Mobility is redefining how we perceive voice and data communications, and marketers are exploring new technologies that can be used to send advertising text messages to cellular phones and other personal communication devices.

As mobile handsets achieve optimum market penetration, currently guaged at 255 million in the USA today, text advertising is becoming the hotspot of today's marketing contests.

To master the complexities of small screen advertising is to understand the bigger issues of mobile marketing. With cellular phones, society has stumbled upon a new advertising vehicle and it is important that we define the proper and effective uses of this new marketing tool.

The mobile phone is the ultimate 1-to-1 customer contact device. It is critical that marketers address the sensitive issues surrounding the use of mobile devices as a means for delivering commercial messages.

The mobile phone has all the ingredients to make it a seductive advertising tool, and it supports the classic properties of traditional advertising: an audience, an offer, a message that communicates that offer, and a vehicle to deliver the message. But this is where the similarities between traditional advertising and mobile phone advertising ends.

Compared to traditional media advertising, which is coincidental, mass-based, and usually passive, the ability to make the right offer at the right moment to the right person is the key feature that makes mobile advertising very irresistible.

One unique advantage of mobile marketing is how it can deliver exceptionally tight personal targeting. In a mobile campaign, each person receiving your advertising message should have personally opted-in to your subscriber list. Sending unsolicited messages is a waste of ad dollars and could backfire against your brand, not to mention the whole process of using text messaging as an advertising vehicle.

The fundamental advantage of mobile phones over other, more traditional advertising media is that it is also a two-way communications device that can generate immediate response regardless of the customer's location. Ask your recipient to come to your store, make a reservation, or place an order.

For mobile marketing campaigns to succeed, the advertisement itself must be something of equitable value to the consumer. Consider the following options:

Attach your ads to sponsored content (such as poker games, lucky lotto numbers, quotes, etc.) which customers receive for free.

Make your ad message worth a specific dollar value to the consumer. For example, a local bar can send free-drink coupons to generate a spike in traffic. To redeem the free drink, the customer simply shows the message on their mobile phone when visiting the bar. Everyone is a winner!