The National Football League's New Orleans Saints team is using mobile to interact with fans during football games.

Ping Mobile was tapped to power the NFL Saints Pre-season campaign. Sponsored by local car dealer Ray Brandt Infiniti, the mobile effort requires viewers to vote for the Saints player with the biggest impact.

"The NFL Saints wanted to add an interactive component for viewers watching the game at home, much like the techniques utilized at the game itself," said Shira Simmonds, president of Ping Mobile, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

"We also helped the build a mobile database for Cox Sports Television, so the network could drive viewers to watch future NFL games on their channel," she said.

Participants were asked to text their favorite player to the short code 269411. They had multiple choices such as Jeremy Shockey, Jonathan Vilma, Sedrick Ellis and Randall Gay.

The participants received a message back that said, "Thx4 ur Vote! Keep wtchng 4rslts.Reply YES+rcv alts 4next week's Ray Brandt Infiniti Q of the game+get 1entry 4the drawing! Std txt rts aply. Mx1msg/wk.RplyYES!"

As an added component to the campaign, viewers were prompted to participate in the vote in order to be entered into a sweepstakes to win a signed football by Saints quarterback Drew Brees.

Participants could also win Saints vs. Packers tickets.

After the commercial break, the PingSuite technology automatically tallied the votes in real time and Cox immediately displayed the results on TV.

Viewers were also asked to text CST1 to the short code 269411 to opt in for future promotions.

Cox and Ping have two similar campaign set to run during the Aug. 23 Saints vs. Bengals game and the Aug. 28 Saints vs. Dolphins game.

This isn't the first time that Cox and Ping have partnered for a mobile campaign.

East Pointe High School, Tucson, AZ, tapped Ping for a mobile effort that encouraged parents and children to text the keyword EPSCHOOL to the short code 74642. The call to action was promoted by Cox (see story).

Also, Wild Rivers Water Park is using Ping mobile coupons to drive visitors to the park.

Cable TV spots in the Orange County area of California broadcast commercials encouraging viewers to text the keyword WILD to short code 74642 (see story).

"A mobile campaign provided a perfect solution for the Saints," Ms. Simmonds said. "Already, 44 percent have double opted-in to receive further content, making this campaign a truly successful one."