The Captain Morgan rum brand is encouraging consumers this Halloween to show just how scary they are using their mobile phones.

In-store signage asks consumers to dress up as monsters and text their photos to CAPTIN or email in a picture to enter a contest. The winner with the best costume will win a trip for four to the Mardi Gras in February.

?In the prevailing economic environment, brand marketers desperately need all their campaigns to have a conversion objective,? said Alex Hall, chief operating officer of Captain Morgan agency TigerSpike, New York. ?Brand awareness is still very important, but an ideal marketing world will always see awareness convert straight to purchase.

?Mobile is the only device and channel that can almost literally hold the hand of the consumer from where their first brand interaction was to the place where they can make that purchase,? he said. ?SMS and increasingly MMS are the most common mass-market facilitators for this consumer journey.

?The call to action is simple to understand and follow, and can be easily attached to any mainstream communication channel without creating too much additional clutter,? he said.

TigerSpike is a digital marketing agency.

Captain Morgan is produced by Diageo along with Smirnoff vodka, Baileys and Jose Cuervo tequila.

Rum lot
The rum brand also launched two new ad spots and parties at Fantasy Fest, Hallow-Dega and the Voodoo Music Experience for this year?s spooky holiday.

Two15-second ad spots, "Captain Monster Party" and "Captain Extra Mile,? feature parties that show how ambitious a Captain Morgan host can be on Halloween.

The commercials will air nationwide on ESPN, Spike TV, Comedy Central, FX, TBS and Discovery.

Captain Morgan will serve as the sponsor of the first Hallow-Dega weekend at Talladega Speedway, Talladega, AL, from Oct. 30 through Nov. 1.

The Hallow-Dega will have NASCAR racing, costume contests and free concerts.

Additionally, the Captain Morgan brand will have a personalized float down Duval Street in Key West, FL, for the eighth annual Captain Morgan Fantasy Fest parade.

After the parade, consumers are offered free public transportation to make sure they get home safely.

In New Orleans, Captain Morgan has partnered with RollingStone.com to sponsor the Voodoo Music Experience.

Aye, Cap'n
Last month, the rum brand added a mobile component to its existing Pose Off campaign.

Captain Morgan let users upload photos of themselves doing Captain Morgan poses via mobile. This was one of the first cross-carrier incoming MMS campaigns nationwide (see story).

?SMS should be an integral component of all advertising campaigns,? said Shira Simmonds, CEO of Ping Mobile, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. ?SMS not only enables clients to build a database for remarketing, adding an SMS call to action enables advertisers to track their media response.

?As more and more brands look towards addressable and targeted advertising as a way to drive revenue and ROI across their media plans, adding an SMS component connects and enables advertisers to reach their target audience in a direct and immediate fashion,? she said.