Its been a manic few weeks in the mobile marketing world, so in case youve struggled to keep up, here, as ever at the start of a new month, is your 2-minute guide to some of the stories from the mobile world that you might have missed over the past few weeks.
All the talk in the UK centred around text and phone voting for reality TV shows, as news emerged of several shows that were alleged to have fleeced viewers in one way or another by inviting them to vote when the winner had already been chosen, or by inviting votes and then picking the winner from among the studio guests. As if the money they rake in legitimately from the phone votes was not enough to be going on with. So it was no surprise when communications regulator Ofcom announced an inquiry into the scandal. The findings are expected by early summer.
Elsewhere, with spring in the air, there was quite a bit of get-up-and-go in evidence in the mobile business. Bango announced a number of new deals, and still found time to launch Bango 2Go, with the promise of making it easier for brands to establish a presence on the mobile web, while Wapple did something similar with the launch of Wapple Canvas, a DIY mobile website building solution.
Microsoft unveiled ZenZui, an independent company which aims to transform the way consumers consume and interact with mobile web content. And UK marketing agency Magnet Harlequin took the wraps off Snap Happy, which enables consumers to link to content on the mobile Internet by taking a photo of a Snap Happy-enabled poster. The technology makes its debut in a campaign to promote the latest Mr. Bean movie.
Messaging infrastructure company Airwide Solutions was busy on several fronts, launching its AirMessenger Store modular storage system, and later announcing that US operator Cellular South had selected the solution as part of a package of Airwide products to help it cope with a massive increase in texting among its customers.
Football club Leicester City went mobile, deploying Opera Telecoms Dragon technology to create a range of mobile campaigns enabling fans of the club to interact with it via their handset. Another newcomer to the mobile space was the History Channel, which launched a WAP service in the UK, while another broadcaster, CNN, relaunched its WAP service with a promise to deliver 120 stories per day.
On the campaign front, the British Deaf Association appointed WIN to deliver a text donation campaign, while fashion brand Calvin Klein staged an innovative promotion in Toronto to launch its IN2U fragrance, using giant digital billboards and inviting consumers to text a response to the question: What are you in 2? PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC appointed Incentivated to create a mobile Internet site as part of its student recruitment drive, while Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror plc selected Enpockets platform for mobile marketing and mobile CRM across the groups portfolio of national and regional titles.
There was no shortage of awards doing the rounds either. Swedish software company Telepo picked up the 2007 European ICT Prize for innovation in information and communications Technology, for its for Business Communication Solution, while mobile back-up and sharing company ZYB was named as one of the 100 winners of the Red Herring 100 Europe 2007 award, and i-Free, the Russian mobile services company, revealed that it has been awarded a place on the Worlds List of the Most Democratic Employers.
Who knows what the next few weeks hold in store, but whatever happens, well be here to keep you fully briefed. Stay tuned.
David Murphy
Editor 
