Athletic shoemaker Puma has launched a mobile marketing program, "'Together Everywhere" around the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) Euro 2008 games.

The effort features ringtone alerts and automatic, free conference calling where fans of different soccer teams can talk sports. The mobile campaign is in 13 different European countries.

So what's the why and how?

Puma is promoting with press, posters and online advertising. A mobile media banner ad campaign is also running in select markets. All ads include a short or long code to which fans can text the word PUMA in order to sign up. Fans can also sign up via the pumafootball.com Web site.

Supporters will gain access to the program through tags that come with Puma's new v1.08 Tricks boot that hit stores in May. Access is also via Republic of Football advertisements and pumafootball.com.

Read more at MarketingDaily.

Cash-strapped young mobile phone users don't mind ad-supported content--but there is a price tag. They want it for free--or nearly free.

A study by the U.K.-based Mobixell Networks, an mobile advertising network, says 35% of 16- to-35-year-olds would use more ad-funded multimedia messaging services (MMS) if those services were offered for free or at a discount. Twenty-nine percent also say they would use more video services if offered for free or at a discount.

Read more @ MediaDailyNews

Business Week presents an interesting theory:

There's only one Web. At least that's been the standard response in many tech circles to the emergence of the wireless Web. The point? No matter how you get online, be it by PC or smartphone, you'll still do the same things on the Web, using roughly the same sites and services. Really?
...
Welcome to the weekend Web, where people are spending a bigger slice of time online via wireless devices—and using a different set of sites than during the workweek.

For a mobile marketer this presents many demographic challenges and opportunities. Read more at BusinessWeek.

Rock the Vote has a short code R-T-V-O-T-E (788683) and they just sent us a text saying "Welcome to Rock the Vote! Your place 4 events, election info & how u can make a diff this election year. Txt HELP 4 help, STOP 2 quit. Other charges may apply."

For more information on this political promotion, and to sign up visit the official site.

Click for more information about Club Texting's services for political campaigns.

An interesting piece from the WSJ:

Analysts like to make bold predictions about the growth of mobile advertising. Most have overshot reality.

But at least one slice of the business appears to be catching on, according to marketers: ads sent via text message. A growing number of companies are using cellphone text messages to lend more interactivity to their ads.

Why are they using text messaging?

Ad executives report click-through rates with text-message ads of 1% to 10%, a significant jump from the figures for Web banner ads, which are typically only a fraction of that.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

We came across an interesting survey about what is probably the most popular SMS voting campaign in the US:

With season seven of American Idol wrapping up last week (congrats David Cook!), I was completely shocked that a whopping 97 million votes were cast last Tuesday night. From that 97 million, a record-breaking 78 million were generated from text messages through votes, trivia contests, and other SMS content.

Read more @ Geek Sugar.

Read more about Club Texting's SMS voting software.

Teens, so accustomed to texting, are very receptive to text message advertisements:

"For them, responding to an ad that's relevant by sending a text or following a link on their phone is a logical brand engagement," Covey said. It's so natural that the student council at Notre Dame high school in Sherman Oaks decided to invite teens to their graduation via a prerecorded video sent over a mobile phone.

How receptive?

Teens don't seem to mind the text messages they receive from the retailers. Tsunder said only 4% of people who sign up for the texts ask to stop getting them. And Miller said 2% to 4% of those who see or receive ads on mobile phones click on them to find out more information. On the Internet via computers, so-called click-through rates are generally closer to 0.01%

Read more at the L.A. Times.

Yes another innovative use of text messaging:

Ohio doctors are experimenting with texting to tackle a big problem: Tweens and teens too often do a lousy job of controlling chronic illnesses such as asthma, diabetes or kidney disease.

So how does it work?

Dr. Maria Britto, an asthma specialist at Cincinnati Children's, noticed that even when she's talking to adolescent patients perched on the clinic exam table, they'll keep texting on their cell phones.

"You have to get in their face a little," she says with a laugh.

But it sparked the idea for a study to see if a daily medication reminder via text message would improve kids' asthma control -- preventing full-blown attacks, improving school attendance and decreasing doctor and emergency-room visits. After all, Britto says kids as young as 12 carry the phones into her clinic, poor and middle class alike.

Pilot testing recently began, with a full study set for later this year. Participants say what time they want the reminder, and a clinic volunteer types out the messages -- words spelled out, no mimicking of kids' text lingo.

Head over to CNN to read more, including some preliminary results.

What do Fudgie the whale, the short code 78247, and five 42" TVs have in common?

The nation's favorite spokeswhale, Fudgie, is breaking into mobile marketing and asking consumers to text "FUDGIE" to 78247 to receive a coupon for one of the new blended coffees or Arctic Blenders and a chance to win one of five 42-inch TVs.

Read more about this mobile couponing effort at MarketingDaily.

Check out Club Texting for more information about Text Messaging for Retail (including mobile coupons).

The New York Times recently ran an interesting article about mobile coupons:

Is a coupon still a coupon if you can’t clip ’n’ save it? Betting that the answer is yes, some advertisers are beginning to invest in mobile coupons — discounts that are delivered to customers’ cellphones (with their permission), often via text messages.

Read more at the New York Times.

OnlineMediaDaily reports on a Hearst's major mobile marketing move:

Hearst Magazines Digital Media will extend a service that links print ads to mobile marketing across titles including CosmoGIRL, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Redbook and O The Oprah Magazine.

For the last two years, Hearst has partnered with mobile tech provider ShopText to place mobile codes in CosmoGIRL ads that allow readers to order product samples or enter sweepstakes via their cell phones. After an initial purchase, users need only text a keyword and PIN to buy products advertised in the magazine.

Read more at OnlineMediaDaily.

Visit Club Texting for more information about mobile marketing for magazines.

The New York Times recently ran a story about an interesting phone-cam marketing program run by two popular magazines:

Rolling Stone and Men’s Health are both testing programs in which readers can take cameraphone pictures of icons on ads, then send them to a certain number. In exchange, they’ll receive more information or an offer from the advertiser.

What's in it for the reader?

In Rolling Stone’s current issue, five advertisers are running these offers. They include a motorcycle ring tone for Allstate’s motorcycle-insurance program and a video preview of The Discovery Channel’s new season of “Man vs. Wild.” Men’s Health is going even further, saying each full-page advertisement in its July-August issue will have the added feature.

Read more at the New York Times.

Visit Club Texting for more information about mobile marketing for magazines.

BusinessWeek has an interesting story about mobile advertising and the threat that it poses to Google:

As more people use cell phones and their tiny glass screens to gain access to the Internet, Google and its fellow online advertisers will have less space, or what's called ad inventory, to place marketing messages for customers. Google makes money selling ad inventory. And its ad inventory is diminished on a cell phone.

What does the future hold?

Consumer use of mobile Internet in the U.S. has longed trailed Asia and Europe, where standardized cell networks made it easier for handset makers to produce gadgets that tap the Web at blazingly fast speeds. But in the summer of 2007, Apple rocked America by launching the iPhone. The computer maker wasn't the first to put the Web on phones, but for many consumers, the iPhone made the experience more robust.

Almost two-thirds of Americans have had some experience with mobile Internet use, and the adoption trend is most pronounced among teens and young adults, according to Pew Research Center. About 60% of adults 18 to 29 use text messaging every day, compared with only 14% of their parents. Nearly one-third of young adults use mobile Internet. This is the future, because people take their media habits with them as they age.

Read more @ BusinessWeek

ComputerWorld has put together a list of ten informative tips that will help you become a better texter in no time:

To many people over the age of 30, text messaging can seem like one of those strange, complicated behaviors only teenagers understand. In reality, it's one more great tool in your productivity arsenal, right up there with e-mail and instant messaging.

Such as:

If your phone lacks GPS and you need to find your way between points A and B, let SMS be your guide. Before you hit the road, head to MapQuest in your desktop browser and input your destination. Once the site generates the driving directions, click the Send to Cell option and enter your cell number. In seconds you'll receive a text message containing a link to turn-by-turn directions for your route.

 If you're away from your PC, tap Google SMS for on-the-fly navigation. Create a new message with your starting point and destination, then send it to GOOGLE (dial 466453). In return, you'll receive Google Maps directions in one or more text messages (depending on the length of the route). You can also get an actual map by texting "map" and your location.

Read all ten tips at ComputerWorld.

Despite their distrust of electronic voting machines, Americans appear ready to embrace SMS voting:

According to the short survey, more than half of all Democrats, Republicans and Independents surveyed say that if allowed, they’d text in their Presidential vote.

If we look to future voters, the numbers are even greater:

Eight in ten (80%) teens, ages 13-17, say that if they were allowed to     vote in this year’s Presidential election, they’d do it by text message     instead of going to the polls.

Read more at Cellular News.

Adweek let's us know about a new mobile search report:

The mobile search advertising market will surge from $815 million in 2008 to $5 billion by 2013, according to new research published Wednesday.

Search will become as important in the mobile space as on the desktop, ABI Research said. Consumers will have escalating options to conduct searches by SMS and via branded providers, which will help advertising growth.

The outlook for SMS?

Total SMS searches will grow from 13 billion in 2008 to more than 76 billion by 2013, ABI forecasts.

Read more at Adweek.

A new report from M:Metrics suggests that mobile marketing is the way to reach the elusive young male demographic:

With 36% of men ages 18 to 34 in Western Europe using mobile media, and 48% in the U.S. as of February, that demographic is an especially attractive audience for mobile advertisers, according to market researcher M:Metrics.

Furthermore, men in that age group are highly receptive to SMS text messages, with 9% responding to a text ad compared to only 4% of mobile users on average.

"Reaching the 18- to-34-year-old age demographic is a real challenge to advertisers, as this group is spending less time consuming print and broadcast media," said Paul Goode, a senior analyst at M:Metrics, in a statement.

Read more at OnlineMediaDaily.

The Washington Post recently ran a story about parents who text. While the teenagers might not like this, it is good news for mobile marketers:

Parents are horning in on their teenagers' lives through text messaging. Sending shorthand cellphone messages used to be the province of the younger set -- under the dinner table, in the car, at all hours of the night.

Now, parents are responding with their own quick dispatches -- "RU there," "Running L8" -- and becoming the fastest-growing demographic in text messaging, which is one of the biggest areas of the mobile-phone industry.

Read more at The Washington Post.

BusinessWeek has an interesting story on mobile advertising in the UK:

Banner advertising on cell phones is reaching its target, especially female heads of households, according to the retailer's mobile arm
...
The mobile virtual network operator has been trialling a WAP advertising portal since May 2007, which Tesco said has displayed strong month-on-month growth, gaining 300,000 unique visitors in December.

Banner advertising served up on the portal delivered a click-through rate to tailored WAP campaign sites of between three and seven per cent, said Tesco. Brands advertising on the portal included Bee Movie, ITV, Nivea and Teletext.

Read more at BusinessWeek.

The FCC has approved what will certainly be the largest Emergency SMS system in the world:

Cell phone users will get text message alerts of emergencies under a new nationwide alert system approved late Wednesday by the Federal Communications Commission, according to FCC spokesman Robert Kenny.

It seems that the system will work in a manner similar to the TV/Radio Emergency Broadcast Systems:

Under the plan, the FCC will appoint a federal agency to create the messages and pass them on to cell phone companies that choose to participate, an FCC representative said earlier. Once that agency is named, the participating cell phone providers would have 10 months to comply with the new system's requirements.

All major carriers are expected to join the program. Read more @ CNN.