An in-stadium mobile campaign has been launched by The New York Mets for the 2009 Major League Baseball season and beyond. The campaign is sponsored by Xerox, Wise, Caesar’s and Verizon Wireless.

The campaign is powered by Txtstation. In order to engage fans and make the Citi Field experience even more fun and enjoyable, this campaign has introduced a variety of sponsor-driven promotions. Mobile promotions run at all home games with SMS calls-to-action on the video board offering an opportunity for the fans to interact with the team and its sponsors.

Txtstation is a mobile marketing company specializing in sports and entertainment. Its clients include broadcasters, event owners, brand sponsors and general media.Txtstation is currently working in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy and South Africa.

Xerox, a document management/printing giant, is sponsoring Citi Field’s Fan Photos feature, letting fans send pictures taken at the stadium with their camera phones to get them displayed in a slideshow-like manner on the in-stadium video screen.

The “Verizon Wireless Fan Choice Awards” nightly poll lets fans voice their opinions on various Mets topics via SMS.Snack-food giant Wise sponsors the “Eighth-Inning Sing-Along,” with a call-to-action urging fans to vote using their handsets, texting their preferred keyword to a short code to weigh in to decide what song should be played during the 8th-inning break.Luxury hotel and casino Caesar’s Palace sponsors the Mets’ “Fan Forum,” letting fans send in user-generated content via text messages, giving fans the chance to express their take on a pre-determined subject.

This kind of promotion provides an interactive atmosphere for fans and brands as voting results and content are displayed in real time on the video board in high definition. According to Txtstation thousands of text messages are sent in each game, which shows that these mobile marketing efforts by the New York Mets have spurred quite a bit of fan interaction.

One of the campaign’s objectives is to drive people to the Verizon Fan Studio, an on-site retail kiosk in center field, featuring phones and products. Those participating fans who happen to be Verizon Wireless subscribers get a reply via text message informing them about the carrier’s in-statium store.

In France , all the unfaithful spouses will have to be cautious about the text messages they send to their mistresses and lovers as these messages can now be used as evidence against them in case of a divorce.

Earlier husbands and wives often had to wait for years to escape a marriage if they could not prove that their spouse was misbehaving or mistreating them, but now according to the recent ruling by the top French court — to accept phone exchanges as legitimate proof of adultery — will make it easier for the French to get divorced.

Last week, the French media reported the ruling which was made in June.

Along with text messages, E-mail messages are also accepted as evidence in trials.In cases of murder and other criminal trials in France, text messages have long been considered as official proof, and now the new ruling extends the practice to family law.

In France, it can be a lengthy and painful procedure to get a divorce. If there is no mutual consent between the spouses on seperation those filing for divorce must prove that the spouse was cheating or abusing or mistreating them. If the judge is not convinced, it will only two years of living seperately that a divorce will be pronounced.Up until 2004, French law required couples to wait as long as six years.

The June decision overturned a 2007 ruling by a court in Lyon, which had declared that using phone exchanges in court was a breach of privacy, according to the Supreme Court Web site.

This ruling might prompt some unfaithful spouses to eliminate the evidence by quickly deleting those frivolous cellphone messages.this will make people more prudent when it comes to keeping their messages.

It was not clear whether courts could force spouses to retrieve deleted phone messages with the help of mobile phone operators.

Annual Vans Warped Tour and Disney star Demi Lovato will get promotion from a joint venture of 2ergo and AT&T’s Youth Marketing Group.

According to their agreement, the AT&T Youth Marketing Group will use 2ergo’s Mobile Campaign Manager technology to manage pre-Warped Tour text messaging campaigns to concert goers who opt-in via their mobile devices. For Demi Lovato, 2ergo created a mobile portal using its Mobile Site Builder and is providing text messaging capabilities for fans using Mobile Campaign Manager.

Jennifer Erdman, senior manager of youth marketing and sponsorships at AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, Atlanta did mention that this is the sixth year AT&T has been a presenting sponsor of the Vans Warped Tour

Mr.Erdman said that ” Our sponsorship allows us to interact with music lovers and provide special VIP services to our customers,It also provides a showcase for some of our coolest youth-centric products and services. Also, in our Reverse Daycare, we also are able to interact with parents and allow them to demo and/or receive information about some of our family friendly offerings.”

According to Rhonda Patrick, senior marketing manager at AT&T, Atlanta, they want to tap into the teen segment – 13-15 year olds – by showcasing and continue brand awareness around quick messaging phones at good price points to parents and teens.

For Demi Lovato’s concert, AT&T will be raffling off one quick messaging phone at concerts and text phone giveways on the WAP site (http://demi.m2ergo.com). The winner will receive a trip for four to the Hershey, PA, concert on Aug. 22. The Demi Lovato SMS alerts are only for AT&T customers.

For the Warped Tour, fans will be kept up to date on localized concert information such as band schedules by opting-in with WARPED to VANS09. Warped Tour information is available to any mobile network, but AT&T users will get exclusive content.

On the Demi Lovato mobile site, AT&T subscribers can enter a sweepstakes simply by clicking a link instead of having to enter their mobile number. With the VANS Warped Tour text messaging program, subscribers can simply reply with their city name to further customize their alerts.

Pet store giant Petco has sponsored The National Geographic Channel to run an SMS alert campaign promoting its “Dog Whisperer” program, which saw 2,000 opt-ins.

National Geographic has turned to mobile marketing and advertising company 2ergo to develop an SMS program. The campaign was launched in honor of the Dog Whisperer’s 100th episode and also to engage viewers and extend advertising opportunities for National Geographic.

According to Chris Brassington, group managing director at 2ergo, Manchester, Britain, the use of mobile phone as an additional communications channel makes the TV watching experience more interactive.He said that”2ergo’s technology platform allowed NGC to automatically add new subscribers through a keyword-to-short-code system, easily upload tips content and schedule a specific send date and time, keeping the management time for the program at a minimum.In this way this program gave an advertiser another channel to reach consumers while covering the costs of the mobile program for NGC.”

he initiative involved on-air calls-to-action along with an online call-to-action asking viewers to text the keyword DOG to the short code 64288 (NGCTV).

After replying “yes” to the standard double-opt-in message, users are sent a tune-in reminder along with dog-training tips straight from the show’s star Cesar Milan four hours before Dog Whisperer airs on Friday nights.

Mr. Brassington stressed that relevant and timely content that offers value to consumers should always take the lead in mobile marketing and messaging programs.In this way they will have more subscribers who are more engaged and more likely to stay engaged with their brand over time.

The mobile technology and SMS aspects of the program were handled by 2ergo while National Geographic took charge of the training tips content and sent it to 2ergo weekly.

The campaign also attracted Petco to be its sponsor so that all SMS alerts would read “Sponsored by PETCO” and contain a mobile coupon code for 10 percent off purchases made at Petco.com.With the integration of relevant sponsors such as Petco and with the help of 2ergo, National Geographic accomplished its goals while maintaining the ability to cover campaign costs.

Mobile Commons Inc., a Mobile marketing company has appointed a new CEO. His name is Anthony M. Risicato. They have also announced new partnerships with agencies.

The company’s platform focuses on integrating SMS into multichannel campaigns and is designed to manage mobile communications programs in one interface. Their list of clients includes Credo Mobile, Service Employees International Union, Oxfam International, Andre Agassi Foundation, New York City Department of Public Health, Care USA, National Association of Realtors and the National Basketball Association’s Sacramento Kings.

Mr. Risicato has stressed the importance of mobile marketing. According to him mobile marketing has had a lot of forms over the last 5 to 8 years, with the industry focused primarily on one-way delivery of content, ringtones, wallpapers and how to get people engaged via apps, which has been somewhat successful. He also said that he mobile space has evolved by getting large operating agencies involved to make mobile marketing a real engagement tool.He admitted the importance of SMS by saying that SMS amazingly has been the leader for years and it continues to be the leader growing at exponential rates, but it has been only over the past two years that brands have really started to leverage it.

Mr. Risicato stated that he can speak to his consumers and get them highly engaged with his brand By leveraging SMS and being able to connect that to a voice call, mobile coupons, a mobile site and social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Mobile Commons’ Web-based user interface and APIs integrate SMS, voice and Web applications with CRM programs and databases, enabling companies and agency partners to launch scalable mobile marketing campaigns with analytics and reporting.

The platform also integrates Twitter, Facebook applications, Flash widgets and geolocation features.

As far as Mr. Risicato’s experience is concerned he is a 15-year interactive marketing veteran. He will guide the company as CEO through its next phase of development, building on its growth over the last two years.He had earlier worked as a general manager with companies like Covario and Innovation Interactive.

In order to drive ticket sales for its “Walking with the Dinosaurs” show, The Hartford Civic Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Exhibition Center have turned up to mobile channel.

Powered by ping mobile during this campaign television spots on the Cox Media cable network encouraged consumers to text the keyword DINO to short code 269411.

According to Shira Simmonds, president of Ping Mobile, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, The strategy for their client was twofold — promote the Walking with the Dinosaurs show thereby driving incremental ticket sales and reminding double opted-in local residents that the exhibit was now live, and enabling them to purchase tickets via their mobile devices.

All those mobile users who texted in eceived the following message: “Congrat’s! You’re entered to Win a Family 4-Pack of Tickets to Walking with Dinosaurs & a $100 Gift Certificate! Winner notified via phone call on 7/27.”Participants were asked to double opt-in: “Reply YES for 10 more entries 2 Win & B sbscrbd 2 XLCenter & Cox+ptnrs Xclusives! mx4msgs/mo. std txt rts aply. Reply YES Now!”

Those who double opted-in got this message: “Success! You have 11 entries 2 Win & are subscribed! STOP 2 quit. HELP 4 help. Std msg chrgs apply. Look 4more chances 2Win on Your Mobile Phone!”

It was a great challenge for XL Center to reach out to its target demographic with an offer that was both meaningful and compelling.

According to Jennifer Marozzi, a Cox Media account executive, The text campaign for Walking with Dinosaurs delivered an incredible response rate,besides delivering great results, it also generates a buzz in the market through non-traditional advertising. For XL Cente, mobile has turned out to be a great tool as it hopes to promote itself and build a robust mobile database that could be used to remarket future events.

According to Isaac Naor, regional client services manager at Ping Mobile “A trend has emerged in the number of arenas utilizing mobile marketing services as a tool to spontaneously and successfully drive ticket sales,XL Center was able to capitalize on this trend pretty well.”

MTV has invited youth share their feelings publicly with a new multi-platform advertising initiative.

The campaign is called “Declare Yourself with HP”. It includes mobile, digital, on-air and on-the-ground elements. For the mobile component, MTV advertised on its own programs.

“It was a text-to-screen application through a call to action on air,” said Michael Scogin, vice president of wireless at MTV, New York. “We relied on [television[ for the promotion and started out on the ‘It’s On with Alexa Chung’ where Alexa said: ‘Text DECLARE to short code 66333.’”

Young people are encouraged to declare statements about themselves for their peers to see.HP and MTV created an online forum at http://http://www.HPdeclare.mtv.com where users can make their declarations.

HP is banking upon MTV’s ability to reach the young generation to extend its “Declare Yourself with HP” marketing campaign.

Initially, users will engage with the Web site or mobile text to screen by making a declaration, then with other users by reading and sharing their statements.This makes the users becoming a part of a larger social movement urging others to stake a stand and make their statement.

Other core elements of the campaign include the takeover of MTV.com and the text-to-air component.

MTV enables viewers to announce their declarations over custom HP vignettes created by MTV during the network’s “Summer Sunblock” programming. Various features of Summer Sunblock are on-air throws to the HP hub, a giveaway for an HP notebook PC for an in-studio fan during It’s On with Alexa Chung, on-air texting experience and a text-to-screen declaration sweepstakes at concerts.

This is not the first time MTV has been assosiated with mobile.n October, the network launched a new hour-long program, the “Best of Choose or Lose,” exclusively on mobile devices via MediaFLO USA Inc.’s Flo TV service.Whenever MTV does these on-air mobile components,they get really great participation rates.

In order to raise awareness in men,Goodyear, a tire-production giant, has launched a mobile campaign right in time for the winter.

The promotional campaign was named The “Time For Winter Tires”.The campaign ran in Poland during the last quarter of 2008, from Oct. 13-27.
It was coordinated by Upgrade Interactive Marketing and included an SMS campaign and a mobile site.

According to Kazimierz Piekarz, CEO of Upgrade Interactive Marketing, Warsaw, Poland, the campagn targeted male drivers aged 25-54, who use mobile Internet.They were interested in men who have to purchase winter tires of premium quality for their private cars.

Goodyear is one of the largest tire companies in the world.It was founded in 1898. Besides manufacturing tires for automobiles, Goodyear produces for trucks, SUVs, race cars, and airplanes.

The services offered by Upgrade Interactive Marketing to companies includes SMS and WAP sites.

To market the Time For Winter Tires campaign a personalized SMS was sent out to over 80 thousand men.The SMS contained an advertising message and WAP link to a mobile microsite.The mobile site contained the terms of contest, a list of winners and product details.

It was found that during the 15-day campaign there were more than 2.2 million impressions recorded.According to Mr. Piekarz,Mobile banners had a 3 percent click through rate while the SMS portion had 5.2 percent.

This is not the first time, a tire company has used mobile to sell its tires. BMW Germany also used a mobile campaign to sell more winter tires and is said to have achieved a 30 percent conversion rate. They wanted to tell their customers that snow tires are more of a necessity rather than luxury, especially during the winter in Germany.

The conversion rate for the Goodyear campaign reached 1.2 percent.Mr. Piekarz said that they are quiet impressed with the high coversion rate which is calculated as the relation of SMS registrations to the contest and a total number of visits to the mobile landing page.

To promote its cookie brand among British consumers, Kraft Foods’ Oreo has started using a mobile channel.

The campaign is designed and executed by Publicis Groupe’s mobile marketing firm Phonevalley with the help from MediaVest.

According to Maya Mikhailov, vice president of Slifter, New York, o true 360-degree branding campaign is complete without presence on the most ubiquitous device in a consumer’s hand – the mobile phone.

Oreo targeted family members going to the movies together by sponsoring advanced screenings of family movies in Vue cinemas across Britain.Oreo-branded magnetic photo frames were distributed in the Vue movie theaters while engaging attendees through a mobile competition set up by Phonevalley in partnership with MediaVest.Families were encouraged to strike a pose with the interactive Oreo for the chance to win one of several prizes, including a family vacation to Universal Studios, Florida.

To enter the promotion, consumers use their mobile phone to take a photo of their family and friends with the life-size Oreo and text it to a short code. Consumers would then receive an SMS confirming their entry, followed by another SMS inviting them to go to http://www.oreofamilymovies.co.uk to see if their picture has been selected for the Oreo online gallery.

According to Alexandre Mars, Phonevalley CEO and Publicis Groupe head of mobile, this mobile campaign captures the Oreo brand’s qualities in a fun, interactive and engaging way.He also said that this new initiative in the UK enhances the mobile capabilities to connect consumers and brands in a genuine and creative mode.

Rock the Vote, a Nonprofit political organization have found a new and innovative way to reach young Americans.
They have starting using mobile at events such as Lollapalooza to connect the youngsters with musicians and interactive politics.

For its mobile engagement platform, Rock the Vote has teamed up with mobile marketing company Mozes Inc.They are increasing their interaction with the millennial generation by leveraging interactive tools such as mobile polls and votes, broadcasting election news, narrowcasting voter registration information and providing the ability to send comments and mobile pictures to the Rock the Vote Web site.

“We ran a robust SMS campaign for the first time in 2008, and now all of our public service announcements include the SMS call-out,” said Chrissy Faessen, vice president of communications and marketing at Rock the Vote, Washington. “Mobile is integrated into all of our marketing and communications programs.

“We use mobile in conjunction with other media as an opportunity to reach out to our target audience, ages 18 to 29,” she said. “We want to engage young people about politics and all of the issues that are important to them, and mobile is an excellent medium to connect to young people, because it helps up moves past geographic and demographic restrictions.”

Rock the Vote has clearly described its mission as to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in the country. Their target is U.S. citizens in the age group of 18-29.

In order to engage and incite young people to register and vote in every election, this organization is taking help of new technologies, popular culture and even music. They are giving young people the tools to identify learn about and take action on the issues that affect their lives to leverage their power in the political process.

There is a simple way to join the Rock the Vote mobile group and get updates, information and content related to American politics and music. Consumers just need to text keyword ROCKTHEVOTE to short code RTVOTE (788683).

A list 0f opportunites which Rock the Vote plans to give to opted-in voters include to see their favorite group play live, text-to-win tickets or seat upgrades at the show or get a phone call from a famed lead singer.

Later on, Rock the Vote is looking to expand its mobile initiatives.