Trutap,a free mobile social messaging service provider,expanded its mobile IM service by partnering with Facebook and Google.

It is now bringing its global consumer base more IM services than any other mobile application in the world,Trutap claims.

Wherever Trutappers are in the world from their mobile phone,they can enjoy using Facebook Chat, Google Talk, Rediff Bol and Jabber services, along with the existing MSN, Yahoo, AIM and ICQ messenger products.

Carl Uminski, chief technology officer of Trutap, London said,”Trutap’s mobile IM service has been running across the world for the past 11 months with MSN, Yahoo, AIM and ICQ, and we desire to have one single Java application that gives the user clear choice over what IM service they want to use.”

“Therefore we have developed a platform to allow us to scale to pretty much the entire world’s IM services, so when you come to Trutap to consume content, update your blog, group chat with friends, find new friends and post photos, you can rest assured that we will also have the IM service that you desire to communicate with your community, or multiple communities on,” he added.

The additional IM services are already available within consumers’ current application.

It means there’s no need to upgrade their application to find their favorite IM service,for Trutap’s 250,000 consumers.

Including MySpace, Gadu-Gadu, LiveJournal IM, Bonjour, Groupwise, IRC, XMPP, Sametime and Zephyr,more IM services will be added to the service over the coming weeks.

Trutap is currently available throughout the whole world running on any carrier that allows applications to run openly and has a handset that supports Java.

Mr. Uminski said,”The U.S. is a little different, many handsets do not run Java and those that do are locked down.”

“We currently have a number of users in North America who are using our application on AT&T and T-Mobile where their handsets allow them to,”he added.

Chain Dallas BBQ,a regional restaurant,has placed an SMS call-to-action in out-of-home advertisements featured throughout New York City’s subways.

To receive an upgrade on their drinks or chicken wings,Consumers can text the keywords UPGRADE or BBQ to short code 82746.

But the offers are good for that day only.After that,consumers will be entered into a Dallas BBQ database and receive three text messages containing offers per month from the restaurant.

Eric Levine, director of operations at Dallas BBQ and Tony’s DiNapoli, New York said,“Dallas BBQ and Tony’s DiNapoli have traditionally dominated the subways in regards to advertising through ads in approximately 1,000 subway cars throughout the five boroughs.”

“When we opened our first unit in Brooklyn on Livingston Street, our message was brought to all through this medium,”he added.

A New York restaurant,Dallas BBQ is known for its barbeque and chicken wing offerings.

Consumer receive this message back with a unique code: “Show code [code] @ BBQ 4 instant upgrade. Txt again b4 next visit 4 more upgrades. Valid only [date of texting] dallasbbq.com/upgrade 4info. UR joined 4 updates from Dallas BBQ Up to 3 msg/mo. Tx”,after sending an SMS to 82746.

To receive an upgrade of their fountain or alcoholic drinks or upgrade their chicken wings from regular to Texas-sized,a Dallas BBQ customer must show the text message to the manager.

According to Mr. Levine,the ad campaign idea came from Greg Wetson, the president of the restaurant chains, and Herb Wetson, the chairman and chief operating officer.

The aim of launching Dallas BBQ’s SMS subway campaign was to tie into the opening of a new restaurant location at 207 Street and Fordham Road in the Bronx.

Mr. Levine said,“We felt that the text usage would energize our customer base, as well as make us more contemporary.”

According to Mr. Levine ,the restaurant has placed SMS calls-to-action inside the restaurants to extend the upgrading capability to consumers already dining in the facility.

Offering with the addition of opt-in voicemail transcription,YouMail Inc. has expanded its voicemail service.

Via SMS or email,this opt-in transcription service provides YouMail customers with human transcribed voicemail or automated transcriptions

Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, Irvine, CA said,”YouMail wants to provide an extremely compelling mobile voicemail service, and transcription is both something our users have clamored for, but also something that extends YouMail’s visual voicemail to give people not only the choice of which message to play in which order, but also whether to listen or to read the message.”

Including low price points, the ability to select human or automated transcriptions are the benefits of the new YouMail transcription service.

Mr. Quilici said,”This service addresses three big challenges for people for whom voicemail matters.”

“One is that it’s often much faster to read a voicemail than to listen to it, so we save busy people time,”he added.

He further said,”The second is that it’s often more convenient to read a voicemail rather than listen it, like when you’re in a meeting you don’t want to interrupt or an event like a dinner or a loud concert.”

“The last is that it allows people to truly treat voicemail like emai”l — you get a voicemail, are emailed a transcription, and can just forward that on if someone else is supposed to deal with it,”He added.

There are three different plans of the service:

“Read-It Text, for $3.99 a month, is a transcription sent as a single SMS. It is designed for users without smartphones to quickly decide what a voicemail is about and whether or not to retrieve it.”

This option provides 50 transcribed messages per month.

“The Read-It Select package, for $6.99 a month, is transcriptions delivered as an email. It is designed for users with smartphones to avoid dialing voicemail to receive messages.”

This option also provides 50 transcribed messages per month.

“Read-It Text Unlimited is for $9.99 a transcription that fits in a single SMS. It is designed for users without smartphones who receive a lot of voicemail.”

This option provides unlimited transcribed SMS messages per month.

Read-It Select Unlimited, for $17.99, is a transcription delivered as an email. It is designed for users with smartphones who receive a lot of voicemail. This option provides unlimited transcribed email messages per month.

Mr. Quilici further said,”In the premium services, we don’t currently have ads in the messages that deliver transcriptions in order to devote the most real estate to the content of the transcriptions.”

“However, these users first get a text message notifying them they got a voicemail — and then the transcription follows as a separate message a few minutes later,”he added.

“There is an opportunity for a brief ad in the first text message, and that can be targeted based on the city/state, wireless carrier, and type of device, like BlackBerry Pearl,”he said.

During home games,The NFL’s Carolina Panthers engaged fans with an Alltel-sponsored interactive text-messaging feature.

The “Alltel Fan Poll” feature issued a call-to-action to fans with an opinion-based question consisting of two or three options.

The element encouraged fans to take out their mobile phones and vote by sending a text message and view their results as they appear in real time.

Michael Falato, vice president of sales and business development for Txtstation, Austin, TX SAID,”Alltel has been a godsend for us, it’s a great company, and they wanted to have something different in their sponsorships.”

“They have a great relationship with schools and pro teams, and they looked to us to come up with different in-venue text messaging ideas, ways for fans to engage with the brand and the team by texting in,” he added.

The video board lights up immediately,when fans text in their response.

Mr. Falato said,”We differ from other texting companies in that we offer a HD-quality real-time graphic solution that ties SMS to the video board, which is unique to Txtstation.”

There were various question such as-”Who do you think is the biggest rival of the Panthers?”, “Who’s the best 3-0 team in the AFC?”, “Which play was most memorable?” and “Which rookie is having the best season?”.

On a similar Alltel-sponsored SMS initiative,The Arizona Cardinals have partnered with Txtstation.

He further said,”On average the response rate is anywhere from 2 to 20 percent, depending on who they’re playing, what questions they ask, the execution of the questions and the amount of time it’s on the video board.”

“The Panthers and Alltel are getting good responses and they seem pretty happy with the results,” he added.

Subscribers got a reply message that says,”Thanks for voting, vote again.”

Specializing in sports and entertainment,Txtstation is a mobile marketing company.

To communicate with viewers or fans directly through mobile phones, the Internet and landline phones,the company helps broadcasters, event owners, sponsors and general media.

To reintroduce its flagship VSOP label to a new generation of drinkers ,Cognac maker Remy Martin ran an integrated marketing campaign which was able to drive 1,200 SMS opt-ins .The campaign targeted consumers ages 21-40.

ID Society,a digital agency of Remy selected Neighborhood America’s MOVO to tie together all of the elements of the campaign with mobile marketing.

David Rippetoe, senior product manager at Neighborhood America said,“Mobile was an ideal channel for Remy because they wanted to target customers while out and about.”

“They used in-venue calls to action to draw people into the campaign promoting special tasting events,”he added.

He further remarked,“Mobile offered them high value because of reach and low cost of entry and strengthened brand awareness.”

“They used an SMS/WAP campaign as a way to get people to RSVP to the events. During the day of the event, Remy sent out a broadcast SMS to remind people to attend,”he added.

New ways of enjoying the traditional drink at over 300 tasting events scheduled in six metropolitan areas across the United States, including New York, Newark, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area was promoted by the Remy Chill Zone campaign.

To receive a special invitation and be placed on the Remy Chill Zone VIP list at ultra-exclusive nightclubs,Signage and a virtual display invited consumers to text a keyword.

Those who opted-in were given a link to a mobile Web site, built by Neighborhood America.

Through exclusive offers to the database of consumers, which was built by providing consumers incentives to participate,the campaign helped Remy build brand loyalty.

Mr. Rippetoe said,“I think the biggest benefit that mobile provides to brands is that the consumer is raising their hand and telling the brand that they want their product or service by opting-in to a campaign whether it is SMS or a mobile banner on a mobile Web site.”

He further said,“One of the bigger issues with brands not being successful in mobile is the lack of integrating a visible or interesting call to action in their overall campaign strategy.”

“Because Remy is a luxury brand with a dedicated following, the agency [ID Society] did a great job with the creative and giving the feel of exclusivity for the events,”he added.

The mobile was used by Chicago’s Field Museum to change its traditional marketing efforts to promote its Real Pirates exhibit.

Multiple keywords – SKULL, CROSS, PIRATE, GOLD was set up by The Field Museum so that consumers could text to a short code.

Through the text contest,the museum launched a mobile treasure hunt, pushed mobile pirate facts and engaged consumers.

To promote the mobile campaign which achieved 7,000-plus text interactions,the museum leveraged its Web site, voice mail and marketing materials.

David Spear, executive vice president of LSN Mobile, Atlanta said,“LSN Mobile implemented a three-fold strategy for The Field Museum.”

“The first part was to extend the exhibit beyond the four walls of the museum. The second was to spark engagement with younger audiences and lastly, deliver knowledge about the exhibit,”he added.

He further said,“Real Pirates is a fascinating National Geographic discovery because it tells the story of the first authentic pirate ship, The Whydah, to be pulled from the ocean floor in U.S. waters.”

“The Field Museum marketers saw a unique opportunity to incorporate mobile marketing with the exhibit to drive additional interaction among audiences before, during and after visiting the museum,”he added.

“To this end, Real Pirates would be able to stay top of mind with audiences beyond just the initial visit,”he said.

IT was founded to house the biological and anthropological collections assembled for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.

The collections form the foundation of the museum’s exhibition, research and education programs, which are further informed by a world-class natural history library of more than 250,000 volumes.

Mr. Spears said,“With more than 7,000 mobile interactions, this was a huge success that spotlighted a new means of marketing for a venerable property like The Field Museum.”

“There is no doubt that you’ll see mobile become an integrated component of future museum marketing campaigns,”he added.

To become the first to receive the latest exhibition news, updates, special offers and chances to win exclusive pirate prizes through their mobile phones,signage encouraged consumers to text-in.

A mobile campaign was ran by Rock the Vote that drove 80,000 unique visitors to the organization’s WAP site

To power the campaign,Rock the Vote tapped 4Info.

To reach teens with messages about the importance of making their voices heard,4Info helped Rock the Vote.

Kirsten McMullen, senior marketing manager for 4Info, San Mateo, CA said,”The message of the Rock the Vote Campaign was essentially to remind teens and college-age adults to exercise their right to vote in the election.”

“The message of the Rock the Vote Campaign was essentially to remind teens and college-age adults to exercise their right to vote in the election,”she added.

To engage and build the political power of young people to achieve progressive change in the country,was the mission of Rock the Vote.

To engage and incite young people to register and vote in every election,Rock the Vote used music, popular culture and new technologies.

Ms. McMullen said,”Because the target audience is teens and college-aged adults, mobile is one of the best ways to reach and connect with this audience.”

“Research shows that teens are already among the heaviest users of SMS and therefore putting a relevant message into the medium that they’re most comfortable with is an effective way to deliver a brand message and call to action,”she added.

The campaign was click-to-WAP, where users could find their closest voting station and get candidate information on Rock the Vote’s mobile web site.

When users clicked on the text ad they were rerouted to a Rock the Vote mobile site at http://rtv.tmce.biz/wap4.

The text ad read, “Rock the Vote & 4INFO remind you to exercise your right to vote on November 4. Visit http://rtv.tmce.biz/wap4 to learn more.”

She further said,Other media like TV and print may be fine as complementary parts of a brand campaign, but only mobile has the ability to influence potential voters when they’re out and about — and the idea was not only to remind them of their right, but to encourage that they head to local polling stations.”

“Mobile could leverage this opportunistic component and drive people to a location with a direct call to action,” she added.

For Thanksgiving with mobile components such as an SMS alert system,Butterball has relaunched its Turkey Talk-Line just in time.

Consumers can text the keyword TURKEY to short code 36888 from their mobile phone to get information,With the new mobile component, Turkey Texts, for their Thanksgiving meals.Meal tips are also available on Twitter and Facebook.

Kari Lindell, director of retail marketing at Butterball, Garner, NC said,“The mobile offerings are an extension of the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line and allow us to provide helpful holiday information, as well as money-saving tips to cooks in new ways.”

“We’re excited to be talking to new consumers, as well as building relationships with existing consumers to reinforce Butterball’s heritage as a trusted, expert resource on turkey and the holidays,”he added.

Butterball is a producer of turkey products in the United States.

To get the tips from professionally-trained turkey experts,consumers can call the Turkey Talk-Line at 1-800-Butterball.

The turkey giant will respond with tips on topics,for the on-the-go consumers who text- in,such as how much turkey to buy, thawing reminders and cooking temperatures.

consumers can get expert turkey advice, coupons, how-to videos, new recipes, leftover ideas and cooking calculators,at http://Butterball.com.

According to Ms.Lindell,the Thanksgiving cooks – both novices and seasoned pros – are the target demographic for the tips.

Ms. Lindell said,“The primary intention of the mobile site and Turkey Texts is to help all consumers have a picture-perfect Thanksgiving dinner by offering timely tips and expert holiday cooking advice.”

“When the Turkey Talk-Line started in 1981, the phone was the best way give people the important turkey-cooking information,”he added.

“Now, as a new generation of Thanksgiving cooks emerges, we want to provide our expert holiday advice the way new cooks want it—online, on demand and on the go,” she said.

Butterball informs the consumer after november,about the program that has ended for the year and company will ask them to opt-in again in 2010.

Butterball also has a mobile site located at http://m.butterball.com.

consumers can get the same tips on the WAP site that are available via the PC Web, view how-to videos, get coupons and sign up for the Turkey Texts program.

EBuddy,wired Web and mobile instant messaging provider, has surpassed a milestone of 10 million J2ME downloads of its mobile IM client .

The mobile IM downloads of the company have accelerated significantly since the last milestone of 5 million downloads of eBuddy Mobile Messenger.

The eBuddy Mobile Messenger is ramping at a rate of more than 1 million downloads per month.

Jan-Joost “JJ” Rueb, cofounder/CEO of eBuddy, Amsterdam, the Netherlands said,”We have a Web and mobile business — we’re mainly on the Web, but our mobile division is growing faster.”

“The eBuddy Mobile Messenger is growing at a crazy pace, an increase of 250 percent from last year — we’re getting 40-to-50,000 downloads a day on mobile phones,”he added.

On its mobile platform for more than 3 million unique monthly users,the company claims to be processing more than 1.5 billion messages per month.

The company is available in 37 languages and offers two versions of its mobile client.

The J2ME version called eBuddy Mobile Messenger and the mobile Internet browser version, eBuddy Lite Messenger.

For Sony PSP, iPhone and iPod Touch and extra networks including Facebook and ICQ,the eBuddy Lite Messenger features designs specifically created .

According to the ebuddy,its single user average of 30 log-ins per month has been fueled by the increase in the number of customers who purchase flat-fee data bundles.

At http://get.ebuddy.com,eBuddy’s mobile IM solution offers a J2ME client and a WAP-browser-based IM service at http://m.ebuddy.com.

Mr. Rueb said,”We sell 1.5 billion banner ad impressions a month, and in Q1 we will start implementing mobile advertising on the client and XHTML versions.”

“On mobile we have not made any money yet, but we’re starting to implement mobile advertising as well,”he added.

With the goal of building up its mobile database,Crunk Energy Drink ran an SMS campaign at the Honey Farms and Turtle Boy Music Awards.

To text ENERGY to the short code CRUNK (27865),were asked to the consumers.According to Crunk,thousands of consumers opted-in at a rate of 60 percent.

David Spear, executive vice president of sales and marketing for LSN Mobile, Atlanta said,“LSN Mobile helped Crunk Energy Drink implement a staged progression, moving from simple to more complex layering of mobile initiatives and tools to integrate into their overall marketing mix.”

He further said,“Crunk Energy Drink’s marketing strategies align with the general mobile consumer perfectly.”

“Their target audience skews younger, which aligns with mobile-savvy 18-34 year olds. The Crunk Energy Drink audience has an affinity for music, whether it’s hip-hop, rap or underground bands,”he added.

“This audience is highly engaged with mobile and interacts with all aspects of functionality that devices offer today. Finally, Crunk Energy Drink has grown its base of consumers and followers using a grass roots approach, and the viral element that mobile provides aligns perfectly with these strategies,”he said.

To try and win and to receive exclusive offers and Crunk gear,The energy drink brand invited consumers at the event,after texting exted ENERGY to the short code CRUNK (27865).

To promote the mobile sweepstakes campaign,Crunk leveraged packaging, its Web site, licensed merchandise, vehicles and signage .

A message is recieved by consumers at the music awards that texted-in,that said, “Thanks for keeping it Crunk at Honey Farms & the Turtle Boy Music Awards. You are entered for the Lil Jon Guitar Giveaway. You’ll get a text if you win.”

After that,to receive Crunk text alerts each month,participants received a message that asked them to double-opt-in.

Mr. Spear said,“SMS marketing is hot right now.”

“Marketers at companies like Crunk Energy Drink see text as a strategic asset in their arsenal. They are leveraging multiple components of text to drive consumer engagement, retailer traffic, social experience with the brand and overall sales,”he added.

He further said,”Because of these early adopters, more and more traditional companies and their brand marketers are starting to see the powerful one-to-one relationships they can create with consumers.”

“Once these relationships are developed, then the trick is to generate sustained value over time. Bringing utility to a consumer’s daily life – and this can be in many different forms – is the key to creating loyal customers over time,”he added.

“In 2010, we’ll see many more companies and brands leverage text in unique ways. The campaigns that will stick are the ones that offer simplicity, utility and speed,”he said.