I have to admit that I really enjoy writing a story like this one today. At a time when marketers are furiously trying to figure out how to engage mobile consumers (during the holiday season) to buy more stuff, it is nice to see when consumers give back. Yesterday, the American Red Cross and Verisign Messaging and Moble Media announced that since September U.S. mobile consumers had pledged more than $190,000 via its Text 2HELP program. Payment is either via carrier billing or debited to prepaid accounts and users can donate $5 up to five times by texting "GIVE" to 24357 (2HELP). Due to its success, the program will be extended until the end of December (and two months beyond the planned end date). The donations are earmarked towards the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which offers shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disasters nationwide.

Clearly, the results of this campaign show that text messaging is proving a viable channel for charitable giving. Because this program is tied to carrier billing and prepaid systems, donations are likely capped at the low $5 per donation (and up to five times per subscriber amount, for a total of $25). Now, while that may actually a good thing in this economy, there may be a way to boost individual donations by adding alternative payment mechanisms, such as credit cards, to the program.

NYC & Company, which markets New York City to boost tourism, has launched a new phase of its Just Ask the Locals tourist appreciation campaign - and extended it to mobile phones for the first time.

In this, the third phase of the campaign that launched in August 2007, local NYC celebrities and experts offer insider tips on what to see and do throughout the city. Now, in addition to the insider tips appearing on bus shelters, taxi monitors, street pole banners and such, visitors can get real-time mobile event info by texting "TODAY" to NYCGO (69246). The campaign also encompasses 80 exclusive offers for dining, shopping and entertainment venues available to folks using their American Express Card.

Since August and running through the holiday season, UPS has been leveraging mobile to recruit driver assistants and shippers nationwide. Run for UPS by recruitment marketer TMP International, the hiring efforts integrate mobile calls to action with traditional print and outdoor media. After opting-in via text messaging ("UPSJobs" to #95495) applicants with WAP-enabled or video-capable phones can potentially fill-out an application on the fly or watch videos, whereas those with just text are prompted to send their email addresses for further contact.

Mobile when integrated smartly with traditional media can achieve desired and measureable results. What is interesting from the early results of the campaign, as reported by Marketing Daily, is that low-end, feature phones (with text messaging capabilities only) are prevalent among those who opted-in. Despite this, the campaign was still successful in text to email participation. No doubt the sluggish economy and rising unemployment rate also played a role in driving participation.

Oxygen8, a UK-based mobile marketing platform provider, has slashed prices on its new premium SMS platform to promote the official launch of the service, Mobile Entertainment reports.

The company is the reinvention of Opera Telecom, which was forced out of the public eye last year after its involvement in several scandals surrounding UK text-to-vote television campaigns.

After taking a year to change its image, identity and offerings, the new Oxygen8 has run trials of its premium SMS platform in Ireland and Australia, according to the article. In the UK, the service is available to broadcasters and other media brands that want to market across the T-Mobile, Orange, O2, 3 and Vodafone mobile networks.

There was much hullabaloo back in late October around news that Verizon Wireless was planning to raise its mobile-terminated (MT) per message text fee by as much as $0.03. As reported by Colin Gibbs in RCR Wireless, the news stunned the carriers' SMS aggregator and content partners.

Verizon Wireless has not made public what its plans are and the carrier is still reviewing things internally and externally with valuable partners. Regardless of the outcome, uncertainty around what mobile costs is not a good thing for advertisers and brands who can put their ad dollars elsewhere. Here's hoping that this issue is resolved in a meaningful way soon and that there is consensus around a business model that will work for all and ultimately deliver value to the mobile consumer.

As if shopping on Amazon.com isn't easy enough, the mega e-tailer has launched Text Alerts for Daily Deals to ensure that its customers don't miss any special holiday deals.

Shoppers who sign up will receive a text message featuring the Gold Box Deal of the Day. If they like the deal, they can "reply-to-buy" with the keyword "buygb." If shoppers aren't sure about buying the item, they can click on the link in the message to go to the Amazon mobile Web site and check out all the details plus shop for other deals in the Gold Box from their phone.

STA Travel, a travel service for students worldwide, is adding a mobile element to its marketing strategy, which makes a whole lot of sense considering its audience.

The company hired Incentivated to manage the mobile marketing initiatives, which will include adding SMS keywords and shortcodes to its travel posters and direct marketing collateral, NMA reports. Would-be travelers can text to receive physical or digital brochures and to request a call from a travel agent at a specified time.

According to the article, STA is kicking off its mobile marketing campaign with a text-to-win contest involving a trip to Australia.

It's the start of a new era for the Salvation Army. In addition to those ringing bells and red kettles that have been staples of the organization for over a century, the Salvation Army in the Atlanta area is testing out donations via text message, the AP reports.

Rather than waiting until its traditional start time of Thanksgiving weekend, the Metro Atlanta Area Salvation Army will begin its holiday drive a couple weeks early. Instead of dropping their spare change into a Santa's kettle, residents in the area can text "TSA" (The Salvation Army) to 90999 to donate $5, which will be added to their cell phone bill.

If all goes well, officials hope to take the text message program national next year.

ChaCha is changing the text-based mobile ad landscape with its new Rich SMS Advertising solution. Rich SMS Advertising gives marketers a way to deliver their targeted interactive SMS campaigns to the right prospects from among ChaCha's 1.7 million users.

The new solution, which has been used in campaigns from Coca-Cola, McDonald's and others, takes advantage of ChaCha's mobile answers service, which lets consumers text a question to 242242 (CHACHA) and receive an SMS with the response. With Rich SMS Advertising, marketers can have a "trailer ad" embedded in the answer SMS, sponsor an interstitial ad that gets sent to the user while he's waiting for the response or even sponsor an entire category of question, ChaCha's marketing VP Susan Marshall told us.

More on the new ad solution after the jump.

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Back when SMS marketing was brand new, it was more or less used to sell ringtones, wallpapers and other mobile content and services. That's changing as the market evolves and matures.

A new report from comScore found that consumers in Europe are getting more mobile ads for consumer goods like food, clothes, restaurants, travel and financial services. According to the survey, the number of consumers receiving SMS ads for mobile products and services in Europe fell 9%, while the number receiving offers for non-mobile goods rose by 15%.

Surprisingly, while the market for SMS ads seems to be growing here in the States, the number of Europeans who received them fell slightly from 112 million in August 2008 to 110 million in August '08.

Over the past year, the fastest-growing category of SMS advertising is food (53%), followed by clothing/fashion (38%) and restaurants (37%).