Message notifications are not only sent to the designated mobile phone, but can also be sent to a customer’s Outlook email address or any other requested email address.

Wessan’s Web-based software lets Auto Driveaway create customized profiles for each customer to accommodate a list of standard services and auto-fill service requests into the ordering process.

“The notification solution developed by Wessan addressed a number of challenges,” Ms. Westerfield said. “First, it’s easy to use, and because the notification system is integrated into Auto Driveaway’s national operating system, it puts no additional burden on their staff.

“It’s also economical in that text and email notifications are very cost effective, improving service without have to increase costs,” she said. “Finally, notifications are informative – the shipper, the recipient of the vehicle and the fleet administrator are always knowledgeable of the status of the move.”

This offer includes the ability to import a company employee address book which allows Auto Driveaway to upload company directories.

Auto Driveaway claims that a huge benefit to these notifications is that they become a tool for fleet managers and administrators to streamline communications with their internal customers which makes everyone involved more productive.

Allowing free access to multiple IM networks and push notification, Independent Web and mobile instant messaging service eBuddy has launched for campaign for iPhone.

EBuddy for iPhone is a free mobile instant messaging application . It allows iPhone and iPod Touch owners with AIM, Facebook Chat, ICQ, Gtalk, Yahoo or MSN Windows Live Messenger to have multiple chats in one aggregated interface, providing an on-the-go chat experience.

“The strategy is based on the fact that no mobile portfolio is complete without an iPhone app,” said Jan-Joost “JJ” Rueb, co founder/CEO of eBuddy, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. “We’ve seen a lot of iPhone apps out there, but we’re introducing the first multi-headed IM client with push available.

“Push is the big thing around IM in the iPhone, and we’re the first to introduce a free version,” he said. “There’s a browser-based lite version available on iPhone, and 2 million people log in quite regularly, and they’re eager to get the app version, so we said, ‘Let’s bring them a better experience.’

“The target demographics is spread out, with the Web version aiming at 14-24 and a bit older for mobile applications, 17-30.”
More than 22 million iPhones have been sold since the device launched in June 2007, and iPhone applications have been downloaded more than 1 billion times since the launch of the App Store on in July 2008.

Apple’s iTunes currently features more than 55,000 mobile apps, of which 43,000 are paid. The iPhone owners are found to download an average of 37 applications per phone.

EBuddy is available in more than 30 languages . It is currently processing more than 6 billion messages per month, with more than 20 million unique monthly visitors with AIM, Facebook, Gtalk, ICQ, MySpace, MSN Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo IM accounts.
Features of eBuddy for iPhone include the ability to switch between chats by swiping the screen, shake the iPhone or iPod touch to send a buzzer, get new message alerts and typing alerts in the chat screen and ush notifications for incoming messages when users exit the app (initially for 30 minutes).

According to statistics from Distimo, the app store analytics company, the eBuddy for iPhone application—in the free social networking application category—is currently ranked No. 1 in 21 countries, within the top 5 in 31 countries and within the top 10 in 37 countries.

EBuddy presently has an application for Google’s Android, and will come up with one for BlackBerry later this year.