Wireless carrier Cellular South and Txtstation have launched mobile marketing initiatives at the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State NCAA football games.

As part of the partnership, during home games questions will be displayed on the video board. Spectators are asked to vote by texting a keyword to a short code and their results will be featured in real time.
 
?Cellular South wanted to be able to engage fans with the properties they sponsor at Ole Miss and Mississippi State,? said Michael Falato, vice president of sales and development at Txtstation, Austin, TX. ?They wanted to have people use their cell phones and be able to see something on the screen to activate the relationship they have with the school.?

Cellular South is a privately-owned wireless carrier that operates in the southern part of the United States.

Txtstation is a mobile marketing company that specializes in sports and entertainment for broadcasters, event owners, sponsors and general media to communicate with consumers directly through mobile phones and the Internet.

Questions such as ?What home game are you most looking forward to?? and ?Who will be this year?s MVP?? are displayed on the video message board with the prompt for fans to answer via SMS.

Results are shown in real-time, giving fans an immediate view of how other spectators are responding.

Each board is branded with the logos of the schools, Cellular South and Txtstation.

To vote, spectators text a keyword to short code 55333 for either school.

For the Ole Miss Rebels, the keyword options are R1, R2 and R3, depending on the answer the spectator wants to give. For the Mississippi State Bulldogs, the keyword choices are B1, B2 and B3.

Mr. Falato said that at this time spectators are not being asked to double opt-in to build or any database, although talks are taking place in regards to a text club.

Txtstation is not new to SMS initiatives at sporting events.

Recently, Txtstation powered CBS?s SMS voting platform, currently running during all NCAA football games televised on the network with Burger King as the sponsor (see story).

Additionally, the New York Mets launched an in-stadium mobile campaign, sponsored by Xerox, Wise, Caesar's and Verizon Wireless, for the 2009 Major League Baseball season and beyond powered by Txtstation.

The campaigns include a variety of sponsor-driven promotions as a means to engage fans and make the Citi Field experience even more fun and enjoyable. Mobile promotions run at all home games with SMS calls-to-action on the video board offering an opportunity for the fans to interact with the team and its sponsors (see story).

As for the Ole Miss and Mississippi State programs, Mr. Falato said that a big percentage of consumers from the two schools are already using Cellular South?s services.

?The whole thing is to activate the kids and the alumni to engage in real-time events,? Mr. Falato said. ?It?s a good integration of the public and Cellular South?s brand.?