ChaCha and Rock the Vote are teaming up to inform and engage young voters,With the election just a few weeks away and encouraging participation in what could be the most important election of their lives.

Inquiries can be sent to RTVOTE (788683) and politically trained ChaCha Guides dedicated to this campaign will provide informed, non-partisan answers.

Through this service,voters can learn everything from how to register and where their polling place is to Obama’s stance on energy and McCain’s record on regulation.

Susan Marshall, vice president of marketing at ChaCha, Indianapolis said,”We are partnering with Rock the Vote to help them get as many young voters engaged with the election as possible.”

“Our service is a good match because it is easy and answers to questions are delivered via SMS,”she added.

“Young people are used to communicating via SMS,” she said.

To answer customer queries 24/7,ChaCha merges search technology with the human intelligence provided by its growing base of over 35,000 ChaCha Guides.

Ms. Marshall said,”I think there is a lot of confusion on where candidates stand on various issues and a lot of questions regarding voting.”

“This service aims to address those challenges,”she added.

Users can receive answers within minutes,just by call 1-800-2ChaCha or text questions to ChaCha (242-242) on mobile phones.

The aim of Rock the vote is to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country.

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

Ms. Marshall said,”We are doing the back end stuff and Rock the Vote is providing the resources for the answers.”

“Rock the vote is promoting this on its Web site, via an email blast to subscribers and with a twitter update,”she added.

A leading provider of SMS text messaging and wireless multimedia services,MX Telecom,debuted a new guide on compliance and best practice for mobile service providers.

Regulatory requirements of such British agencies and entities such as PhonepayPlus, the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Gambling Commission as well as British wireless carriers are also incorporated by the U.K. Regulatory Guide from London-based MX.

According to MX CEO Alex Moir,the aim is to offer clarity in a thicket of best-practice codes.The 26-page document is also designed to help marketers who run simultaneous multiple mobile campaigns for global brands.

The guide comes just as Verizon Wireless’ decision to raise its rates for SMS messages to its subscribers has roiled the U.S mobile marketing industry.

Including PhonepayPlus, the U.K. Mobile Network Operators, The Information Commissioner’s Office and The Gambling Commission,U.K. mobile phone services are currently governed by the codes of several disparate bodies.

Both in the U.K. and U.S,MX Telecom has always prided itself on its ability to help navigate clients through compliance.

Mobile services can benefit from offering value at a low price,when people are sensitive to rising prices and large spends on property and vehicles,in the current state.

Immediately gratifying mobile entertainment or information,the decision to spend a dollar or two on a piece of reliable is much easier than the decision to move, buy a house, get another car or change your bank.

For a more integrated approach to digital marketing,the Eldorado Hotel & Casino is effectively using mobile alongside its email marketing campaigns.

Eldorado is also able to have holistic insight into campaign success across all of its digital marketing channels by Using Lyris HQ’s advanced analytic features,including mobile.

Blaine Mathieu, chief marketing officer of Lyris, Emeryville, CA said,“Marketers are under more pressure than ever to drive performance from their online marketing campaigns, while reducing cost and complexity.”

“By using Lyris HQ to orchestrate campaigns across multiple channels, such as email, mobile and social, this opens up new opportunities for Eldorado to build a more consistent experience and engage with their customers anytime, anywhere,”he added.

“Enabling meaningful conversation across online marketing channels is what we refer to as tri-messaging,”he said.

Four months ago,Eldorado rolled out its mobile marketing efforts .

via SMS,it is targeting its guests,and giving them instant special offers from its hot spots such as restaurants and night clubs.

To get consumers to join the mobile club by texting keywords ELDORADO or LEGACY to short code 71266,the hotel provides the mobile call-to-action within email campaigns.

Chad Hallert, director of ecommerce and interactive marketing at Eldorado, Reno, NV said,“We’ve already shown revenue.”

“Once you text-in, we are pretty aggressive with our offers and have seen immediate booking and revenue from the SMS initiative so it is working out quite well,”he added.

“Being timely and relevant is absolutely essential,” he said.

The hotel sees mobile as a way to help it fill seats at shows and drive customers to its venues.

Mr. Hallert said,“What is great is we can send a relevant offer with a timely call-to-action that is good for consumers because they get a discount and we’re able to fill empty seats.”

“We have an offer that goes out online, via email and mobile,”he added.

An SMS campaign has been launched by the Bowery Mission,designed to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless and hungry in New York City during its 100th anniversary celebration.

The special emcee of the anniversary celebration event on Nov. 6,Investigation Discovery’s Paula Zahn,announced the campaign and asked attendees to text the keyword BOWERY to short code DOTORG (368674). DI Digital created the campaign.

Chi Modu, cofounder/president of DI Digital, New York said,“The Bowery Mission wanted their message to have a broader reach and tap into the technology of today.”

“We felt that it would be smart to approach the age-old problem of hunger and homelessness with a 21st century solution,”he added.

He further said,“Through our creative use of SMS, we were able to include facts and trivia, words of inspiration, along with the Bowery’s services.”

“We created a less-intrusive and more-effective way to help them achieve their goal of rebuilding lives, which they have been doing since 1879,”he added.

To impoverished men, women and children in New York City,the Bowery Mission provides care and ministry.

consumers can get an interactive opportunity to learn more about the work of the Mission and how they can contribute to it by the text messaging campaign.

They can also test their knowledge about homelessness and hunger in New York,learn about different donation opportunities and opt-in for weekly words of inspiration.

According to Mr. Modu,the SMS campaign addresses the challenge of awareness for The Bowery Mission.

Mr. Modu said,“Many want to help, but don’t know how.”

“The campaign created another way for The Bowery Mission to let people know about their needs and the needs of those who benefit from the Mission’s work,”he added.

He further said,“They realized the flexibility of our SMS system allows for quick changes to the content.”

“The Bowery’s short-term needs for food and clothing through the winter months and holiday season could be addressed, as well as their ongoing mission,”he added.

LSN Inc.,Mobile advertising network, has launched a Web-based tool to help marketers build SMS mobile marketing campaigns with interactive capabilities.

At a low cost and within a short timeframe,the product, Go With SMS!, is meant to help companies rollout interactive mobile promotions.

By consumer adoption and participation,sms campaigns drive brand awareness.

David Spear, executive vice president of marketing at LSN, Atlanta, GA said,”The strategy behind the launch is to highlight the interactive on-line sign-up process as well as the diverse marketing platforms that Go With SMS! clients can choose from.”

Using one or more of the LSN short codes,companies select a platform from eight promotion categories.

After that,company adds an exclusive keyword and writes the SMS text message.

LSN’s Go With SMS! offers three pricing options and requires no long-term contracts or sign-up fees.

A mobile campaign for $199 per month with an allocation of 1-1,500 text messages per month has been launched by Companies.

Other plans include 1,501-10,000 text messages per month for $759 per month and 10,001-25,000 text messages per month for $1599 per month.

Mr. Spear said,”Since 94 percent of text messages are read by participants, text mobile marketing is becoming more essential to marketers every day.”

“The Go With SMS! program now gives any company the capability to create an interactive mobile campaign, either by selecting one of our ready-to-go promotion platforms, or by creating their own customized campaign, to reach mobile subscribers, in less than a week,”he added.

The product of LNS,Go With SMS! campaigns are available for contests, voting, offers, news, buying/selling, auto, sports, and information alerts.

To the hockey fans at the Jobing.com Arena,the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes has brought real-time texting features.

The Coyotes tapped Txtstation to power the messaging initiatives.The promotions range from live SMS polling, picture to screen and text to screen.

Michael Falato, vice president of sales and business development for Txtstation, Austin, TX said,”The Coyotes like to do text alerts and our role is to expand their SMS initiatives by letting consumers interact with real-time, broadcast-quality graphics on the scoreboard.”

“The Coyotes asked us, ‘How can we communicate with our fans year round?’ and they decided to send out alerts to their fans and engage with them in the stadium via SMS,”he added.

By using their mobile phone, respond to polls via text message and see the results on the giant video screen and text in to vote for each game’s MVP,Fans could get their picture on the scoreboard.

For getting SMS alerts from the Coyotes,Consumers text keyword HOWL to short code 55333.

The goal of the the Coyotes was to build up a mobile database to send out special offers and promotions from themselves or sponsors such as AT&T.

Mr. Falato said,”They’re using mobile to activate their sponsor AT&T, which ties into AT&T’s brand.”

“Teams are looking for fun ways to engage fans, and sponsors are looking for a way to activate their sponsorship with fans and viewers,”he added.

He further said,”It’s about branding, building a mobile database and driving them to take advantage of certain offers or promotions.”

“With texting, it’s opt-in, and it’s instantaneous,”he added.

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.