A Wunderman executive said that he believes we will look back at this coming holiday season as a major milestone for mobile marketing.

Mobile calls-to-action featuring an SMS keyword and short code or mobile bar code can make holiday-themed traditional media actionable. Savvy retailers can get the word out about holiday sales via SMS, the mobile Web and branded applications, while brands can use various forms of mobile advertising to achieve their holiday-specific goals.

In the third installment of a series focused on mobile marketing during the holidays, Mobile Marketer?s Dan Butcher interviewed Thom Kennon, New York-based vice president of strategy at Wunderman, part of WPP?s Young & Rubicam Brands. Here is what he had to say:

With so much noise and holiday-themed advertising starting around Thanksgiving and even before, how can a brand use the mobile medium to get noticed during this period of very competitive media?
Without sounding over-heated or hysterical, I suspect when we all look back?and we will?to try to understand when mobile moved from interesting to nice-to-have to the heart of an all-channel brand program, it will be Christmas 2010 we all nod knowingly and nostalgically about.

What are some best practices for targeting specific demographics using mobile during the holiday season?
Mobile?s just a channel, a touchpoint a media. Its inclusion in our all-channel brand programs doesn?t change the nature of our targeting.

But it does infinitely enrich our ability to reach discrete segments at key behavioral stages in their consumer cycles, and that?s what?s different.

There is no other touchpoint where we can potentially know so much about who you are, where you are, what you might be needing than through mobile.

The fundamental best practices is applying the old smart rules of data-driven targeting, messaging and touchpoint optimization into the real-time mobile web consumer experience.

Which sectors/verticals are most important during the, and which sectors/verticals match up best with which demographics?
Like with any ?holiday marketing? it is essential to remember it?s not all about shopping for gifts. It?s about planning travel and vacations. It?s about party and entertainment planning?office, home, community groups. It?s about heading out to the movies, theaters and restaurants in big numbers. It?s about making kids?from 1 to 92?happy.

There?s simply a whole lot of consumer spending going on and mobile is the hero touchpoint to reach and activate consumers at almost every moment of behavioral truth across their shopping, purchase and fulfillment journeys.

The point is this: You don?t have to be selling diamonds or champagne or 20-pound turkeys for year-end holiday to be big, if not huge, in your mobile activation plans.

People are spending more?and searching and recommending and sharing and bragging more?during the holidays.

Their mobile phone is with them at every single moment from Halloween through to the January sales. Get into their pocket and purse! 

Here?s one piece of planning advice: Hanukkah is early this year, Dec. 1-9. Use that as a mini-crescendo point bridging your Black Friday and Christmas mobile-centric holiday brand activation plans.

Given that many people are traveling and away from the TV and their PCs during the holidays, and the fact that people need to do more in less time, how can mobile address these types of general advertising challenges?
Again, my mobile phone is always with me, so the old rules of who, when and where are re-written forever with mobile.

My advice?regardless of the channel, but it is especially actionable for mobile?is to focus on the behaviors and need states of your customers.

I send party directions and recipes and shopping lists from my fixed Web life to my mobile life. I key in short codes sitting on the train or bus.

Brand and product marketers need to ask and answer a very simple question: How do I get on that phone?

What?s the need state I want to target?for example, lost in the toy aisle, sticker shock at the jewelers, status envy in the liquor store, technical spec panic in Best Buy?and what?s the behavior I want to drive?

Behaviors such as search for a product review, download a coupon, compare specifications, define ?carat,? learn about single malts?fast ? that sort of thing.

Why is mobile advertising significant/necessary for marketers during the holiday season?
Again with the ?advertising? word ? Sure there will be advertising and if you?re not considering how much, what kind, when and where to be spending some significant portion of your holiday ?ad dollars? thru the mobile channel than you won?t be one of those marketers who get to look back knowingly and nostalgically with the rest of us. 

But it is not first and foremost about advertising. It is about securing precious real-estate on those hundreds of millions?say that out loud?of mobile phones and leveraging that real estate to create motive, means and opportunity to engage with and purchase your products.

The better question to ask is ?How can my brand secure that real-estate ahead of and instead of my key competitors or other consumer alternatives??

And the answer will range across a mix of consumer behaviors to trigger?everything from opting into SMS alerts, downloading a coupon app, opening my Bluetooth connection, sharing links with friends, and?here?s where advertising is a no brainer?incorporating mobile, local and hyper-targeted keyword search into everything you do this all-channel holiday season.