Motricity, one of the leading providers of mobile content infrastructure and services, claims it is gung-ho about mobile marketing in this economy and so is its roster of clients.

In an in-depth interview, Motricity chairman/CEO Ryan K. Wuerch highlights the reason why he expects this year to be stellar and expounds on the trends that will shape mobile content consumption. He sees mobile at the center of a multichannel marketing universe.

"From the advertiser perspective, the mobile phone -- and text messaging, in particular -- will start to become the go-to call-to-action source for the advertising industry," Mr. Wuerch said from the Bellevue, WA, base of Motricity, a company that has raised more than $400 million in venture capital since its 2001 founding. The interview:

2009 -- good for mobile marketing. Hype or reality?
Great for mobile marketing.

There will be so much opportunity for the industry in 2009. We have a lot to keep us busy.

This year, we're seeing the demand for all-inclusive mobile data services and a more powerful way of accessing it. We are seeing the increase in adoption of mobile data services driven by:

â?¢ Cheaper, more powerful handsets
â?¢ The increase in mobile email and mobile browsing
â?¢ A growing interest in multimedia messaging -- photo and video -- mobile music, social networking and location based services
â?¢ Momentum of mobile applications platforms and proliferation of third-party mobile applications
â?¢ Increasing buyer interest in customization such as third-party applications, games and software
â?¢ Lower handset/data plan pricing trends globally
â?¢ Faster 3G networks
â?¢ Device convergence -- GPS, music, camera, game console and media player
â?¢ Mobilization of business

Given this adoption of mobile data services and solutions, brands in particular are realizing there is a significant opportunity to provide high-quality content to mobile users.

In the past, many jumped head-first into the Internet and got burned by an unproven market.

Now, as brands take cautious steps into the mobile market, they are finding ways to deliver targeted content through the carriers to the end users.

Carriers are welcoming these brands and their strategies to encourage a flourishing marketplace.

Our ties with carriers offer brands a way to distribute their content to end-users. Both sides know this and can appreciate it. It's just a matter of making it happen in order to grow mobile marketing.

How will this year be different from last year?
There are a few things we need to keep in mind.

First, the iPhone has educated consumers on what they can do on mobile devices.

Second, Internet juggernauts are moving more users off-deck.

Third is the increased competition within carriers.

Finally, the role of standards in the future is unclear.

Service providers must move from siloed point solutions and start to integrate and unify their platforms to maximize their returns from declining services.

They need to better prepare for the technical and business challenges in front of them in order to be competitive in the market.

What breakthroughs do you expect this year?
We think that all vendors in the mobile ecosystem will embrace the open strategy.

Content providers and brands are looking to leverage the data, intelligence and connectivity of the carriers in order to offer a personalized, relevant solution to consumers.

Carriers are looking to connect to a number of partners while protecting and monetizing their unique assets.

New solutions and services will arrive on the market enabling both areas of the ecosystem to expand.

From the advertiser perspective, the mobile phone -- and text messaging, in particular -- will start to become the go-to call-to-action source for the advertising industry.

Magazine ads, online banners, billboards and other forms of advertising will direct audiences to use their mobile phones to text messages to short codes to get more information on the product, service or campaign being advertised.

From the consumer side, mobile phones are no longer used primarily for voice applications.

Today, more and more users are beginning to rely on their devices for the mobile data services alone.

Developers and carriers will shift their focus on technology improvements -- and advertising dollars -- from voice services to data services. This will be further witnessed by the expansion of data-only devices such as the Apple iPod touch and the Amazon Kindle.

In a similar vein, we expect to see the mobile phone competing with Visa and MasterCard as the currency of choice for mobile payments -- and consumers will no longer just be using their phones to purchase ringtones and mobile games.

They will also utilize the billing relationships established through carriers to move beyond the digital commerce realm to purchase physical goods, making the phone a point-of-sale machine.

Further, large numbers of consumers are showing a willingness to watch or listen to advertising on their mobile phones in return for free minutes or content.

This will continue to grow as content providers, marketers and retailers seek to increase awareness of their brands through these types of campaigns.

They will also utilize methods to send free, targeted text messages to mobile phone users who have opted in to their brands.

How is Motricity doing?
We're doing great.

We're thrilled about the direction we're heading in and the growth we've seen year over year. We're in the strongest position we've ever been in heading into 2009.

We've increased the functionality of our products and platform, new carrier binds now expand our reach to new subscribers, and new customer penetration translates into significant growth and expansion for our off-deck business.

Motricity's focus, discipline and track record continue to deliver â?¦ results, and we've processed over $2 billion in gross content sales since 2005.

Are you positioning Motricity any differently?
We have successfully integrated Infospace Mobile into Motricity, so we're certainly modernizing our brand to reflect the great opportunities we have in becoming one company.

Starting out, Motricity had a forward-looking, entrepreneurial style and InfoSpace Mobile was this long-standing unfaltering business, so we're fusing the two to create a truly comprehensive powerhouse.

Motricity can confidently say we have a broader range of solutions, scalability, quality, reliability and faster delivery than any other company in the mobile data services ecosystem.

Amongst this merger and all of this new integration of staff and products, we're still turning ideas into reality for our customers without skipping a beat.

What are your plans for this year?
Our No. 1 goal is to keep our global carriers and enterprise customers delivering personalized, compelling experiences to consumers in order to increase data usage, ARPU [average revenue per user] and brand recognition.

Innovation and challenging ourselves for continuous improvement is key.

As networks, handsets, and operating systems evolve, we are at the forefront of the mobile evolution and we need to keep harnessing all the information and all the knowledge coming in and turn it into advanced, original programs for our customers.

That's why we formally developed our Motricity solutions and services group.

Will you pay more attention to some services that you offer over the others?
In fact, yes. "Services" being the key word.

Motricity has been focusing on the needs of our customers by developing the Motricity solutions and services group. This group is focused on four key practice areas:

â?¢ Bespoke/turnkey system development -- Our consulting team delivers customer-specific new applications designed to meet specific business requirements.
â?¢ Systems integration -- Motricity is the single-source vendor to integrate third- party applications and content designed to meet clients' needs.
â?¢ Expert advisor/ideation -- Our innovation team is the thought-partner to help define future offerings and develop business cases.
â?¢ Staff augmentation -- Our solutions team augments existing staff with subject matter experts, providing support for line and operations work for clients.

We want our customers to know that their implementations will be fast, seamless and on time.

We're really honing in on this because there is so much opportunity to grow our current customer base. If they aren't satisfied, how would that help us in the future with other customers, prospective or current?

What's the one thing you won't do this year that you did last year?
In 2008 Motricity made significant technology investments in its â?¦ platform for mobile data, applications and services, the mCore Platform, to capitalize on the rapid growth of mobile data services globally.

This investment enabled Motricity to optimize its technology to advance the mobile industry in the areas of convergence and open mobile solutions, in order to deliver relevant content to consumers in a compelling way.

We are [at] the center of the mobile ecosystem, and Motricity will continue to deliver on its vision of powering the mobile lifestyle.

You have a new team in place, as well as a lot more funding. Great timing or intentional?
At Motricity, we are committed to working closely with our customers to help them develop and grow their mobile initiatives.

We continue to attract respected and proven executives known for success in their industries and dedication to helping customers achieve their goals.

We are attracting top talent to the team, namely Jim Smith to the role of president and chief operating officer, Richard Leigh as senior vice president and general counsel, Deepak Dhawan as senior vice president for solutions and services and Abe Danzinger as vice president of sales engineering.

Jim, Richard, Deepak and Abe are joining us at a time when Motricity is experiencing extraordinary momentum and growth. We look forward to leveraging their expertise and experience to take our business into 2009 and beyond.

Any recent milestones at Motricity?
Actually, we're proud to announce that we just reached a record of $100 million revenue.

And we've delivered over 11.5 billion pageviews across all of our deployments, which is a 45 percent increase from 2007 to 2008.

According to comScore, Motricity's mCore Platform reached 74 percent of all mobile subscribers that browsed any news or information on their mobile phones.

This significant milestone represents the breadth and depth of Motricity's offerings in the marketplace.

Speaking of which, we're expanding our mCore Platform's capabilities -- expect to see more details about that in the coming weeks.

How diverse is your client base?
We have longstanding relationships with mobile carriers, media companies, broadband suppliers, content providers, enterprises and handset manufacturers, so it really puts us in the center of the mobile ecosystem.

We're fortunate to work with companies from every touch point in the mobile content space.

We power the content storefront where you purchase ringtones, themes and graphics from AT&T, T-Mobile, Alltel, Cricket, TracFone and BellMobility, along with information portals from carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Virgin.

We also manage messaging applications for voting, polls, text to celebrities for brands like CNN, Fox News, A&E and Conde Nast.

We like to think of ourselves as the brand behind the brand.

What are your clients saying about mobile?
Our clients are seeing more mobile users heading off-portal to get the content and applications they seek, so there is a lot of opportunity here for carriers, in particular.

About a month ago, I made phone calls to a number of senior executives at some of our larger North American carriers and asked them if I needed to be concerned based on what's happening in the economy, and based on some fluctuation we had been seeing in some of their numbers.

The answer: Not only is content and data usage the area of greatest growth and profitability right now, but that's an area that will grow even further over the next three to five years.

They're becoming more bullish than ever and are excited about it. That response was consistent with every carrier I spoke to.

But in order for their portals to stay relevant and the content providers and brands to make their products most accessible, they know they need to open up their walled gardens and partner with companies who have the ability to leverage the data, intelligence and connectivity of the carriers in order to offer a personalized, relevant solution to consumers.

The carriers then in turn will benefit by being able to connect to a robust number of partners while protecting and monetizing their unique assets. We like to call it "co-opetition."