Good news from cnet's Crave:

British Airways announced this week that it would initiate limited cell phone use on an upcoming route between London and New York City. Voice calls will not be permitted, but passengers will be allowed to send and receive text messages and e-mails.

The airline will limit the service to twice-daily flights between London City Airport and New York's JFK that are due to start in September. The all-business class route is flown by a narrow-body Airbus A318 aircraft that must make a stop in Ireland on the westbound leg. The configuration will allow for just 32 seats.

Air2Web, Inc., a market leader in commercialized text messaging, has been selected to power a text-to-win mobile marketing campaign during the 2009 Super Bowl for Johnsonville Sausage, the number one national brand of brats, Italian sausage, smoked links and breakfast sausage links.

The campaign will run through February 28, 2009 and fans can enter by mailing in an entry form, entering online at www.johnsonville.com/gameday or via SMS on their mobile phone. Fans that enter have the opportunity to win one of three packages sponsored by Johnsonville Sausage and Coleman Outdoor Products.

The Super Bowl is the most watched television event of the year, and Johnsonville Sausage is capitalizing on the event’s high level of visibility for their first foray into mobile. To enter, all fans need to do is text “football” or “gameday” to 48775 on their mobile phone and let the games begin.

Read more here.

We hear H&M just launched a full-fledged mobile campaign in their hometown of Amsterdam:

Swedish clothing company H&M launched a mobile marketing campaign on its home turf to promote its latest collection.

The campaign includes SMS coupons, mobile banner ads placed on major carrier portals and media sites including Tele2, Telenor and TV4, and a mobile site with click-through slideshows and animated GIF images of the retailer’s latest garments. For the campaign, H&M tapped mobile marketing agency Mobiento and its sister company Adiento, an ad network, which use mobile ad network MADS’ technology platform.

Read more at Mobile Marketer.

Recently, Club Texting had a run-in with World Wrestling Entertainment, and was pleased to find the entertainment giant is getting deeper and deeper into the mobile marketing business. Apart from recently appointing Unanimis to handle its online and mobile ad sales accounts, there’s much more rumored to be in the works.

After their recent layoff of an estimated ten percent of the WWE workforce, the titans of professional wrestling are hoping that mobile marketing will be helpful in drawing in viewers who have lately been tuning out.

The upcoming WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will reportedly give fans a chance to learn via text message when the “major announcements” are made as to whom will be inducted into this year’s graduating class.

Read the full report here.

MobileVerbs has launched mobile marketing program Jack-in-the-Box restaurants. The restaurant guests can provide their feedback and redeem coupons via their cell phones.

Jack's guests follow 'call to action' instructions on table tents and send a SMS message to the MobileVerbs service. The mobile service delivers a series of survey questions to guests' cell phones. Once the guests complete the survey in couple of minutes, they are provided with a secure mobile coupon on their cell phones.

Click here for the full story.

The threat of possible "phone jams" in DC was all over the news yesterday. Many papers had their own take on how to lessen dropped calls and texts, including the New York Times:

With about two million people expected at the inauguration Tuesday, attendees can expect cellphone traffic jams. When too many calls try to fit on limited bandwidth, calls and messages get dropped (more on that here). Some texts never make it to their destinations or make it hours – even weeks – late.

There are a few things you can do to assure that your inaugural moment makes it past jammed lines. These strategies are worth remembering for any large gathering, from 4th of July fireworks events to New Year’s Eve at Times Square.

Click here to read the strategies.

For any AT&T customers who have ever voted for American Idol or are simply "heavy texters", you may have received a curious SMS on Tuesday:

Some AT&T Wireless customers have voted an emphatic no on a promotion for "American Idol" that popped up on their phones this week.

AT&T, a sponsor of the show, said it sent text messages to a "significant number" of its 75 million customers, urging them to tune in to the season premiere on Tuesday night. 

Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T Wireless, said the message was meant as a friendly reminder. "We want people to watch the show and participate," Siegel said. He added, "It makes perfect sense to use texting to tell people about a show built on texting."

In the advertisement, AT&T told recipients to "Get ready for American Idol" and pointed them to a company Web site promoting an "Idol"-related sweepstakes. It noted that recipients were not charged for the message, and that they could opt out of future advertisements by responding with the word "stop."

Read the full story here.

A few months ago, we covered the Salvation Army's test of SMS donations in Ohio. Today we came across this new program from UNICEF, which is still one of the few live mobile donation campaigns in the US right now. Below is an excerpt from their site:

Read below for Part II of a long Q&A with Scott Goodstein, who ran all of the text-messaging and mobile communications for President-elect Barack Obama's campaign. In this section, we finally find out how large Obama's cell phone list is and find out the real story behind that 3am Joe Biden text.

Click here to read the rest of the interview.

Part I was published in last Friday's blog post.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to name the nation’s first-ever federal chief technology officer sometime soon. According to Obama’s website, the role of the CTO will be to “ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century.”

It’s not surprising that Obama plans a major emphasis on technology. His presidential campaign relied heavily on the latest forms of communication -– like Internet social networking sites and text-messaging -– to organize volunteers, raise funds and get voters to the polls.

Scott Goodstein, a D.C.-based campaign manager, ran all of the text-messaging and mobile communications for the president-elect's campaign. The Ticket recently talked to him in detail about the campaign’s new media strategy, the size of its phone book and that much-talked-about 3 a.m. text message. Click here for Part 1 of the interview.

According to Mobile Marketer, Nike has just launched a new mobile app for the iPhone called Nike Goal.

Nike has launched a mobile application leveraging its sponsorship of Italian soccer and further ingratiating the sportswear giant with the game’s fans.

Called Nike Goal, the iPhone application is an extension of the company’s Nikefootball.com site. The app targets Italians who love soccer as well as Nike as a brand.

“The purpose of the application is to provide a free service to Italian football [soccer] fans who want to stay connected to the game and the teams and players they support,” said Martina Zavagno, digital marketing and ecommerce manager at Nike Italy.

Nothing like a good auction to kick off a new year. And Hong Kong is the place for all the excitement.

The Hong Kong government said that it will “auction three mobile TV licenses in 2009,” a move that could put city viewers one step closer to watching their favorite dramas and soccer matches on the go.

The licenses (which will span fifteen years) will allow operators to broadcast in the DVB-H standard common in Europe and in the T-DMB standard common in Korea. High bidders for the licenses will have to begin broadcasting within a year and a half, putting the start of the market’s mobile TV rollout in the second half of 2010.

Get the full story here.

The Wall Street Journal follows the aftermath of Obama's mobile marketing success:

Tech-savvy tactics helped give Barack Obama's presidential campaign an edge. Now, several of the ad-technology companies that powered the campaign's digital push are touting their role in its success, hoping to gain an edge over their own competitors.

No sooner did the polls close than companies such as New York communications agency SS+K, mobile-marketing firms Distributive Networks and Quattro Wireless and online-ad firm Pontiflex began highlighting their role in the campaign to solicit new business. Now, big-name marketers including retailer Gap and insurer Allstate are seeking out these firms, hoping the Obama effect will rub off.

By using mobile-phone advertising, the Obama campaign rounded up volunteers and encouraged voters to go to the polls. It built a list of mobile-phone numbers, developed profiles of potential voters and sent them targeted messages.

Real the full story here.

This recent report from Mobile Marketer is bound to have some effect on mobile marketing targeted to the younger demographic.

"With tweens and elementary school kids increasingly carrying smartphones with Web access, many marketers are looking to reach those audiences through SMS and mobile-friendly Web applications. 

Marketers seeking to attract those age groups must, however, remain vigilant about privacy compliance.

As a recent Federal Trade Commission settlement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Sony Music) illustrates, interacting with the under-13 crowd remains a precarious marketing activity that must be vigilantly monitored."

Read the full report here.

J. C. Penney Company Inc. is using mobile to help customers beat the rush at its biggest After Christmas sale ever.

The retailer’s stores opened at 5:30 a.m. – the earliest opening on the day after Christmas in company history. For the first time ever, JCPenney offered an After Christmas sale “Wake-Up” call. Customers could visit jcp.com beginning Dec. 23 and sign-up for the “Wake-Up” call to their mobile phone.

“The strategy here is to get customers excited about coming into our stores on the day after Christmas,” said Kate Parkhouse, a spokeswoman for JCPenney, Plano, TX. “The day after Christmas is becoming an increasingly popular shopping event.”

Read more here.

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend from your friends at Club Texting!

Women in procreation mode can now sign up for a new series of text message alerts from BabyCenter.com reminding them just when the most opportune times are each month to attempt to get pregnant.

The new set of mobile fertility alerts, dubbed Booty Caller, are free to BabyCenter users who fill out some basic information on their menstrual cycles. BabyCenter then will deliver a total of 18 text messages (three per menstrual cycle), which provide women with information on just where things stand fertility-wise at that particular moment. For example, a message might read “Your fertile window opens today and lasts 5 more days.” BabyCenter will use Booty Caller to drive users to its mobile site for more information.

Read more here.

It's great to see organizations using SMS for the "gr8r" good.

The United Methodist Church is testing out a mobile ad campaign this month that will incorporate a two-fold strategy of text messaging along with outdoor advertising.

“Open hearts. Open minds. Open Doors” campaign was launched in the Pittsburgh area last week and will run until Christmas Eve with the aim of reaching thousands of commuters and pedestrians with more than 40 billboards and transit shelter ads.

Ads simply stating messages of hope will prompt the public to text a keyword such as “believe” to a designated number. Those who text will receive a longer message inviting them to attend a United Methodist church for Christmas and offering them the opportunity to reply with their zip code to find a nearby church or to get more information at the denomination’s Web site.

With mobile phones such a regular distraction in our everyday lives, aren’t there rules in place to stop our electronic lifelines from interfering with our work?  Our friends at the UK-based blog Mobile Phones & Safety have complied a great commentary on the topic of mobile phones in the workplace, which includes best practices that we believe all offices should take into consideration.

Read the full post here.

Playboy Enterprises is launching “Interns,” its first multi-digital program developed, shot and produced exclusively for the mobile Web.

Interns offers a glimpse inside the fascinating world of Playboy, following the journey of three summer staffers in New York City through six, three-minute irreverent “mobisodes.”  Users can access the content at http://www.playboymobile.com, by texting INTERNS to 75269 (PLBOY) and at http://www.myspacetv.com/playboyinterns.

Read more here.