Ok, Ok… I promise. This is my last entry about the massive SMS blast over the weekend by you know-who.

Keynote Systems, an industry leader in on-demand mobile and Internet test and measurement solutions, revealed today that the SMS service used by the Obama campaign was “highly unreliable the week leading up to his momentous text announcement.”

Keynote conducted six hundred tests on the Obama ‘08 Campaign short code from August 13 to August 22 in anticipation of the August 23 announcement. The results revealed inconsistent performance with extremely poor availability compared to the industry average.

Based on its data, Keynote believes that between 40-50 percent of people subscribing to receive the VP selection text message from the Obama campaign may not have received the text message in a timely fashion or in fact very likely never received the text message at all.

Keynote conducted its tests in San Francisco and San Diego across two major carrier networks. Subscribers to the Obama ‘08 Campaign received an SMS message and response time was measured once an hour over each carrier network.

“Our evaluation of Obama’s SMS service leading up to his VP announcement demonstrates the inadequacy of the SMS technical infrastructure to support large-scale marketing campaigns,” said Shlomi Gian, director of mobile business development for Keynote. “As mobile marketing increasingly becomes a key channel for campaign managers and marketers interested in communicating with voters and consumers, a solution for testing and monitoring common short codes is needed to ensure the delivery of critical information and reliability. The Obama event underscores the absolute need to monitor the performance of common short codes used in high impact marketing or sales initiatives in which actual delivery of the message to the consumer is important to the overall success of the campaign.”

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If today seems a little more hectic than usual in the mobile world, your presumption is correct.

Amidst a flurry of interesting items in the news today is the announcement from AT&T this morning that the eagerly anticipated Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008is now available to AT&T business customers who use smartphones running Windows Mobile 6.1.

In conjunction with the availability of Mobile Device Manager, AT&T also revealed the availability of the MDM Early Adopter QuickStart Program (which was “developed cooperatively by AT&T and Enterprise Mobile and is an exclusive offering designed to assist AT&T customers with deploying the Microsoft mobility solution.”)

According to info directly from the horse’s mouth, the Mobile Device Manager is an enterprise-grade mobile device management solution that also provides security, mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN) and software distribution for Windows Mobile devices.

With Mobile Device Manager, AT&T customers using Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphones now have secured access to applications, files, corporate data and other information that is located on the corporate network and previously inaccessible without a secure VPN connection. For example, customers can now access information such as price sheets, marketing collateral and legal documents on the corporate network — items that were often previously available only through PCs or laptops.

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From military campaigns to mobile campaigns, the army wants your kids to be all they can be. And this fall, sleepy teens across the country will make it to class on time thanks to wake-up calls from professional athletes and celebrities.

The Ad Council and U.S. Army have teamed up with Chicago-based Cellit to offer a “Wake-Up Call” mobile marketing program that motivates teens to get up and go to school.

The program, which is part of the national “Boost” campaign designed to encourage students to graduate from high school, features free ringtones and wake-up call messages recorded by professional athletes and celebrities.

NBA All-Star and Captain of the Phoenix Suns, Amare Stoudemire, helped launch the Wake-Up Call program. Examples of Stoudemire’s recorded wake-up calls include:

– Good morning. This is Amare Stoudemire from the Phoenix Suns. Just calling to remind you it’s time to get out of bed and go to school. Don’t make me call you twice!

– I’m Amare Stoudemire and you’re still in bed. Wake up and go to school, or I’m going to slam dunk on your head!

– I’m Amare Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns. I’ve been the NBA All-Star three times in the past four years. I made the USA Olympic Team in ‘04. I was named the Rookie of the Year in ‘03. But before all that, I had to wake up, get out of bed, and go to school. Maybe you should, too.

This is a great case study of what mobile marketing can do (and how it should be done). Visit  www.boostup.org and check out the wake up calls yourself. Send one to somebody you know - or even yourself.

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We recently reported that the MMA has laid out its guidelines in reference to mobile marketing via Bluetooth.  While they were mostly slated for European usage, the new guidelines more or less will set a worldwide standard once they’re finalized in the next few months.

The MMA has just announced another addition to the guidelines that in essence will allow for spamming via Bluetooth- with exceptions that is.  Their thinking is that if a consumer is walking around with their mobile device in “discoverable” mode meaning it’s wide open to receive Bluetooth connections, it’s fair game for the spammers.

The guideline states that leaving a device in “discoverable” mode is implicitly giving permission for pushed advertisements, which contradicts what the UK’s Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has stated.  The DMA’s 2005 recommendations state that users must sign up to receive messages, either by downloading an application or “pairing” with a promotional service.  The MMA, however, maintains that it’s fair to push messages out to them, then ask them to opt out if they’re not interested.

If you don’t agree with the MMA’s approach, don’t worry, nothing has been finalized as of yet.  The MMA is still taking suggestions and feedback before any final decisions will be made on or after September 26th.  If you’d like to take a look at the latest Bluetooth document released by the MMA, you can find it here.

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Stop the presses!

A survey from the Direct Marketing Association reported this morning that nearly 70% of respondents in the test reacted to SMS messages sent from suppliers, compared to only a 30% success rate for e-mail.

Surveys were also less popular than texts, encouraging feedback from just 42% of customers.  Money off coupons, traditionally an easy yet costly way of bringing customers to a supplier, were widely ignored by 72% of customers.

It all points to customers being far more likely to respond to special offers and marketing sent through their mobile phones than via e-mail campaigns.

As you might expect, of the third of survey participants who didn’t react to mobile phone marketing campaigns, many had never received any offers, while the other objection was fear over the high cost of mobile airtime should the customer reply.  The small remaining percentage had received communications but were not interested, showing the “latent ability for the ubiquitous mobile phone to speak to customers.”

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I just had to follow up on this one.

Earlier this week I drew some much-needed attention (insert sarcasm) to the Barack Obama presidential campaign’s initial announcement of the VP selection via text message to registered mobile phone users.

As it turns out, the campaign may have set an SMS marketing world record when they blasted that message to supporters over the weekend. According to Nielsen Mobile, Obama’s text, revealing that Joe Biden would be his running mate, went out to approximately 2.9 million supporters.

By many accounts, Nielsen says, the Obama text was the single biggest mobile marketing event ever to have happened in the US. And if it’s a US record, it’s a fair bet it hasn’t been topped anywhere else in the world.

The other question is just how much the SMS missive cost. If Obama paid the standard 10 cents a text, then that adds up to $290,000. Although it was certainly an expensive text message, to say the least, the positive ramifications for the future of mobile marketing are already proving to be well worth the investment.

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It was announced today that Chrome Systems Inc., an industry leader in collecting, enhancing, and distributing best-in-class automotive data, has partnered with Gumiyo, one of the retail automotive industry’s more successful mobile marketing company, to deliver “Chrome’s Video Showcase.”  These full-motion new vehicle video test drives will be available and deliverable to mobile Web consumers using Gumiyo’s self-desribed “dynamic mobile marketing platform.”

Essentially, what this will do is put high quality videos of new vehicle inventory directly into the hands of mobile phone users for the first time, thus giving potential car buyers with helpful vehicle presentations to both inform customers and accelerate car sales.

As my colleagues and I at Mobile Marketing Watch have long since discussed, the automotive industry remains a leader in mobile marketing usage and popularity, even amidst an automotive sales downturn unlike anything the US has seen in years.

“New vehicle videos have become a powerful tool that provides car buyers with the information they need to make new vehicle purchasing decisions,” said Shuki Lehavi, founder and CEO of Gumiyo. “This partnership brings new vehicle videos to the mobile Web, giving car buyers on-the-go a truly media rich shopping experience anywhere and anytime.”

According to the official announcement, the Chrome Video Showcase is comprised of two video products: concise one-minute overviews of current auto, light truck, or SUV models, called “1:00 on One New Vehicle Profiles,” and “Top 200 New Vehicle Test Drives, which give a more detailed overview of the 200 most popular current vehicles. All the videos combine high-quality action footage with informative graphics, voice-over narration, and music, placing customers squarely in the driver’s seat, ready to buy.

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