NEW YORK - From SMS and mobile-optimized email to the mobile Web, applications and video, publishers must decide which mobile channels best fit their business model. Where to start?

That was the question addressed by a rather contentious panel, moderated by Marci Troutman, CEO of Siteminis, Atlanta, at the Mobile Marketing and Media 2010 Conference, hosted yesterday by Mobile Marketer parent Napean and the Direct Marketing Association. Each panelist went to bat for his preferred mobile channel.

?The mobile Web continues to be one of the biggest drivers, but if we look at the impressions we have, just short of half a billion per month, apps have actually passed our mobile Web site, because people consume more page views on apps,? said Craig Etheridge, vice president of mobile advertising sales for USA Today at Gannett Digital, McLean, VA.

?That said, marketers like mobile Web, because it?s accessible across various devices and it?s a very different audience than apps,? he said. ?We will continue to develop for the mobile Web, apps and next-generation mobile channels.?

The Weather Channel is another multichannel media company that has a large presence on the mobile Web and the applications space, both featuring mobile video, as well as a considerable opted-in SMS database.

The Weather Channel iPhone application was downloaded 10 million from its November launch to the end of April (see story). TWC also has applications for Android, BlackBerry, iPad and other mobile operating systems. 

?Consumers are not integrating?they want content when and where they want it, on the device they have,? said Pete Chelala, senior mobile manager at the Weather Channel, Atlanta. ?We have apps for Android, iPhone and iPad, we produce more than 5,000 mobile videos a day and we send out 40 million opt in SMS messages.

?For marketers we have a really great audience, and mobile is just another touchpoint,? he said. ?When when you deliver the message, make sure it is simple, bite-size and that the call-to-action is clear, because people are receptive to mobile advertising?they?ll click.

?Make sure the idea travels across all three screens and that you?re engaging the consumer.?

With all of the options available to them within the mobile medium, where should publishers start?

?The mobile web, because it has the most reach across devices, and mobile search,? Mr. Chelala said. ?Apps are also really exciting?they?re like DVR for your phone, helping you find a local taxi, restaurant or movie.?

Apps: savvy marketing platform
When looking at mobile applications, brands and publishers must decide whether to launch their own application or leverage the existing audience of a third-party application via a sponsorship or mobile ad campaign.

H&M promoted its ?The Blues? collection within Booyah?s MyTown iPhone application in a campaign powered by appssavvy.

The MyTown social game enables players to unlock rewards and earn points by checking-in from real-world shops and locations (see story).

?Throw click-through banners out the window?we don?t believe that works,? said Chris Cunningham, founder of appssavvy, New York. ?Find something relevant and interesting for your target consumers.

?We integrated retailer H&M into the MyTown mobile game itself to encourage check ins while consumers were in store,? he said. ?MyTown user could not only get maps of nearby H&M retail locations, but also get discounts offers.?

That type of integration may make more sense for many brands than actually building an application from the ground up.

?You need to ask yourself, ?What is your objective??? Mr. Cunningham said. ?From a marketing perspective, many brands and publishers have a desire to build an app but they have no idea why they?re building it or how they?re going to get people to download it.

?Ask, ?What are people going to do there? How are they going to tell their friends?? he said. ?Most brands shouldn?t build an app?it?s a pretty big gamble, and it?s hard to sustain traffic over time.

?Leveraging existing communities is a safer point of entry, because it lets you tie your content into the conversations of existing communities.?

Does SMS still impress?
Everyone agrees that SMS has the widest reach of all mobile channels, with almost all handsets?smartphones and feature phones?supporting text messaging.

But does it provide a compelling enough experience for consumers? Should publishers integrate SMS into their overall strategy?

?SMS is probably the most ubiquitous way to do mobile marketing,? said Matthew Valleskey, senior marketing manager for mobile services at Neustar, Sterling, VA. ?It?s great that the iPhone and iPad and Droid have all increased the level of buzz around mobile, but if you want to talk about the easiest way to get the best reach using a channel people already know how to do, SMS is best.

?Almost everybody, even those with basic feature phones, can do SMS,? he said. ?The iPhone may be approaching 10 percent penetration, but it is still a small segment of the market, and in other parts of the world, smartphone adoption is going to be a little bit slower.

?There are trillions of text messages being sent out there, and people are used to doing it.?

SMS is an effective way to activate traditional media by issuing a call-to-action asking consumers to text a keyword into a short code.

?When you?re looking at your mobile strategy, how does it all integrate together?? Mr. Valleskey said. ?TV, radio, print, outdoor, mobile?how do you use each medium to feed off of the others?

?With SMS, people can take action at that point in time, and you can even drive downloads of an app by getting them to text in or scan a bar code,? he said. ?What?s easiest way? SMS is the easiest, fastest entry point into mobile.

?Mobile apps have raised the bar, but how many are out there? Tens of thousands, and if you?re not a large brand that can provide content, and you?re not marketing it well, you shouldn?t build an app.?

Email is mobile
According to ExactTarget, 58 percent of Americans start their day by checking email, and more and more consumers worldwide regularly check their email on their handset.

That means that marketers and publishers must optimize their email blasts to be read on a wide spectrum of mobile devices.

?We see email as the work horse of any interactive marketing program,? said R.J. Talyor, director of marketing at ExactTarget, Indianapolis. ?More and more, marketers who use our software platform are figuring out how to optimize email for mobile devices while not compromising the desktop or iPad experience.

?People are looking at emails on mobile devices, and there are 6,000-plus configurations of an email rendering on mobile devices,? he said. ?We?ve advised our clients to design emails for mobile devices so it is an optimized experience.?

So which channel is the winner? If it fits into the publisher's budget, the answer is all of the above.

?The more platforms you can extend to the better, from a brand perspective and a user experience perspective,? Mr. Cunningham said.

Multimedia bonus
Mobile Marketer's Dan Butcher interviewed Matthew Valleskey, senior marketing manager for mobile services at Neustar, and Pete Chelala, senior mobile manager of The Weather Channel. Here is a video:

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Here are some pictures of the panel: