To keep pace with the ever-evolving mobile marketing landscape, publishers and advertisers are relying on a suite of interactive mobile technologies to engage with their customers.

There are a variety of deployment vehicles that mobile companies are using to direct consumer purchasing habits, with the most effective being interactive technologies. These range from multichannel SMS campaigns with point-of-sale integration and touch-screen kiosk stations in retail stores.

"The mobile marketing landscape has been changed overall by the affordability and accessibility of the technologies, such as rich media screens specifically and the low cost of production in general," said Ned Cannon, creative director of Cypress Consulting, Seattle.

"Now companies can leverage these technologies on a large scale and deploy them in chains and outlets with multiple implementations," he said.

Cypress Consulting's big-brand customers include Microsoft Windows Mobile, CBS, ABC, Comcast, Time Warner, the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints, the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics (recently relocated to Oklahoma City), coffee giant Starbucks and hair products company Redken.

These clients have been able to run marketing campaigns that are both effective and competitive in cost.

"The cost of producing Flash and the ability to produce movie effects in a digital environment also allows companies to select a much more affordable vendor to create ads and interactive marketing pieces, whereas in the past, you would have had to hire a large, high-priced agency," Mr. Cannon said.

"As ads continue to become more prolific, costs will continue to drop," he said.

Cypress' competitors include WorkTank, Publicis and Avenue A|Razorfish.

"Cypress Consulting is much smaller organizationally than its competitive interactive agencies, and as a consultancy-based model, is comprised of only high-level, senior consultants with a great deal of experience and expertise in their fields, along with delivering a specialized attentiveness unavailable in junior-level staff," Mr. Cannon said.

"Cypress also has a much greater depth of knowledge of the technology it employs during production," he said.

While many Internet technologies are making their way to the mobile platform, innovations unique to mobile are being developed constantly. In both cases, educating consumers is paramount.

"Looking at interactive demos, we see maturity on the device side, making demos more likely to show up on mobile devices," Mr. Cannon said.

"In-store demos and advertisements will also continue to evolve into advertorials, where education will become a key component to deliver more value to the engaged consumer," he said.

Cypress ran a campaign to promote client Microsoft's Windows Mobile components that included worldwide retail digital marketing, kiosk pilots for major wireless carriers, digital marketing in large consumer electronic stores and interactive POS demos.

Windows Mobile retail outlets needed a digital marketing solution with wide global reach. This involved creating video content for multiple global markets, subsidiaries, languages and mobile carriers.

The countless variables for presenting a consistent brand story worldwide was a deployment challenge for Windows Mobile.

Cypress approached the problem by designing an extensible content framework sequenced in non-linear chapters. One master video presentation was created that contained key feature messaging in discreet chapters. Global subsidiaries were given the option to remove chapters that did not fit their market.

Chapters can be mixed and matched in any combination, or removed based on regional relevance. Since the content progression is non-linear, chapter modules can be combined in any order and still have support overarching brand messaging.

Cypress also engineered the video for dynamic localization. Regions interested in localizing the video simply selected which chapters they wanted and provided translated text.

Cypress was able to output and deploy multiple versions of the video quickly and at a very low cost to the global subsidiaries. The video has been customized and deployed in retail stores across regions in Europe and Asia.

Features at kiosk stations in retail stores range from looping commercials to touch-screen applications that help users configure phones in stores for better usage experience. These are also set up at consumer tradeshows and events.

Videos embedded in device hardware, such as phones on an in-store docking station, may be used to promote the hardware or as an educational tool to walk consumers through device set up and functionality.

Cypress has used slight variations on that method, including in-store monitors and video-based walk-throughs delivering product simulations by a subject matter expert to provide a detailed demonstration of product capabilities and real-life scenarios of phone options.

Digital signage and plasma displays in retail stores, where part of the store is focused on featured products and uses looping commercials to pull consumers into that particular section, have also proven effective.

Cypress has also had success displaying high-fidelity digital advertisements in highly trafficked areas such airports. The company's clients have displayed such ads in New York's John F. Kennedy International airport.

Cellit via mobile
SMS campaigns are also an effective marketing tool, but it pays to use other mediums in conjunction with texting to get consumers to opt-in and then build a longstanding relationship with them.

"Some companies run a text-to-win or text-to-vote campaign, and that's it, they forget about it and jettison their subscriber list," said David Wachs, president of Cellit Mobile Marketing, Chicago.

"Mobile marketing should be cross-channel communication with consumers that's an integral part of the brand," he said.

The more comprehensive the marketing plan, the more effective the engagement with consumers.

Integrating opted-in text alerts and promotions as well as voice and email communication is often the best way to take advantage of all branding opportunities.

"Mobile marketing is all about cultivating a subscriber base, and with the way it's heading, we should call it 'mobile CRM,'" Mr. Wachs said.

"It helps to add more aspects to campaigns to create interactive initiatives, start out with a SMS question, then issue a text-to-join call-to-action with, say, a mobile coupon offer, then follow up with alerts spaced out over time," he said.

The key is to build loyalty by piquing consumer interest and offering promotions without being intrusive or sending alerts too often.

"It's a good idea to tie SMS subscriber lists back to email to really understand who a specific brand's customers are, sending them micro-polls along the way," Mr. Wachs said. "The databases should be updated live and tied into one another."

Other fast-growing trends are geared toward integrating campaigns with the point-of-sale.

"Consumers can texting within an in-store environment to get information or mobile coupons," Mr. Wachs said.

"Also, our b-code program provides a POS widget to retailers that lets consumers scan a bar code on their handset to redeem a coupon, and we manage the delivery, track who's redeeming what offers and send follow-up offers," he said.

Given the economic downturn, mobile may be the most cost-effective platform to optimize marketing dollars.

"Running campaigns via mobile requires a relatively small investment that complements advertising via traditional media," Mr. Wachs said. "The interactive nature of mobile multiplies its effectiveness, and the results are measurable."

SMS can still impress
Sports is an area of entertainment that has had a lot of success with the mobile platform. This is largely because fans are more likely to opt in to receive alerts about their team because it is a brand that they already know and love.

If advertisers can associate themselves with that beloved team or athlete in question, they have the opportunity to create long-term brand loyalty of their own.

"The first text-in voting we did for UFC asking who's going to win the fight, Chuck Liddell or Tito Ortiz, got over 90,000 votes," said Michael Falato, vice president of sales and business development for Txtstation, Austin, TX.

"We issued calls-to-action on-site, on TV and online, and the data we collect can be used to give a special offer via mobile phone or email," he said.

"They can ask fans to sign up for a text club to communicate with them in the future. 'Thanks for voting, here's a special coupon for, say, Tapout, punch a code into the Web site and get 10 percent off your next purchase.'"

Txtstation is a global mobile marketing company that runs interactive SMS-based campaigns for various sports- and entertainment-related brands. These include the four major sports leagues, soccer's FIFA World Cup, golf's PGA Tour, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the Live Earth charity concert.

In addition, Alltel Wireless and Txtstation have partnered to offer interactive promotions to fans at select Alltel-sponsored sports venues (see story).

"We offer a broadcast-quality real-time solution with interactive graphics providing in-game branding for a sponsor," Mr. Falato said.

"It's DVR- and Tivo-proof, and people pay attention because it's interactive, it asks you to go to your computer and vote and you see it live onscreen. Once they do that they get a follow-up message like 'Don't forget to watch this Sunday,'" he said.

Other examples of follow-up text messages include mobile coupons such as "Take 15 percent off your next purchase at the Raiders Silver and Black store" and calls-to-action such as "Do you want to join the Lakers text club? For $2.99 per month we'll send you news and information about the team."

In addition to text-to-vote campaigns with various sports franchises, Txtstation runs text-to-screen campaigns, where the company moderates messages that go up on large screens at the venue itself and, sometimes, on a ticker at the bottom of the TV broadcast.

An example was the Live Earth concert hosted by former vice president Al Gore, when Txtstation ran fan-generated text messages on broadcasts in the United States on Bravo and NBC, as well as coverage in England and Germany.

Txtstation also offers branded picture-to-screen campaigns letting fans take a picture with their Web-enabled mobile phone from the stands and email it in. Their photo has the chance to make it on screen with their name.

Alternatively, a sponsor such as Kodak or Canon can make a branded booth asking attendees to take a picture with their merchandise for a chance to get it on the big board or with a "Who's the most loyal fan?" challenge.

Fox News ran an SMS poll asking "How well did you think the president did on the State of the Union address, good, fair or poor?" and almost 100,000 people texted in.

Often, team sponsors subsidize the cost of such campaigns by pairing with sponsors.

For example, MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers create new revenue opportunities by running interactive mobile campaigns with sponsors such as Carmax and Carl's Jr.

"Mobile marketing is about how to sell and brand someone so the sports clubs and other clients can keep on talking to these people, potential consumers," Mr. Falato said.

"The emotional questions always work better, and there are a lot of variables, but in general people love to interact," he said.

Carriers like these types of campaigns as well because they get to know who their clients and potential clients are and build up an opted-in database that can encompass SMS and email.

"Carriers can say, 'Thanks for voting, would you like to receive e-mail alerts?' then they can send them offers for phones and services," Mr. Falato said.

Txtstation can also deliver mobile video content with pre-roll advertising.

"Video doesn't need to be on deck, it can be anywhere on the Internet, and we can say 'Brought to you by Carl's Jr. or McDonalds or whoever," Mr. Falato said.

"We're also merging to integrate viral marketing and social networking to let people send videos, ringtones, ringbacktones and wallpapers to each other's phones without downloading an application and without worrying about what format it's in," he said. "We make dumb phones smart."

Despite the challenging economic times, mobile marketers focusing on interactive technologies have been thriving.

"This year our business is 100 times better compared to last year," Mr. Falato said.

"Brands are starting to drive the ship, they want more than just a commercial or a sign at a stadium, they want to activate their brand, and they're finding that using interactive mobile technologies is the best way for them to do that," he said.