Mogreet and American Greetings Corp. have partnered for MMS ecards and Clickatell estimates that consumers will send 1.15 billion text messages on Valentine?s Day, but 84 percent of consumers over the age of 50 still prefer handwritten cards, according to Retrevo.

American Greetings launches MMS cards
AG Interactive, the online division of American Greetings, partnered with Mogreet to launch a new mobile greetings service.

Using Mogreet?s cross-carrier mobile video marketing platform, AmericanGreetings.com consumers can send greeting cards via MMS to more than 2,500 different handset models across wireless carriers such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile USA. The mobile greeting cards will feature full-motion video, sound and music and a personalized message from the sender.

?American Greetings is continually looking for ways to help its users connect wherever they are,? said Frank Fink, vice president of business affairs at AG Interactive, Cleveland. ?It?s been apparent for the last several years that mobile was a key touchpoint for social communications. 

?Unfortunately the domestic mobile infrastructure is very fragmented, with multiple carriers and an ever-changing array of devices,? he said. ?Any solution we deployed had to be simple, convenient and reliable. 

?We?ve looked at a number of potential partners over the years, but nobody had a product that we felt satisfied all of those requirements. Mogreet does.?

American Greetings has been in the card business for more than 100 years with the brands American Greetings, Carlton Cards, Gibson, Recycled Paper Greetings and Papyrus. The company also has one of the largest collection of ecards, now available via MMS.

Mogreet lets marketers combine the expressiveness of video with the ubiquity of text messaging to create mobile video messaging.

At launch, AmericanGreetings.com will offer more than 500 different ecards from its catalogue that are specially formatted for mobile delivery. There are more than 50 Valentine?s Day ecards currently available.

Over the next few months, the company plans to launch thousands of mobile-enabled ecards.

The cards are available exclusively through the AmericanGreetings.com service, where premium subscribers who pay $19.99 a year can send them free of charge. 

Mr. Fink said American Greetings thinks the mobile service will appeal to its entire audience, across demographics. 

American Greetings has called out its mobile-enabled ecards in spotlight modules at the top of many of the most popular Valentine?s categories. 

Valentine?s Day is American Greetings? biggest traffic holiday of the year.  Mr. Fink said his company is delighted to be able to showcase the new product to so much of its audience at launch. 

The greeting card company integrated send-to-mobile as one of three send options on every mobile-enabled card. The other two are send-to-email and send-to-Facebook.

?This will not be limited to a small collection, but will be enabled on most cards across the service,? Mr. Fink said. ?We believe mobile will become an integral way people share our content going forward.

?A few months ago, American Greetings launched an iPhone greeting card app,? he said. ?Within two weeks, it rose to the eighth most popular free app in entertainment category and 65th most popular overall.  

?We are committed to innovation leadership, staying in front of our users however they communicate.?

Wunderman launches Nokia love campaign
Direct marketing agency Wunderman New York has launched a campaign asking consumers to show Nokia some love.

The campaign was designed to drive downloads for the Nokia Ovi Store.

Wunderman has launched a Twitter Widget, a combination of tweeting and getting applications from the Ovi Store. 

Integration into Twitter's open API lets the consumer log in to Twitter and tweet how easy it is to boost their phone with the Ovi Store.

Wunderman also launched a video Widget which puts consumers into the Ovi story and allows them to use their photos to make a personalized music video with the Ovi Store built right in.

A Facebook application, banners and newsletter have been coordinated to drive traffic to the Ovi Store.

Here is an ad:

Grandma does not want a text
Retrevo, a top consumer electronics review and shopping site, found that 89 percent of consumers over 50 years old say that real flowers mean just as much as virtual flowers.

In other non-verbal ways to say ?I love you,? 84 percent of consumers over 50 prefer a handwritten letter.

Fourteen percent of surveyed consumers prefer an email or a text message and 2 percent prefer a public message on Facebook.

SMS is a powerhouse on Valentine?s Day: Clickatell
Just because grandma does not want a text message filled with love does not mean other consumers will look down on the gesture.

Clickatell is predicting that 1.15 billion text messages will be sent on Feb. 14, beating last year?s total of 1.06 billion.

Clickatell said that the mobile phone penetration in certain markets and the continued popularity of SMS will be the cause of the increase in text messaging on Valentine?s Day. Expect social network messaging to increase this holiday, but Clickatell predicts that the number of users sending SMS messages will outnumber social networks users by at least three-to-one.

?Although there is an increase in social networking messaging, SMS is still push, real-time and anywhere via mobile, making it the message protocol of choice, especially given that people do not have to belong [to a social network] in order to send or receive a message,? said Pieter de Villiers, CEO of Clickatell, Redwood City, CA.

Clickatell works with businesses, governments and communities to leverage text messaging to inform, alert, notify, transact, interact and share information.

To aid marketers and brands, Clickatell has launched its 2010 Valentine?s Mobile Marketing Handbook with tips and advice.

Mr. de Villiers said the increase in SMS alerts is because consumers cannot live without their wireless devices.

?As you know, people love their cell phones,? Mr. de Villiers said. ?In fact, people are more likely to report a missing cell phone than a missing wallet.

?People expect to be always connected through their cell phone,? he said.

The range and reach of SMS has also increased.

According to the International Telecommunications Union, global mobile phone penetration will reach 64.7 percent or 4.5 billion people by 2012.

Today, close to 4 billion people can send and receive an SMS, a number that is higher than all social media, credit card and television owners combined.

Consumers read text messages. Mr. de Villiers said an average of 95 percent of all text messages are read by consumers pretty much when they are received.

On Valentine?s Day, Mr. de Villiers said brands should reach consumers the same way their peers communicate with them, via SMS.

?There is a saying: ?It is often better read than said,?? Mr. de Villiers said. ?Seriously, when you are dating or courting someone it is less intimidating to send them an SMS than to have a phone conversation.

?It?s also easy to do and cost less than a phone call, and you do not have to be part of the individuals social network ? all you need is a phone number,? he said. ?Clearly, it?s taking over phone call volumes, especially with the under 30 demographic, and is fast catching on to all generations.?

Are You Interested? mobile dating iPhone app unveils live chat, mobile gifting
Snap Interactive Inc. has launched a new GPS-based chat feature on its Are You Interested? iPhone mobile dating application, and has enabled micropayments for mobile gifting.

The chat functionality lets singles to communicate with other singles through their iPhone in real time in their choice of chat rooms, which are broken down by age range and other categories, including sexual orientation. Additionally, singles have the ability to identify users that are nearby and initiate private chat conversations with a specific user, as well as send them virtual gifts.

?We first launched virtual gifts for the Facebook app and Web site, and now we?ve launched micropayments for the mobile app,? said Clifford Lerner, cofounder/CEO of Snap Interactive, New York. ?We?ve already gotten 85,000-plus downloads of the iPhone app, which we?ve promoted via the Facebook app and the Web site.

?We?ve partnered with ad networks for minimal amounts of advertising, a banner here or there, but we haven?t promoted it aggressively,? he said. ?Once the revenue-generators have been established, we?ll ramped up our marketing efforts.?