Myxer, the ad-supported mobile content company, today launched Red Carpet, a Web-to-mobile marketing program that lets studios and ad agencies tie cell phone campaigns to product launches. The company unveiled it today in a joint announcement with the CW Network, which is launching their highly anticipated new TV series, 90210 (a contemporary spin-off of the '90s hit show Beverly Hills, 90210).

Myxer offers advertisers custom mobile content downloads, access to Myxer's online community of 12 million users, and a set of customizable widgets for viral mobile content distribution via desktop Web sites and social networking sites.

MediaPost reports that the campaign will cost The CW about $50,000, the vast majority of which is going to the three-day Myxer home page takeover, according to Steve Spiro, vice president of marketing at Myxer. "This is the most all-encompassing campaign we've done for a client, and it's the most expensive," Spiro said in the report. To receive a free sample of 90210 mobile content, text CW90210 to 69937 (MYXER).

The more indispensable cell phones become to consumers, the more major brands look for new ways to reach them where they live - on their mobile. One of these new solutions comes from ChaCha, a start-up that danced its way onto the scene in January with its Mobile Answers service.

Using ChaCha Mobile Answers is as easy as texting any question to 242242 (CHACHA, of course), waiting a minute or two and getting a reply text with the answer. Unlike a search engine, ChaCha has thousands of human "guides" all over the country waiting to research your question. And, notes ChaCha marketing VP Susan Marshall, because all the questions reach humans, you can use text shortcuts and not have to worry about making a computer understand.

Last week, the company unveiled its second service, ChaCha 1:1, a mobile marketing solution that couples Mobile Answers with analytics and reporting. According to Marshall, consumer brands started approaching ChaCha after learning of Mobile Answers wanting a way to make a customized version available to their customers to build deeper relationships.

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It's apparently never to soon to start thinking about Christmas, at least not for Faith Hill. The country music diva has hooked up with Mozes on what the mobile marketing firm calls a mobile listening party to promote Hill's upcoming Christmas album.

Mozes' listening parties give an artist's mobile fan club members something extra via their cell phones. In this case, folks who sign up get to preview and offer feedback on some of the tracks from Joy to the World, which will hit the streets on September 30.

The campaign, which actually started in June, makes a new song from the album available to Hill's mobile fan club every week. Fans can listen to the track and then call the artist's Mozes number (615-823-5605) to offer up their opinion of the tune.

Mobile coupon pioneer Cellfire has launched mobile grocery coupons in partnership with Kroger supermarkets. Big-name consumer brands offering discounts through the program include Clorox, ConAgra, Del Monte, General Mills, Kimberly-Clark and Unilever.

Kroger shoppers in Georgia, South Carolina, eastern Tennessee and Alabama can save money with their mobile by registering with Cellfire and linking their Cellfire account to their Kroger Plus card. Once the accounts are hooked, shoppers visit Cellfire on their phone, choose the coupons they want and the system automatically loads the coupons onto the customer's Kroger Plus card. When the card is used at checkout, the savings are applied.

The coupons are automatically deleted from the phone and Kroger Plus card once they've been used or have expired. New grocery savings opportunities will be added to Cellfire every two weeks.

US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has his own truly mobile Web site. Obama's campaign can now interact with the Democratic nominee's mobile constituency through ObamaMobile.mobi.

Visitors to the interactive mobile site can send and receive text messages and even sign up to receive a whitepaper detailing Obama's planned mobile initiatives, Domain Name Wire reports.

Unfortunately for the campaign, the Obama.mobi domain was already taken, as was ObamaMobile.com.

They may not be glamorous, and some may appear bland to folks with shiny new iPhones, but text-messaging campaigns still result in a much higher response rate than other forms of mobile marketing. "Mobile Marketing: Consumer Perspectives," the first report on mobile marketing from the Direct Marketing Association, found that text message campaigns account for 70% of the responses to mobile marketing messages, according to a Mobile Marketer story on the report.

Out of the mobile users surveyed, 24% have responded to a marketing message, which is even more impressive considering that roughly the same percentage of those surveyed had never received a mobile offer.
Aside from never having been contacted, why didn't folks respond to a mobile offer? Either they weren't interested, didn't have a data plan or were worried about the cost of airtime.

The Mobile Marketing Association has come out with a new Global Code of Conduct, guidelines that it says all mobile marketers should follow when building their marketing initiatives.

Developed by the MMA's North America Privacy Committee with input from MMA regional directors in Asia-Pac, Latin America and EMEA, the Code updates revisions introduced last year.

Built around generally accepted global privacy principles, the Code includes five categories:

- Notice
- Choice & Consent
- Customization & Constraint
- Security
- Enforcement & Accountability

For details on the sections, click continued.

"It is the heart and soul of the MMA to ensure a positive, consistent consumer experience, encouraging marketers to get the consumer interaction right first time round so that mobile interactions from brands are not viewed negatively," MMA president Laura Marriott said regarding the new guidelines. "The MMA Global Code of Conduct creates clear and consistent global guidelines for the careful treatment of each and every consumer interaction to help build a sustainable industry for mobile marketing."

The MMA Global Code of Conduct can be downloaded here.

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The Mobile Marketing Association has come out with an update to its US Consumer Best Practices (CBP) guidelines for cross-carrier mobile content services. The guidelines include baseline rules for cross-carrier services such as text messaging, multimedia messaging, shortcode programs, Interactive Voice Response and mobile Web, among others.

Version 3.3 includes additional guidelines for the use of wireless carrier SMTP gateways for commercial traffic, handset delivery, clarifications around promotional content and marketing to children. Other changes include an expansion and clarifications of guidelines for Free To End User (FTEU), standard- and premium-rate messaging, mobile Web and IVR.

According to MMA president Laura Marriott, "The guidelines provide carriers, technology companies, brands, media companies and consumer advocates with the baseline set of rules to ensure a consistent and protected experience for the consumer." They have also "become the rules which the industry monitors and ensure compliance against today," she said.

The guidelines can be downloaded at www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf.

(Image credit: Clipart.com)

In support of the July 9 Australian DVD release of the latest Rambo flick, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has launched an SMS campaign, Mobile Marketer reports.

Sony also hired Dialogue Communications to build a mobile Web site to promote the release. The Rambo site is the first live mobile Web site in Australia to use Dialogue's Mobile Site Builder.

For the marketing program, consumers can text keywords to shortcodes found on billboards, posters and other Rambo advertisements across Australia. In reply, they'll receive a link to the interactive mobile site. No word on if fans will get any exclusives along with the link.

CorkSavvy.com, a Web site for wine lovers, has come out with a new mobile application designed to help keep you from forgetting the name and details of the wine you had with dinner by the time you make it to the store to pick up a bottle.

The free virtual wine cellar lets camera phone users snap a picture of the wine bottle label, e-mail it to mycellar@corksavvy.com and add a description of the wine. Later, when they're at a wine store, they can log into their personalized CorkSavvy MyCellar account to access their virtual collection, add comments and catalog their entries.

Apparently wanting to ensure that everyone who wants to can enjoy wine to the fullest, CorkSavvy's Web site creates accounts for new users when they upload their first photo. It also has tutorials to show new users how to add entries into their wine racks and diaries.